Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith by Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Les degrés d’autorité du Magistèrn by Abbé Bernard Lucien (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 325 flies in the face of Long's analysis of question 64, article 7 of the Secunda Secundae according to which Thomas is saying that an action's object is praeter intentionem; it also confirms the idea just proposed that, when at the beginning of that article Thomas speaks of an act's receiving its species from what is intended and not what is per accidens, he is concerned with the way we determine the species of types of acts and not directly with the analysis of individual acts. Pontifical Gregorian University Rome, Italy KEVIN L. FLANNERY, S.J. Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith. By AVERY CARDINAL DULLES, S.J. Naples, Fl.: Sapientia Press, 2007. Pp. 209. $21.95 (paper). ISBN 978-1-932589-38-2. Les degres d'autorite du Magistere. By ABBE BERNARD LUCIEN. Feucherolles: La Nef, 2007. Pp. 232. 22 € (paper). ISBN 2-916343-02-4. Both books engage the magisterium. Cardinal Dulles offers a clear, concise manual, tracing the magisterium from biblical foundation to the present; he touches many current questions and comes to balanced conclusions; sixty-seven pages of appendices reproduce relevant magisterial texts. Lucien's volume collects various articles previously published in Sedes Sapientiae. With habitual clarity Dulles expounds basic doctrine. His first chapter defines the magisterium's nature and function, rooted in Christ's offices as prophet, priest, and king. The magisterium was established to procure the sanctification of souls through the preservation, explication, and defense of Christ's revelation. While faith involves personal self-surrender to God's word, his truth is mediated through revealed truths; hence revelation must include "an organ capable of certifying revealed truth with divine authority" (6). The magisterium serves revelation, ultimately Christ, in Scripture and apostolic Tradition. While the Bible is authoritative in faith and cannot be contradicted, Tradition and magisterium ensure its correct interpretation and application. Chapter 2 presents the New Testament witness to Jesus as teacher and the authority of Peter, the apostles, and their successors. Chapter 3 traces the further development of the magisterium: as bishops maintained orthodoxy in dioceses and councils; the Roman see steadily asserted its primacy as ultimate court of appeal for East and West. Despite the papacy's weakness at the waning of the Middle Ages, Trent incorporated the modern papal-episcopal council. Subsequent centuries shored up papal and conciliar authority against attacks until Humani Generis hailed the 326 BOOK REVIEWS magisterium as the "proximate and universal norm of revealed truth," authorizing the pope to terminate debate on disputed issues. Chapter 4 considers hierarchical and nonhierarchical teachers, who were clearly distinguished only in the nineteenth century. In modern terminology only pope and bishops possess magisterial responsibility, teaching with Christ's authority and formulating doctrine. But others can and have exercised various magisterial functions. Indeed the consent of theologians, the witness of Church Fathers and Doctors, and the sensus fidelium are recognized as theological sources. The present magisterium comprises various organs: episcopal college, pope as its head, papal dicasteries, and bishops speaking in groups or individually. Dulles judiciously assesses the weight of their authority. The sixth chapter considers infallibility insofar as the magisterium upholds the apostolic deposit in matters of faith and "patterns of behavior commended by the gospel." Though infallibility is promised to the whole Church, the magisterium's exercise of infallibility, which characterizes particular acts, produces "irreformable," or "definitive," statements. After considering the ordinary and extraordinary expressions of the universal magisterium, