Franciscan Studies

296 FRANCISCAN STUDIES In point of fact, when St. Thomas and Duns Scotus speak of being, its character and nature, they are not speaking of the same thing. The being of St. Thomas is knowable only mediately by means of abstraction from the phantasm. The being of Scotus is knowable also intuitively, hence is wider in extension, including the total existential realm of being, material and im­ material. And so when St. Thomas maintains that his notion of being is analogous, this was his only possible logical conclusion. And when Scotus maintained that his notion of being is univocal, this was his only possible logical conclusion. Both views are not merely random positions, but organic details within their respective general doctrinal systems. The concept of being plays a central role in the philosophical system of Duns Scotus. Being as the primary, natural, and adequate object of the mind is exhaustively analyzed by him, and made one of the keystones of his system. Thus his arguments for the existence of God are based upon the order of being, and his philosophical explanation of the Beatific Vision, his theory of knowledge, etc., are but indications of this emphasis. It is also the foundation of his doctrine of univocal being. The author has done constructive work in searching the tomes of Scotus and collecting with great care all the passages referring to his theme. He deserves recognition also for consulting the early representative commen­ tators. Modern literature is not considered in detail, since the author wished to base his study upon the original texts. This volume is one more proof of the ever-growing revival of interest in Duns Scotus, as well as a contribution toward the clarification and rehabili­ tation of the Subtle Doctor. B erard V o g t, O. F. M. Franciscan House of Studies, Butler, N. J. The Problem of Divine Anger in Arnobius and Lactantius (The Catholic University of America Studies in Christian Antiquity, edited by Johannes Quasten, No. 4 ). By Ermin F. Micka, O. F. M. (Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1943. Pp. xxii+187.) Christianity did not enter the world as a philosophical system but as a religious message — an Evangelium. Though it was not directly concerned with the wisdom of the world represented by Greek thought, it was, never­ theless, humanly speaking, impossible for it to avoid contact with philosophy. It is an historical fact that the first meetings between Christian preaching and philosophical teaching resulted in hostile separation and mutual condemna­ tion, because of the concrete historical situation. It took some hundred years before learned people, who had enjoyed before their conversion an education in Greek wisdom, undertook the positive task to reconcile most of their former convictions with revealed truth. This was done by the early apolo­ gists, and thus from their work was born Christian theology and philosophy. It is obvious that the first attempts in this direction could not always be a complete success. Christian tradition was not yet fixed in clearly defined dogmas; hence the individual writer was left to his more or less sound Christian feeling to find his way to a deeper understanding of Revelation BOOK REVIEWS 297 among apparently conflicting texts of Holy Writ and the words of living tradition. Difficulties and failures of this kind are presented in the disser­ tation of Fr. Ermin Micka, who has studied the problem of divine anger in Arnobius and Lactantius, of whom the latter was the pupil of the former. Both came from paganism to Christianity, both were educated in contem­ porary philosophy, and both attempted in their writings an apology of the Christian religion. The author presents first in short outlines the historical background of the problem of divine anger, dealing mainly with the problem in the philoso­ phies of the Epicureans and Stoics, who were the teachers of both Arnobius and Lactantius, and in Holy Scripture and the work of Marcion. After this he studies the problem first in Arnobius and then in Lactantius; and finally he evaluates the doctrine of the two writers of the Church in a compara­ tive study. Both Arnobius and Lactantius perceived the difficulties which we mention, but...