Christ and the Catholic Priesthood: Ecclesial Hierarchy and the Pattern of the Trinity by Matthew Levering (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 137 L. Flannery, S.J., offers an essay (“Ultimate Ends and Incommensurable Lives in Aristotle”) which cautions us that an error in selecting a final end in life or errors in finding fitting means to that end need not be and would not be obvious to the one in error. Thomas Hibbs (“The Fearful Thoughts of Mortals: Aquinas on Conflict, Self-Knowledge and the Virtues of Practical Reasoning”) shows that the concretely damaged and sinful human situation in which we find ourselves makes the assistance of revelation and faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit essential to the overcoming of the self-deception and self-preference which so readilyreduces our moral lives to a shameful shambles. And so we are cautioned to be humble and alert to our own vulnerabilities as practical reasoners, the more so as we engage in public disputation in defense of the natural law. This volume performs an invaluable service in guiding our reflection on this vital, perennial, and timely topic. JOHN CORBETT, O.P. Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C. Christ and the Catholic Priesthood: Ecclesial Hierarchy and the Pattern of the Trinity. By MATTHEW LEVERING. Chicago: HillenbrandBooks, 2010. Pp. 340. $40.00 (cloth) ISBN: 978-1-59525-029-2. Is it possible to mount a well-reasoned theological defense of the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church? Given the vigorous and determined assaults on the concept of hierarchy not only from the culture but also from many theologians, including Catholic theologians, it is a challenge few scholars would attempt to meet. Matthew Levering has taken it up, however, and has produced a very original and stimulating book that goes a long way towards achieving this goal. Christ and the Catholic Priesthood is a work of speculative theology in which the author takes the objections of his dialogue partners seriously. He does not argue point-by-point with them and he does not appeal to the authority of the magisterium. Instead, he places the questions in a more adequate biblical and theological frame of reference—for the most part, a frame of reference supplied by St. Thomas Aquinas. Readers who are familiar with Levering’s work will not be surprised that he turns to St. Thomas to defend the hierarchical ordering of the Church, even though Thomas himself never wrote a treatise on ecclesiology. Levering employs to great advantage his comprehensive knowledge of St. Thomas’s overall theological system and his biblical commentaries. He draws on Thomas’s treatment of the Trinity; of Christ’s headship, priesthood, and saving Passion; and of the sacraments, with special attention to the Eucharist and holy orders. BOOK REVIEWS 138 With the help of these resources, the Scriptures, and the contributions of many other theologians, ancient and modern, he explains that the hierarchical priesthood has to do with the sacramental mediation of the power of Christ’s paschal mystery. Hierarchy means “holy origin,” not “holy domination”; it refers to the holy origin of the gifts the triune God chooses to bestow on his creatures. According to Levering, it is eminently consistent with the whole economy of salvation that God should entrust the distribution of his gifts to human ministers. In fact, this economy follows a Trinitarian pattern: “the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit willed a hierarchical Church, notwithstanding the inevitable sinfulness of the members of the hierarchical priesthood, because of the theocentric pattern of gifting and receptivity that hierarchy fosters in the Church” (10f.). This pattern reminds believers that they are first of all the unworthy recipients of God’s loving and merciful gifts; it accustoms them to the practice of humility and charity, that is, to a life befitting members of the kingdom. To defend the hierarchical priesthood against its modern detractors, Levering sees that objections from many quarters need to be addressed. Following the strategy of St. Thomas, he uses these objections to set out his own perspective, introduce corrections and distinctions, and gradually put on display the alternative he wishes to propose. In four substantive chapters he addresses the following objections. First, the hierarchical priesthood is incompatible with the ideal of the Church as an image of the Trinity, a...