A densely-packed and comprehensive textbook of scholastic metaphysics. Metaphysics is understood as including "not only a general investigation of beings but also the study of knowledge and of the divine nature and attributes in the light of natural reason." Owens brings to this task the Gilsonian understanding of a Christian philosophy, his own considerable knowledge of Aristotle, Aquinas and scholastic philosophy generally, and a conviction that metaphysics is a knowledge of the universe and the things within it, founded on necessary (...) principles. Though intended as a college text, Owens' work might be better taken as a standard reference manual, much like the classic Latin text of Gredt.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This penultimate volume of Copleston's monumental history covers the nineteenth century German philosophers and some of their non-German dependents, such as Kierkegaard, and their contemporary heirs, such as Heidegger. Copleston's usual clarity and sympathy win out even when treating such recalcitrant thinkers as Hegel, Fichte, Nietzsche and Schleiermacher. His interpretations are always reasonable and credible, and often illuminating. Unfortunately, they are not as dialectical as the originals, and a good deal is lost in the translation from system to exposition.--W. G. (...) E. (shrink)

Oesterle's translation of Aquinas's commentary on Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias should fill a great need by presenting an excellent and painstakingly accurate English version of that classic. She has gone to the additional trouble of providing an independent translation of Aristotle's Greek text, taking care that it renders the original accurately as well as complements Aquinas's commentary. Of especial interest are the sections on modal propositions, their negation and the inferences valid from them.--W. G. E.

A very detailed piece of scholarship devoted to showing the fundamental importance and meaning of Aristotle's notion of phronesis in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, which express Aristotle's complete philosophy of human life. The infelicity of style and omnipresence of scholarly paraphernalia obscure the philosophic importance of the analysis unnecessarily. This is especially true in the case where imprecision of language leads Michelakis to treat phronesis as a faculty along with nous praktikos rather than a disposition modifying it. As (...) a result an important section of the second chapter is mystifying, if not completely wrong, issuing in the identification of the subordinate disposition nous with the nous praktikos itself. Michelakis is correct in thinking that an analysis of phronesis is urgently needed to clear up the confusion of interpretations of Aristotle's ethical and political doctrine. This book presents much of the requisite material for that analysis, but not the requisite analysis.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This is essentially a textbook for an introductory course written in basic English of the primer type with a drastic simplification of exposition. The simplification often makes the exposition inaccurate and the readings confusing or misleading. The authors cover literally scores of positions and authors, some few major ones and many very minor ones, in almost every conceivable area of philosophy.--W. G. E.

A successful textbook-anthology in the philosophy of religion. Hick tries to do justice to the demands of both historical range and variety of approach. His selection of texts, from Plato to Flew, is sound and offers only a few surprises. The selections themselves are of adequate length and the introductory remarks and bibliographies provided in the appendix are useful guides to further reading. The contents are listed both historically and topically, adding to the flexibility of the book. Of the current (...) spate of anthologies in this field, this one seems one of the more teachable.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Bits and snatches of the poetry, drama, philosophy, history and oratory of Greek literature are gathered with minimal biographical and introductory notes. Only one translation is acknowledged, that of Aristophanes' The Birds. The selection, though varied, shows no underlying plan.—W. G. E.

This anthology is heavy on poetry and letters, light in the other categories. There are some anomolies: Seneca's philosophy is represented by a piece of little historical interest, Cicero is alloted only five letters, Ovid is correspondingly slighted in poetry. Here also, as in the volume above, the editor's contribution is slight. No translations are acknowledged.—W. G. E.

This is a collection of essays in ethics and the philosophy of religion contributed by former students and colleagues of Professor W. Harry Jellema to honor his 70th birthday and his retirement from Calvin College. The essays are quite diverse but uniformly worthwhile. They are nicely balanced between such traditional approaches as in Veatch's "For a Renewal of an Old Departure in Ethics" and Parker's "Traditional Reason and Modern Reason," contemporary analytic approaches as in Plantinga's "Necessary Being" and Brouwer's "A (...) Restricted Motive Theory of Ethics," and historical studies such as Stob's "The Ethics of Jonathan Edwards" and De Boer's "First Steps in Mysticism." The quality and seriousness of the collection as a whole appropriately honors a man who has been one of the most devoted and effective teachers in the American philosophic community for the past fifty years.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Burkill sees Kant's critical philosophy as the source of a vicious dualism in modern philosophy, a dualism between the phenomenally contented and the phenomenally discontented. After two chapters spent making this point, sketching both Kant's basic position and his criticisms of it, the author briefly considers a multitude of post-Kantian philosophers of all varieties. He ends with a constructive solution of the dualism, offering a doctrine of God as the élan vital, a positive principle inherent in the nature of things, (...) open to a descriptive philosophy based on an empiricism which sees the world of experience as made up, not of discrete events, but of entities in dynamic interconnection.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Carried over from fascicle 2 into this fascicle is a remarkable piece of dialectic. Weiss takes the Aristotelian scheme of virtue as a mean between extremes, uses it to manipulate the basic elements of Kant's first Critique, extends the whole set of notions dialectically with moves and notions of his own to make up a comprehensive discussion, which sheds light on many basic philosophic issues. It is a virtuoso performance which produces new insights not only into Kant, Aristotle and Weiss, (...) but on the power of dialectical, systematic philosophy. There are other valuable parts: attempts to give a materialistic account of mind, a discussion of the nature of the past, and several extended analyses of norms and normative judgments. The series grows more impressive with each new fascicle. One begins to suspect that the medium of the Journal is peculiarly cogenial to Weiss' thought.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This number of the continuing series is extremely rich and quite densely written. Much of the writing is reminiscent of Modes of Being in its formality. The major concern is togetherness as a human product, especially political organization. Fully one half of the fascicle is devoted to an extensive and very intricate analysis of the state. Two other sections demand attention: one short and pointed comment on possible kinds of approach to the art object, and a lengthy statement of an (...) "urphilosophy" for Modes of Being, giving the basic positions and moves which can be applied analogously to each of the four modes.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This number of the continuing series is extremely rich and quite densely written. Much of the writing is reminiscent of Modes of Being in its formality. The major concern is togetherness as a human product, especially political organization. Fully one half of the fascicle is devoted to an extensive and very intricate analysis of the state. Two other sections demand attention: one short and pointed comment on possible kinds of approach to the art object, and a lengthy statement of an (...) "urphilosophy" for Modes of Being, giving the basic positions and moves which can be applied analogously to each of the four modes.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Woven in and among the insights and discussions of this fascicle there is a highly complex but extremely dense theory of knowledge. To get at this theory one must piece together the discussions on pages 441-444, 452-455, 471-474, 479-485, 486-497, and 501-503. These must be read as an Aristotelian treatise, a progressive sifting of insights and precisions, so that the "official" doctrine is never clearly stated but must be constructed from the elements and qualifications and clues provided. Nor are the (...) discussions mono-directional, but point to the many interconnections between a pluralistic metaphysics and its coordinate theory of knowledge. Ideas must be related in many ways to many kinds and levels of entities as well as to the ultimate modes of being. These many relations must be cross-referenced and synthesized in a systematic unity, related in a special way to the mode of Actuality without becoming derivatives or projections of that mode. At best this fascicle supplies some of the tools for the job and some hints what the finished theory must accomplish.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This fascicle is devoted entirely to aesthetics. Some sections are tentative and anticipatory to Weiss's The World of Art, others supplementary to earlier papers. But there are long sections which cover new ground: the discussion of play and art, the examination of the concept of beauty as a transcendental and the important analysis of the relation between perception and aesthetic experience. Weiss develops a highly complex, parallel analysis of the work of art and its observer according to various levels or (...) aspects of their respective reality and activity. The extremely rich context thus developed provides fertile insights into many of the traditional problems of aesthetics and offers clues for more general philosophical discussions. Aesthetics has too often been a partisan, polemical affair. Weiss's open and comprehensive approach is an apt-reminder that the complexity and variety of art cannot be caught in one-dimensional, monochromatic accounts.—W. G. E. (shrink)

