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The Downside review | 1963
Ralph Russell
is virtually non-existent, or a t least of relative and secondary importance, and who do not shrink from the idea tha t the Church began early to corrupt the apostolic message. F o r ourselves, for Anglicans and those many others whose appeal is increasingly to the witness of Tradi t ion as the interpreter of G o d s Word , the whole book, including these last four chapters, will prove an important addit ion to ecumenical dialogue by setting in its proper context the radical importance of a square facing of this fundamental question.
The Downside review | 1960
Ralph Russell
IF ever we English Catholics are able to produce such a series as the hundred and fifty Faith and Fact Books, the large scale conversion of thinking Englishmen will be very near. As it is, we must be grateful that we are members of the universal Church, and to our French brethren for the aid they give us and also to the General Editor and his team of translators who set this series before us and our non-Catholic friends. The aim is to cover the whole area of modem knowledge in the light of Catholic teaching. The author of each book is an expert in the field he describes. A considerable number of the translations have now appeared, and we propose to give an account of some of them. Is Theology a Science by Pere Chenu, O.P., has some remarks which may form an introduction to the whole: There is at this juncture no more valuable proof of the spiritual stability of the Christian people than [this] appetite for theological education ... The biblical and liturgical movements, missionary zeal and pastoral enthusiasm all these are Christian awakenings of the first importance; but it might have happened that in their fervent attachment to their own chief objects these movements might have become shut up in themselves. This would have entailed a lack of balance if not in individuals at least in the community of the Church. Lest simple faith become the faith of a simpleton, reverence for authority tum to clericalism and childlike submission to childishness, the adult of to-day must be armed with theology, with an inward understanding of the word of God, the Incarnation must inspire and build up his whole rational apprenhension. Theology is an understanding which, in full continuity, spiritual and epistemological, with the word of God, secures for faith a mental and cultural temper which is necessary not only for its efficacy but to its truth as well. The Dean of the Philosophical Faculty at Lyons, Mgr Regis Jolivet, deals in The God of Reason with the moral and metaphysical ways to the existence of God, with the problem of analogy, with immanence and transcendence, with the views of Kant, Brunschvicg, le Roy and Sartre. Two quotations may illustrate the quality of the book: However valid the proofs for Gods existence may be in themselves, absolutely speaking, they can only be valid for us in so far as we accept them on our side with honesty, moral rectitude and purity of heart. The proofs are not compelling as are proofs from experience. We can use an expression of
The Downside review | 1957
Ralph Russell
That Unknown we call God, and the job of the theologian is to show how and what God is not by denying of him what does not belong to him, by denying of him what belongs to all that God is not. This, of course, is the apophatic mode of intellection and according to Fr White it is the key to St Thomass thought. In a sense this is merely a rehash of an old truth, but if it is always worth repeating it is because most of us, when reading St Thomas, forget to make use of this key. Professor Pieper (v. his The Negative Theology of St Thomas) has also thought it necessary to bring this point home to our contemporary theologians, for St Thomas himself tells us that it is only in the light of apophatic theology that affirmative theology, analogy, the via causalitatis, etc. have meaning for us. Now to suggest that perhaps Fr White could have said more is not to criticize what he has said, and what he has said is stated very well. It seems necessary to ask, however, whether it is not also the task of the theologian to point out the fact that theology in via reflects theology in patrta? Does theology in via signify anything other than an inverse principle by comparison with divine Knowledge? All formal doctrines of grace, of the Trinity, of the Incarnation stop at this aspect of inversion and, by their very nature, do not consider the instasis point of view of divine Subjectivity — indeed, it is not within their province to combine opposing aspects of divine Reality in an immediate and formless vision. Nevertheless, since apophatic theology is the condition of getting within, the theologian may well be neglecting his job if he does not constantly remind us that so long as we are engaged in passionate, seeking, penetrating thought we are not within, and that to be within is not to rest in the substantial esse of our soul but to be in Christ in whom we have, in truth, never not been. Scholastic theology gives us the principle of this inversion by stating that what the creature is secundum quid, God is per se. May not this principle direct the interest of theologians to a view of truth to which they have perhaps neglected to give primary importance? In regarding that point of view which is situated as it were in patria as one which at best pertains only to a branch of theology, Catholic theologians may discover their tree cut off from its roots. DOM PLACID KELLEY
The Downside review | 1954
Ralph Russell; Cyprian Stockford
K CENTLY we praised the fairness of E. Giless Documents Illustrating Papal Authority, A.D. 96-454, adding that more . guidance was needed to understand the relevance or importance of the passages cited. In a more recent book before us Mr Burn-murdoch (who writes quite independently) has wished to set out the arguments about papal history and the Petrine privileges used by either side. He calls them A and N (Affirmative and Negative). He is mainly concerned with the first five centuries, but his seventy-four chapters also deal with the Middle Ages, the Reformation and modern periods, the Vatican Council and Papal Infallibility. The field covered is therefore immense. Mr Burn-murdoch takes to himself the words of Abbot Chapman: I have done my best to be careful and fair, 1 dare say with imperfect success. He has tried to set out the strongest arguments on either side. Sometimes he is successful(notably in chaps. xlvii and lxxiv), sometimes he is hampered by misunderstanding the point; in general one must admit to recalling Dr Johnsons reply when asked if he had treated the parties fairly in the splendid speeches he had put into the mouths of the politicians when reporting Parliament: Yes, but 1 took care that the Whig dogs did not have the best of it. For the papal side is often set out baldly, the last word is always for the anti-papal side, there is no chance to answer the latters arguments, and it would seem that these arguments have not always been carefully weighed. It is a pity that, while Catholic writers are cited on the N side, no Anglicans are quoted (except for quite small points) on the A. Yet the general conclusions of reputable Anglican scholars should be set before the uncommitted reader even when they tend to favour the Roman position.
The Downside review | 1953
Ralph Russell
Pope Xystus. Johns gospel was in the villages of Egypt by 130 and Ignatius knew it and Matthew before he left Antioch for martyrdom; Papias in Asia Minor about the same time was in possession of Johns comments upon Matthew and Mark. Local patriotism would have to be very strong indeed if it is to be held responsible for keeping the local churches in the narrow way of one gospel amid all this wide circulation. J. H. CREHAN, s.r,
The Downside review | 1951
Ralph Russell
Themes Bibliques by Jacques Guillet. Pp. 284 (Aubier) 4% frs, THESE Studies on the Expression and Development of Revelation are of high importance to Biblical scholarship. The author describes his book as an attempt to study the religious vocabulary of the Bible, in order, by means of the history of some words and some images, to lay hold of the riches of the religion of Israel and the movement which led it to Jesus Christ. He modestly calls his work fragmentary. So, in a sense, it is. But it forms a rich and pregnant study in the origins of revelation. It shows, as the author says, how the religious language of revelation, which summed up that for which the naturalist religions were seeking, owed its constitution and its further progress in depth to the action of the Spirit of God in history, to the revelation of his Word. Its supernatural character, obscure still in the Old Testament, appears in clear light when Jesus comes. Then the different ways converge, the boldest formulae receive their sense. All is new, definite, and yet already familiar. We have been let into the age-long secret of Gods love. Such is the course of the themes which the book develops. We may take as an example the theme of the march of the Israelites through the desert-the series of historical events with their liturgical commemorations, the Pasch, the making of the Covenant, above all the forty years when Israel lived in the desert under the guidance of and in communion with Yahweh. It is this guidance and communion, the freshness of first love, which the prophets emphasize in their turn. The conversion of Israel must be a second Exodus, with a liturgical setting. In the Psalms the people are again in the situation of their fathers, and the ways of man are in contrast with the ways of Yahweh. He, their Shepherd, gives water from the rock and manna from heaven to those whom he has tempted and who believe in him, while from his mouth came that breath, that Spirit, which bears his word and his Will and gives life to all who live. Such are the table and the cup he prepares for those who arc faithful to his commandments. Here is a faith which appeals to historical events, finds its immediate application in the harvests of Palestine, and yet leads naturally to the teaching of the Book of Wisdom: It is not the varied fruits which nourish man, but thy word which keeps those who believe in thee. Such was Gods sweetness for his children. And yet the world would have known no more than this holy soliloquizing if it had not met Jesus, the Word Incarnate, and by his action been trans-
The Downside review | 1951
Ralph Russell
T H E Encyclical Humani Geoeris has this instruction for those who teach in ecclesiastical institutions: Let them with all their powers enlarge the bounds of the sciences they teach, but always with due care not to overstep the limits which we have imposed for the better safeguarding of the Truth and of Catholic doctrine. The common Father of Christians makes it clear that he wrote the Encyclical reluctantly forced to dwell once more upon truths which are so widely known, and call attention, not without anxiety, to falsehoods and approaches to falsehood which are so manifest, and to recall also methods of teaching which have long been part of the heritage and discipline of the Church. For God does not mean the mind of man to set aside truths already solidly acquired. He means it to eliminate any error which may have entered into its calculations, and then build up new truth upon the foundation of the old. While thus reprobating innovators who seek to eliminate all the progress made by Scholasticism, the Pope is far from discouraging inquiry into the source of doctrine, Scripture and tradition, which contains treasures so varied and so rich that it must ever prove inexhaustible . . . Avoid the labour of probing deeper and deeper yet into the sacred deposit, and your speculations experience proves it grow barren. Only it is for the Living Voice of the Church to interpret what is obscure in the sources, and where she has spoken it is plainly perverse to use what is obscure to explain her clear decision. After criticising certain teachers who alter the sense of the Churchs declarations about the inspiration and
The Downside review | 1949
Ralph Russell
