Garrett Barden

Authenticity as Self-Transcendence: The Enduring Insights of Bernard LonerganAuthenticity as Self-Transcendence: The Enduring Insights of Bernard Lonergan. By McCarthyMichael H.Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2015. Pp. 433. Price

enriched and enlarged by their commitment and understanding, as well as sharing our own with them’ (p. 354). He notes also in this chapter the many ways in which women have contributed to the Church in the years following the Council. In particular one might think of the increasing numbers of lay women who are studying and teaching theology around the world. However, he also points to the ongoing exclusion of lay people, especially women, from any real governance within the Church, and how the talents they might bring to the task are therefore being ignored. This collection of essays provides readers with a mature and extremely informative insight into Vatican II, its achievements, and the ongoing tasks that remain. The range of contributors and their areas of expertise are impressive. This book captures the spirit of the Council and acts as a reminder of the responsibility on all of us to fulfil its vision in an ever-changing Ireland.

49.00 (pbk). ISBN 0-268-03537-7.

the author applies it to the two selected texts: Asterius of Amasea’s Homily I and Jerome’s Homily 86. Both these homilies concern the story of the rich man and Lazarus. In choosing to apply the models directly to these texts, Matz provides two case studies in which the general problem of interpreting patristic texts in the optic of social ethics is illustrated. In the end he comes down in favour of the ‘Normativity of the Future’ model, while acknowledging real value also in ‘Distanciation.’ Alongside these considerable merits, the work has some fairly obvious limitations. The first of these concerns is the sheer range of issues addressed. The title alone includes reference to Patristics, CST, and Hermeneutics, each of which is a complex matter in its own right. When all three together are involved in a discussion, this complexity increases considerably. As if all this were not enough, Matz introduces various other ethical, cultural, pastoral, and ecclesiological considerations as the argument unfolds. It is difficult to avoid at times a sense of thematic dispersion and wish that the author had narrowed his field of enquiry so as to keep the issues better in focus. A second limitation concerns the rather swift treatment of the hermeneutical models. This may well be justified in the cases of authors who themselves propose and name a model. In the case of Ricoeur or Gadamer, however, there is a striking discrepancy between the complexity of their hermeneutical positions and the stance which is attributed to them in this work, a difficulty which the author himself acknowledges (p. 95). A final limitation worth noting is the very feasibility of the kind of dialogue here proposed. This comes out in the somewhat lame attempts at rewriting certain passages of Caritas in veritate in the concluding chapter. Perhaps the problem is the way Matz understands the very nature and function of CST. He seems to assume that the fruits of a possible dialogue must find explicit expression in magisterial texts. But there may well be good theological, ethical, pastoral, and stylistic reasons for not including such direct references in CST documents. In other words, there is little attention paid in this book to the necessary forms of (moral-) theological mediation between such rich sources as the patristic texts and such urgent pastoral concerns as those treated in CST.

The Eclipse and Recovery of Beauty: A Lonergan Approach

and for the way he is able to disentangle the doctrine of the virgin birth from a belief in the incarnation. Minor criticisms of the book can, of course, be made: it is perhaps overlong, as the key points are repeated numerous times, and a rather less full discussion of Schleiermacher’s writings might have served Lincoln’s purpose equally well. His particular theological perspective can also make him cautious in his conclusions, and too sensitive to the agenda of evangelical Christianity. Nevertheless, many readers outside his faith circle will also find in this study much of value and interest, and will doubtless be relieved to encounter a discussion of this important subject which moves beyond the familiar and often polarized debates between liberals and conservatives on historicity and whether miracles are possible.

God as Reason: Essays in Philosophical TheologyGod as Reason: Essays in Philosophical Theology. By HösleVittorio. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2013. xiii + 407 pp. Price

which can serve as the motif of this paper: ’the most intelligent partridge cannot tell even the most absurd story explaining why it drums in the mating season.’ That sentence suggests a theory of the relation of myth to ritual and, indeed, ever since Malinowski coined the phrase, it has been a commonplace that myth is the ’charter of society’, that is that myth provides an explanation and a validation of what is done in the society both in everyday affairs and in ritual. Other writers have reversed the relation and regarded myth as the script for its dramatization in ritual. whatever the