Kevin McNamara

The Nature and Recognition of Miracles

~ objectors to the Catholic doctrine of miracles and once in a while, perhaps, a fresh objection, or at any rate a fresh twist to an old objection. It will be a recurring part of the task of the theologian to answer these objections as convincingly as he can and to present the traditional doctrine of miracles clearly and adequately to his contemporaries. With due allowance for all this, however, it is still true that the attention being given to miracles of late calls for

The Psychological Unity of Christ: A Problem in Christology

The aim of the following note is to present readers with an outline of an important controversy in Christology which is currently attracting widespread interest on the Continent. What follows is based mainly on two recent books which owe their origin to the controversy, each representing a substantial contribution to the problem by a theologian of the highest competence. Mgr. Pietro Parente, author of L’Io di Cristo,l has been until recently Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Propaganda Fide in Rome. Fr. Bartholomew M. Xiberta, author of El Yo de Jesucristo,2 is a distinguished Spanish theologian, professor at the Carmelite Scholasticate in Rome and a recognized authority on the Tract De Verbo Incarnato. In L’Io di Cristo and El Yo de Jeszlcristo Mgr. Parente and Fr. Xiberta have provided us with commentaries of outstanding merit on many aspects of the theology of the Incarnation. Here, however, we are concerned with these books only from the point of view of the particular problem that evoked them.

Theodore of Mopsuestia and the Nestorian Heresy

terms, and the predication of human attributes of Christ’s manhood as if it were an independent. subject, do not warrant us in concluding that it was in fact considered to be such. Thus, Bethune-Baker writes as follows of Nestorius, in whom the same

Patrick Murray: The Man and His Writings

devote a good deal of time to private studies. During the three years he occupied the Chair, he read widely in English literature. Later as a Professor of Theology he used to illustrate certain features of his teaching on the Church by readings from Dryden. He was also fond of Dickens, and we are told that his occasional readings from Dickens and other authors, delivered in his pleasing, well-modulated voice, gave a great pleasure to his students, and in many cases, awakened an interest that was to last a life-

Book Review: THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. By Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P.; Sheed and Ward, London 1973; Pp. 244, Price £5.00

is not alw4ys balanced out by presumed octaves. In contrast to John, the feasts do not stand out as the high points of Matthew. The indubitable use of liturgical tradition in the Transfiguration and the Jerusalem period does not necessarily favour his theory. It suggests that. Jewish festal piety could be operative in Christian reflection and devotion without a lectionary ordinance of the Synoptics. The author does not advert at any length (see pp..17I-2) to the structural and thematic elements in Matthew, as do J.D. Kingsbury and others. The literary structure of Matthew is still being investigated. But its principle of organization will very probably be found to be christological. A lectionary arrangement would not contradict this, but it would be redundant, and would obscure the thematic texture. In sum, this work is valuable for its personal probing of the text and Matthew’s peculiarities, its comparative use of Chronicles, its application of general literary criticism, and its many observations of detail in the Second Part. Its thoroughgoing midrashic and lectionary theories are not convincing.

Book Review: DOGMA. VOL. 4. THE CHURCH: ITS ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE. By Michael Schmaus; Sheed and Ward, New York 1972; Pp. xiv+214. Price

description and analysis of that development. The fact that so many different roles have been swallowed up in today’s function of priesthood may be at the root of some of the anxiety felt by priests at the present time. They are discovering that it is becoming more and more difficult to be an all-round priest. Horst Hermann discusses this problem in his excellent study of priesthood from the canonical point of view. His approach is critical in the best sense of the word. He urges that the Church must learn from history; so often new ideas were met by an official veto which later had

3.95

The Second Vatican Council has highlighted the significance of the ancient concept of CO/JlJ1lll11io for the renewal of ccclesiology. The result has been a gradual move away from the idea of the Church as a single administrative unit directed by the Roman See, which in recent times had tended to obscure the nature of the local Church as a unique realization of the one Church of Christ with its own vitality and fullness. In this context it was a happy inspiration which prompted Jared Wicks, s.J., of the Bellarmine School of Theology, to bring out in English translation the celebrated paper on commrrr~io in early Christianity first published in German by Fr Ludwig Hertling in 1943. Fr Hertling’s study quickly came to be recognized as a sign-post to progress in the task of unravelling the ecclesiological problems which the new Mystical Body theology had brought with it and which the encyclical jwystici Corporis had not fully resolved. The Jesuit historian had shown that in the early centuries the Church was seen essentially as a network of local eucharistic communities linked together by the fellowship of the episcopal college and depending for its ultimate unity and apostolicity on the ties which bound it to the Roman See. It was this insight which inspired some of the most fruitful ecclesiological writing in the period immediately before the Council, and which was later responsible for the significant role accorded by the Council to the local Church and its structural relationship to the eucharist. Fr Wicks contributes a useful introduction to the English edition; drawing attention to some current areas of discussion where the concept of cornrrrrrrrio

Book Review: COMMUNIO. CHURCH AND PAPACY IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY. By Ludwig Hertling, S.J. Translated with an Introduction by Jared Wicks, S.J.; Loyola University Press, Cnicago 1972; Pp. 86. Price S2.95

It was not to be expected that Professor Hans Kung would lose any time in replying to the lively debate provoked by his highly controversial book Ul1fçhlbar? on the Catholic doctrine of infallibility. With characteristic speed and thoroughness he has now launched, in collaboration with sixteen other authors, a bulky volume of over five hundred pages in which he seeks to justify his position against the many criticisms which have been levelled against it.’ While Dr Kiing’s personal contribution, which fills roughly half the volume, ranges very widely and attempts to take account of reactions to his thesis by commentators from many different countries, it is clear that the book as a whole is intended in a special way

Infallibility: Objection Sustained?

The latest work of Hans Kung, Unfehlbar? E i m Anfrage.l has rapidly become a focus for the struggle surrounding the concept of the Magisterium in Catholic theology. Immediately after the publication of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae, the prediction was being freely made-and at least in the short term, and among certain sections of opinion, it seems to have been borne out-that its main result would be a marked decline in the prestige and authority of the papacy, not only in the world at large but in a special way within the Catholic Church itself. It is doubtful, however, if at that time the thought occurred to many people that the publication of the Encyclical would become the occasion of a rejection of the Catholic doctrine of infallibility, not only the infallibility of the Pope but also of the episcopal college and therefore of ecumenical Councils. This is precisely what has happened, however, with the appearance of Professor Kung’s new book. Because, he argues, the traditional teaohing on contraception has been shown to be false (and the importance of Humanae Vitae for him lies above all in the paradoxical fact that it led to a clear recognition of this), and because this teaching fulfilled all the conditions required by traditional Catholic theology for a doctrine to be recognised as infallible, the only conclusion to be drawn is that the claim of infallibility can no longer be sustained.* In rejecting infallibility, Kung believes he is striking a major blow at one of thc great obstacles to a genuine Christian understanding of the Church among Catholics and to the progress of the ecumenical movement. He sces the doctrine as the supreme expression of a mentality in the Church which unduly exalts the hierarchy, and particularly the Pope. separating them from the believing community in general and attributing to their official doctrinal statements an authority altogether out of pro-

Indefectible but Not Infallible

*Delivered at the Ecumenical Conference held at Greenhills, Drogheda, 24 January 1966, and presented here in a slightly adapted and extended form. The proceedings of the Conference will be published later by Gill and Son, Dublin. My purpose in this paper* is to outline the principal developments which have taken place in Catholic ecclesiology in recent times, particularly since the emergence of the theology of the mystical body in the early decades of the present century. Not very long ago the student of theology might have been pardoned had his study of the doctrine concerning the Church led him to believe that Catholic ecclesiology had achieved its final form. For some time indeed Catholic theology as a whole had seemed more or less impervious to change. By and large the theological edifice seemed complete and its defences-for it was largely, if not primarily, as a defen-