thought is the way in which the very metaphysical absurdity of the basic Stoic doctrines protected those who held them from the most disastrous ethical and theological consequences of materialism. By their sturdy assertion that the divine substance was a very peculiar kind of material being possessed of all the attributes of immaterial being even pagan Stoics were able to arrive at an exalted conception of the divinity and of human personality which is quite unreasonable on their own gaseous premises. Nobody who has glanced at his De Anima can doubt Tertullians Stoic materialism; but it hardly produces any effect on his Trinitarian theology. God is for him a body, but a body with all the characteristics of what we see must be purely spiritual being. More serious is the influence on his thought of the universal contemporary fashion of thinking in terms of descending degrees of divinity which appears in Middle and Nco-Platonism and is responsible for the extreme Subordinationism of Origen; and of the closely allied way of thinking which distinguishes two stages in the life of the eternal Word, an immanent before the Creation and a fully expressed which begins with and for the Creation (ch. vn). But Tertullians Subordinationism is by no means as extreme as Origens, and, in his discussion inch. xxv of the common idea that it was the Son who appeared in the Old Testament theophanies while the Father is essentially invisible, he goes a long way towards realizing the dangers which this way of thinking held of asserting a difference of status or even nature incompatible with the traditional faith. The Adversus Praxean is a work which shows particularly well the enormously important part played by Tertullian in forming the Latin theological vocabulary, and, as we have seen, students using Canon Evanss edition will be very well equipped to appreciate his achievements in this way. A. H. ARMSTRONG.
The Downside review | 1949
Ralph Russell
I would not go so far as to accuse Dom Edmond of that sexual pessimism so rightly deplored by Pere Nicolas, o.P., but I must confess that I profoundly dislike the attempt to see in the practice of Christian Marriage an obstacle to true sanctity. I have, in any case, made my own views on this subject abundantly clear elsewhere. Even so, on the principle that we must be thankful for small mercies, I am glad that Dom Edmond has advanced some steps in what I conceive to be the right direction.
The Downside review | 1948
Ralph Russell
The Kinadom ojPromise by R. A. Dyson, S.J. and A. Jones, S.T.L., L.S.S. Pp, 213 (Burns Oates) 6s. 6d. T HERE might be a danger that this example of the Scripture Textbooks for Catholic Schools would not be remarked except by schoolmasters concerned with Scripture teaching. That would be a pity. It is an admirable piece of work, written by experts, scholarly, sensible, clear, inspiring. It takes in the whole sweep of the divine plan of Redemption-the preparation for the Kingdom, its foreshadowing, and its fulfilment. After a useful little chapter to explain the Old Testament as restrictive and Messianic history, we are taken through the development of the divine drama in the Old Testament, the creation and fall, the promise to Abraham, the consolidation of the Kingdom by Moses, the conquest under Josue, and so to the prophets of the Kingdom and their work, and to the origin, ,language and interpretation of prophecy. We then follow the historical fortunes of the Kingdom, with sections on the Messianic hope in the Psalms, in Isaias and other prophets, and so to the Exile, with an account of the Messianic hope of the period. The Kingdom and the New Age deals with the impact of Hellenism and of Rome and with the later Messianic ideas of the Pharisees and Apocalyptic literature. The Messianic concepts contemporaneous with our Lord are discussed and lead us to the chapter on The King in Person. Thus we understand the problem before our Lord of how to explain his Person and his work, and we see how he solved it by his progressive and discriminating revelation. The final chapter on the New Kingdom of God shows it as a complex notion, visible and earthly and yet spiritual and moral, deriving its mystical life by sacramental channels from its crucified and risen King. This is the sort of book we need to teach that chief requirement of our time, Biblical theology, to understand Gods workings in the matrix of history, to see the lights which shine from prophets and psalms and the Wisdom Literature, to grasp the human and yet divinely spiritual message of the Gospels, to see how the rest of the New Testament shows all fulfilled in Christ. There is an index of Biblical texts, a useful analytical index and some wellexecuted little folding maps. The book should be possessed by all those who teach religious doctrine in schools. Increasingly the great movement in Catholic pedagogy which has its roots in the doctrine of the Mystical Body is going back to the study of Biblical Theology, to the Liturgy and to the life of the Church, thus drawing its inspiration from the sources of Revelation. It is Christ whom we must teach, and we