The first of twelve fascicles to be published quarterly and as a single volume at the end of the series. This fascicle presents Weiss's philosophic journal from June 24th to September 21st, 1955. The main problem worried with in these pages is that of the togetherness of the basic modes of being, a central issue for a systematic pluralist such as Weiss. We see him approaching the problem from different angles, pushing ideas as far as they will go, testing them (...) against other parts of his system, revising, rejecting and refining. At times Weiss sketches out the logical permutations and combinations of his leading themes and then seeks out applications in more concrete subject matter. At other times a seemingly unrelated analysis of something as concrete as the relations between men and women is used to illumine highly abstract problems. The fascicle as a whole is a study in the logic of opposition and togetherness, though many other points are touched along the way, such as the problem of simple location. Weiss's analysis is more mathematical and logical than linguistic. It is remarkably thorough and radical, free and original. But precisely because of this, it is also difficult to follow, at times even frustratingly opaque. But the fascicles do provide two things: a valuable dialectical key to Modes of Being, and a clear insight into the working methods and style of thought of one of the most creative of contemporary philosophers.--W. G. E. (shrink)

In fascicles 9 through 12 of this volume, Weiss continues his analyses of art and begins to develop themes for his discussion of history and religion. There are also significant and lengthy sections devoted to metaphilosophy with critiques of Kant, Hegel, and Wittgenstein. The discussion of the arts reaches a degree of insight and breadth of synthesis not matched in the earlier fascicles, nor in The World of Art and The Nine Basic Arts. For here Weiss achieves a systematic relation (...) between fundamental concepts of Modes of Being and those of his aesthetic theory that is both less strained and schematic and more fruitful than any found elsewhere. The discussions of history are less happy, too quickly generalized and formalized in cosmic terms. The sections on religion are, however, excellent. Predominantly Christian themes are discussed at length. Weiss's metaphysics seems naturally sympathetic in their analysis. The metaphilosophy provides a valuable insight into Weiss's working habits and reveals what is, paradoxically, both a major strength and weakness-his appreciation of the formal and schematic demands of systematic thought. This appreciation can lead to productive analysis and insight, but also beyond experience and understanding. It is to Weiss's credit that these working journals show the dangerous side of his philosophic technique far more often than his regular, published work does. Now that we have the entire first volume of these journals, a few words must be said about their value as published works. They are, first, a useful, two-way bridge joining Weiss's formal, metaphysical works and his more descriptive, phenomenological works, such as The World of Art, Nine Basic Arts, History: Written and Lived, The God We Seek, etc.). Such a bridge is not absolutely necessary for one reasonably familiar with the whole of Weiss's published work, but it is helpful, especially to one beginning a study of Weiss with the more speculative formal writings. As independent works, the journals frequently provide valuable insights, suggest previously unsuspected avenues of analysis and inquiry, and demonstrate a level of argument and mode of explanation all too often ignored by contemporary philosophers. They should be read as what they are, journals, much as one would read Pepys' Diary. The Index is a thorough, accurate, and necessary tool for reference.—W. G. E. (shrink)

It has been charged that Modes of Being is a metaphysics which still needs an epistemology to underpin its speculative claims or a "phenomenology" to connect the abstract system with ordinary experience. Among the discussions in this fascicle are several suggestive attempts to fill such gaps. Weiss poses the basic problem in a fairly ontological way, asking the general question of the relation of theoretical entities and entities of ordinary experience. He admits that Modes of Being was biased toward Actuality (...) as that mode appropriate to the human knower, and suggests that there is a kind of Experience of the modes which is neutral and interlocking. But this is to raise the epistemological counterpart of the problem of hypostatizing the "togetherness" of the modes as a fifth mode. Weiss admits that this is unavoidable as long as the modes are really separated out in analysis, but that such a fifth mode reduces immediately to a point of insignificance since the modes immediately re-establish their interconnection and account for one another. Though the theory is not worked out in detail, and the suggestions are tentative and sometimes inconsistent, they do provide clues as to how the required theory could be provided.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Aristotle remarks in his Ethics that the insights of the elderly, who speak from the experience of a long and good life, are often more profound than the trained speculations of the philosophers. Mr. John Molloy has distilled from his eighty-three years of successful living some basic ground-rules for an integrated life. He calls his essay "a study of design in objective existence" and claims that the basic laws of human relations are simple, available for all to know and practice. (...) This short, epigrammatic essay is pervaded by the joy, grace and serenity of which its author speaks and to which he testifies.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This book is both extraordinarily useful and wonderfully beautiful. It provides a sympathetic and articulate account of the basic philosophical and religious theory of Hindu polytheism, an analysis of some of its fundamental concepts, a systematic ordering and explanation of the major deities with their various names and symbols, and a clear picture of the structure and development of Hindu thought. The Sanskrit texts are printed separately, and there is a set of fine black-and-white plates. I can't imagine a more (...) delightful, or more useful, basic reference work on the subject. The earlier French edition, published in 1960, differs in minor points and does not contain the very valuable index.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Laszlo separates this book into two major sections: Schematization and Analyses. In the former, he seeks to schematize the relationship between "official" political theory, the political ideas of the common citizen and political institutions and activities. He also tries to elucidate the basic metaphysical premisses of "collectivism" and "individualism" as the two irreducibly opposing political conceptions. The second part is then designed to be a concrete analysis of contemporary, especially communistic, political theory and practice, making use of the elements schematized (...) earlier. Unfortunately, the schematization is too schematic and simplistic, too full of hoary truisms and excessive generalizations, to offer any genuinely new or very helpful analyses or explanations of the realities to be analyzed.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This book comprises Cameron's Terry Lectures at Yale, given in 1964-1965 before a disappointingly small audience. Disappointing, primarily because the lectures represent a serious analysis of a significant, though often neglected, aspect of classical natural law, natural theology doctrines. This is the concept of vicarious authority with its corresponding claim of an independent access to truth on the part of one subject to authority. This is surely an important historical as well as contemporary notion in jurisprudence and ecclesiology. Cameron's analysis (...) and documentation is rich, thoughtful, and encompassing. This may have made the lectures too serious and dense, but it makes the book satisfying and thought-provoking, and deserving of a much larger audience than could have filled the lecture hall.—W. G. E. (shrink)

After a preliminary chapter devoted to a psychological study of the effects of Kierkegaard's religious and familial background, Dupré follows a methodology based on the key theological themes which dominate the Kierkegaardian corpus. The attempt throughout is to be absolutely true to Kierkegaard. If one is to raise an objection to Dupré's approach it would be that he remains too self-effacing an expositor not allowing himself the negative move of the independent dialectician. An excellent wide-ranging interpretation which will be helpful (...) to both those beginning a study of Kierkegaard and those familiar with his writings.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Carlston looks at the problem of nationalization of industries as a problem in organization arising with the increasing interdependence of national economies. He uses this as a "hard case" through which to study the structure of world society, the motivating values of action in world society, and the role of law as an organizing process in that society. By exploring this "hard case" Carlston hopes to clarify basic concepts, justify a new theoretical approach to international law, and point out the (...) basic deficiencies of legal positivism as a philosophy of international law. This book should prove a landmark in the philosophy of international law.--W. G. E. (shrink)

The essays in this collection fall into three groups: the first dealing with phenomenological methods and discussions, the second with applications in the field of literature, the third with applications in the social sciences. The quality and seriousness of the essays is quite uneven. The essays in the first group fail to go beyond a fairly uncritical reading of Husserl, especially in treating the reduction of the natural viewpoint. The crucial failures there effect the second and third sections. Especially in (...) the analyses of literature, the neglect of the context of meanings leads to questionable generalizations. Natanson's frequent criticisms of Sartre's rejection of the transcendental ego suffer from incomplete statement of Sartre's arguments. One wishes that Natanson had prepared a substantial statement of this discussion for the collection, rather than allow scattered brief remarks in several papers to stand alone. Elsewhere as well, brief suggestive passages could have profited from a thorough rewriting.—W. G. E. (shrink)

A piece of metaphilosophy which seeks to assimilate metaphysical assumptions to religious faith conceived as an ungrounded, yet necessary, attitude of "trust of orientation" toward "what is taken to be ultimate." Dilley claims that "philosophical fragmentation is the rule; hence attention has turned to the reasons for philosophical pluralism, and one of the reasons which has become increasingly obvious is the confessional character of metaphysical theories." We find this supported by the usual convenient, if uncomfortable, alliance between positivism and Tillichian (...) theology, buttressed by snatches or arguments from dozens of metaphilosophers, philosophers, metatheologians and theologians, such as Carnap, Whitehead, Lazerowitz, Barth, Buber, and Hick. The irrational clutter of authorities doesn't quite conceal the argument's lack of foundations, philosophical or theological. But there is a consistency between the thesis and the mode of argument. Attitudes are notoriously chaotic, unreflective, and possibly inconsistent mental states which we try to clarify, straighten out, order, and ground through thought. Perhaps we would be asking for a self-refutation to require this task of Dilley.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This book is built upon the premiss that there is more than a heuristic connection between Heidegger's thought and his accounts of the Pre-Socratics. Accordingly, by studying what Heidegger has said about them and why he has said it, Seidel offers explanations of some key Heideggerian themes, such as history, being, truth, and language. Seidel brings to this task a sound and thorough reading of both the Pre-Socratics and Heidegger and succeeds in illuminating some of Heidegger's basic concepts.—W. G. E.

Watt takes a somewhat fast and sketchy look at an extremely complex period of history, religion and philosophy from an equally complex viewpoint. He is interested in the place and role of the various kinds of intellectuals in classic Islamic religion and society and their own conceptions of that religious society and their place in it. The central figure is Al-Ghazali who personally embodies the tensions which beset the first six centuries of Islam, and whose attitudes and solutions most characteristically (...) reflect the broad consensus within historic Islam toward those tensions. Watt's book can be of profit as an encapsulation of six centuries of highly complex movements and sub-movements in the personality, career and ideas of one highly complex and brilliant intellectual figure.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Classical French spirituality, ornate and delicate, rich and stylized, like the Louis Quatorze furniture of the same period, is perhaps not to everyone's taste. Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, the great "Eagle of Meaux," was the most eloquent and elegant sacred orator of the period of the great Louis, and his prose has remained ever since a model of that style. This is the first translation of his Méditations sur l'Evangile, perhaps more elegant and certainly more personally intense than the great state (...) sermons. The translation, however, is too close to the French style; it would have been better to match the elegance of the French with comparably elegant English.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This is the third volume of the four volume history of philosophy being prepared under Gilson's editorship. There is no explicit mention of the division of labor between Gilson and Langan in the authorship of the present volume. The book is characterized throughout by the usual Gilsonian clarity and urbanity of style and, perhaps less fortunately, by the distinctively psychological-sociological approach he tends to take to non-medieval periods in the history of philosophy. Attention is directed to the evolutionary continuity of (...) major philosophic themes. Accordingly, the minor stepping-stone figures ordinarily omitted in general histories of philosophy are given full treatment--Montaigne, the Cambridge Platonists, Condillac, the Encyclopedists, Vico, Montesquieu, Condorcet, Lessing and Herder. This approach permits a more integrated picture of an historical period, but it also forces the authors to compress their treatment of the major philosophers, sacrificing the painstaking detail and relying on the insightful and suggestive thematic interpretation. The notes provide a real treasury of information, almost worth the price of the book.--W. G. E. (shrink)

A history of the history of philosophy. Smart deals with representative thinkers in short chapters, expounding and criticizing their doctrines and methods. All of them are found inadequate, though perhaps Bergson and Jaspers less so than the others. In his concluding chapter Smart outlines a view of his own which seems to incorporate the major stresses of the criticized views. He views philosophy as a continuing dialectical play of sometimes antithetical ideas of the past and present: a dialectic which makes (...) the history of philosophy an integral part of philosophy but not the whole of the enterprise. Every philosophy makes its contribution and all reveal their short-comings in the trans-historical dialectic of philosophy itself.--W. G. E. (shrink)

The title of this book is an unusually honest assessment of its contents. The initial conjunction accurately depicts an external relationship between the domains discussed, and the subtitle clearly predicts the level of exposition. The title does not promise, and the author does not give, an independent account of any real relationship between psychology and religion. What we are given is a fairly exhaustive, if sketchy and reportorial, exposition of a variety of psychological views of a variety of religious phenomena. (...) The honesty and directness of the title mirrors the honesty and directness of the exposition. Need we also point out that the obviousness of the title also mirrors the obviousness of the exposition?—W. G. E. (shrink)

Time's man at Vatican Council II has produced an informed and intriguing account of the men, trends and events before and during the first session of Vatican Council II. The book is not as detailed as Xavier Rynne's Letters from the Vatican, and is certainly more argumentative. But the things being argued for are well worth study. Kaiser does bring out some details not found in Rynne's book, notably the undercurrent of problems related to anti-semitism. Unfortunately, Kaiser does not share (...) the tolerance and charity of either Pope John or Rynne toward the person and motives of his conservative antagonists. The book is somewhat repetitive and structurally confused.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Pearson points to the radical questioning of the traditional Greek ethic, which is found in the classical dramatic literature of fifth century Athens, as an example of popular ethics. The philosophic discussion of the Socratic-Platonic tradition supplanted this popular ethics in the fourth century. Many of the problems discussed in the philosophic literature were taken over as developed and articulated by the classical dramatists. Thus, three ethical traditions are described and related in this book: the "traditional" ethics coming from Homer, (...) Hesiod, and Solon, the "popular" ethics of the classical dramatists, and the technical "philosophic" ethics of Plato. The main effort of the book is to discuss the popular ethics as related to both the traditional and philosophic ethics The student of the Platonic dialogues will find the book of great value in identifying the various positions represented by the dramatis personae of the dialogues.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Carried over from fascicle 2 into this fascicle is a remarkable piece of dialectic. Weiss takes the Aristotelian scheme of virtue as a mean between extremes, uses it to manipulate the basic elements of Kant's first Critique, extends the whole set of notions dialectically with moves and notions of his own to make up a comprehensive discussion, which sheds light on many basic philosophic issues. It is a virtuoso performance which produces new insights not only into Kant, Aristotle and Weiss, (...) but on the power of dialectical, systematic philosophy. There are other valuable parts: attempts to give a materialistic account of mind, a discussion of the nature of the past, and several extended analyses of norms and normative judgments. The series grows more impressive with each new fascicle. One begins to suspect that the medium of the Journal is peculiarly cogenial to Weiss' thought.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Surely the least familiar area of the generally unfamiliar subject of medieval philosophy is that of Islamic classical philosophy. This is the first appearance in the non-Arabic world of Al-Färäbï's lively three-part work on the nature of philosophy and the reconciliation of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. The present translation is from the newly recovered Arabic text. It seems designed to appeal to a wider audience than that of students of medieval philosophy, Islamic or otherwise. Yet it does serve (...) the valuable purpose of calling attention to an unjustly neglected tradition in the history of western philosophy and to one of the founders of that tradition.--W. G. E. (shrink)

In this short work, Bouyer sets forth clearly and briefly, yet comprehensively, the developments of the past one hundred years in the study and interpretation of religion, showing the defects of the early reductionistic schemes and the richness of the contemporary phenomenological approach. He proceeds to a penetrating and suggestive analysis of ritual action, using the "sacred meal" as his example. He shows it to be a universal phenomenon in religion, always expressive of profound human meaning heightened and transformed by (...) religious meaning.--W. G. E. (shrink)

To state the central argument of this book would be to miss a great deal of the author's achievement. Munz is concerned with tracing the metaphysical foundations of ethics and furthermore the nature and roots of these, and all, metaphysical conceptions. He does all of this in a resolutely original and tough-minded way, exploring alternatives in the fullest possible manner, arguing with great resourcefulness and force. His originality can be seen in his serious and thorough oppositions to classical and contemporary (...) positions. He never scores off straw men, but takes the trouble to develop opposing positions fully so that his argument will strike at the most fundamental and stringent point. Thus, his thesis, that the basic ethical stances of absolute commitment to others and absolute detachment from others, are dialectically interdependent, is honestly and articulately supported. He is to be credited with developing concepts, arguments, and positions which derive their considerable force on their own merits, while encountering a full range of opposition. He has produced a book with which one can disagree, which may puzzle and even seem peculiar, but which must nonetheless be sincerely admired.—W. G. E. (shrink)

No religious phenomenon appears more bizarre to the modern mind than shamanism. Eliade's comprehensive study illumines the phenomenon, cutting away various accretions and modifications, distinguishing it from related phenomena and relating it to more basic and general ones. Genuine shamanism is a kind of mysticism involving institutionalized techniques of ecstasy, initiatory rites and public spectacles, and a fairly determinate social role. Eliade finds the shamanic ecstasy to be the primary phenomenon and relates it to the pervasive belief in a Supreme (...) celestial Being. The ecstasy, a form of death, is an ascent by a privileged member of the community, enabling him to communicate directly with the Supreme Being. By virtue of this communication the shaman is empowered to inform the community of spiritual matters, to protect it from invisible evils and to render death and its aftermath less mysterious. The shaman's personal experience gives rise to poetic creation in allegory and myth, epic and lyric poetry, thus enriching the community's language. Eliade's erudition is enormous and his analysis convincing. This translation was made from a revised and expanded version of the French text and is presented with the usual Bollingen Series' handsomeness.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Joining his monumental erudition in the phenomenology of religion with affinity and skill in the arts, Gerardus van der Leeuw has produced a really beautiful work. Tracing the genesis of the various arts from an original unity in expressive religious dance, through their assertions of independence as distinctive secular forms marked by the individualism of their practioners, he tries to show that each art form structurally expresses an aspect of the holy. His concern is to prepare for the reunification of (...) the arts based on a religious esthetics. The writing is somewhat diffuse but graceful, the presentation descriptive rather than argumentative. Throughout, one senses the quality of the author's cultivation and concern. The posthumous translation and publication of this work gives his many admirers in the English-speaking world a fitting memorial of a beloved master.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This book is the result of a series of discussions among Cambridge theologians on the general topic of the relevance of established religion and theology to the problems and values of the mid-twentieth century. A wide range of problems is treated: the methodology and importance of natural theology, the effect of recent philosophies of science on theology, the analogical use of the notion of the transcendent, Freudian analysis, and moral theology, the authority of scriptures and the church, prayer, the grounds (...) of moral judgments and the role of the established church in society. The essays reflect the varied interests and capabilities of the writers and should be of interest to a quite varied audience. Most of the essays reveal fresh viewpoints, perspicuous analysis, and rigorous thought.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Essentially a collection of letters from Santayana strung together with narrative about the activities of Santayana, C. A. Strong and Cory himself. Other figures come and go: Walter Lippman, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound. Some of the flavor of Santayana's thought comes through and a good deal of his personality. The letters cover the years 1927-1952: a period of great productivity for Santayana, embracing the Realms of Being, The Last Puritan, Persons and Places and Dominions and Powers. As long as (...) Cory keeps Santayana the center of focus, the book is captivating and brilliantly effective—like Santayana at his best. Unfortunately, the latter half of the book covers a period when Cory was generally somewhat independent and at a distance from Santayana: there are not so many letters and the narrative becomes longer, more autobiographical and much less interesting. Only Santayana's death refocuses the book. But by then the work is irremediably flawed.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This closing volume of Tillich's Systematic Theology is devoted to the domain of the Spirit, the domain of social reality, culture, history, and tradition. Tillich's existential, ex-static concept of faith, his qualitative concept of God, and his symbolic concept of the Christ lead him to see the ambiguity, fragmentariness and repeated failures of the church as an empirical reality. But they offer insufficient tools for an analysis of the positive nature and functions of the community of the Faithful. The Protestant (...) Principle becomes a principle of the ultimate inadequacy of all finite systems of thought and action, and is offered as the universally valid resolution of existential estrangement. As such, one wonders if it can also be a principle of faith for a community of believers. This ambiguity creates a number of difficulties throughout the book. Many of the themes of this volume are central to Tillich's thought and the general approach parallels and completes the earlier volumes. And for such a passionately committed theologian as Tillich, this last volume must be of first importance.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Father Abbott has interviewed twelve council Fathers: Cardinals Léger, Suenens, Liénart, Siri, Koenig, Rugambwa, Alfrink, Doepfner and Cushing; Archbishops Cordeiro and Florit ; and Bishop Carter. The book is curiously uneven in both style and depth. At times the question and answer format is used, at times not. When used, it causes the usual interview weakness--superficiality. When a free format is used and a Father's remarks are allowed to stand uninterrupted and unguided, greater depth results. One feels that Father Abbott (...) has allowed his own interests altogether too much influence. On the whole, the book is somewhat unsatisfying to anyone genuinely interested in following the trends and thoughts among the leading figures of Vatican Council II.--W. G. E. (shrink)

A collection of talks and lectures given by Father Küng during and after the first session of Vatican Council II, ranging over a variety of theological and religious issues. One essay is especially valuable, "'Early Catholicism' in the New Testament As a Problem in Controversial Theology," a technical discussion of the problems raised by exegetical discoveries of the early "Catholic" elements in the New Testament. Küng analyzes the solutions given by Kasemann and Diem, showing the basic weaknesses of each position. (...) He then formulates the problem as a fundamental challenge to Reformed exegetes and theologians alike.--W. G. E. (shrink)

In its original form this was Bonhoeffer's first work, presented as a theological dissertation when the author was only twenty-one. It has been very influential on proponents of "religionless Christianity" among the Continental theologians. The argument is compressed and often elliptical, exceedingly difficult to grasp. Bonhoeffer follows Tonnies' distinction between society and community, holding that the religious community is a community of will which admits no end outside itself, but whose telos, God, is its boundary. It is a structure of (...) meaning rather than a structure of purpose, uniting persons in an I-Thou relationship in which they assume the relative independence of a Leibnitzian monad. The book is magnificent; the translation unobtrusive and long overdue.—W. G. E. (shrink)

There are many reasons to rejoice at this revision of Owens' masterful work, although one might question the term "revision." There are no substantive revisions in the text. There is a very important addition, the Foreword to the Second Edition, in which Owens defends his views against critics and goes on to point out some conclusions about the nature of the Metaphysics which were not explicitly stated in the previous edition, notably that Aristotle's metaphysics was necessarily not a system and (...) was necessarily incomplete. New bibliographical information has been included in footnotes throughout and the Bibliography has been up-dated. The major improvement in the book is that it has now been printed with regular set type. An almost equal boon to the reader is the inclusion of the footnotes at the bottom of the appropriate pages, rather than as a separate section at the back of the book. That extensive revisions of a substantive nature were not necessary is only one more tribute to the excellence of Owens' original work.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This translation of the Fons Vitae, "specially abridged," is stiflingly verbal. There is no critical apparatus, no index, no attempt to lay bare the philosophic doctrine, no explanation of the "abridgment." The book is useless to a serious student and too clumsy to interest any but the most general reader.--W. G. E.

Weiss offers here what might be called a normative phenomenology of religion. The book clearly presupposes a body of descriptive detail and properly avoids metaphysical considerations of the existence and nature of God. The latter can be found in Modes of Being, the former have been the province of several disciplines. Weiss begins with an exploration of human experience to find those elements which give rise to religion and the common features which we should expect to qualify religious as well (...) as other human experience. The religious experience is described as a distinctive, episodic, qualitative immediacy involving the individual with God and detaching him from the world. Since the individual is public as well as private, the religious experience is both anticipatorily public and needs to be sustained within a religious community. We must be able to achieve a non-religious perspective in order to know what is involved in a religious experience. But the idea of God receives most of its content within a community which is distinctively religious though related in various ways to secular communities, and more or less antagonistic to competing religious communities. The most powerful chapters discuss these conflicts between religious communities and the phenomenon of "becoming religious." Combined with the section on the dedicated community, these provide one of the finest analyses of the religious life available in philosophic literature. The book is written with enviable style and grace, especially in the latter half.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Oberman's subject is the theological schools which make up late medieval nominalism. The major figure is Gabriel Biel, who forms the crucial link between Occam and Luther. A comprehensive and detailed examination of Biel's theology, as expressed in both systematic and devotional works, serves to substantiate Oberman's claim that neither Catholic nor Reformed historians have given a fair and balanced account of nominalism: one group sees only the weakening of philosophic claims in theology, the other sees only the biblical and (...) pastoral strengths. A grasp of the integrity and force of the many positions which comprise the nominalist movement serves to establish the continuity between medieval scholasticism and Reformation theology. This study of Biel should provide an incentive and a model for future study of a much misunderstood and neglected period of thought.--W. G. E. (shrink)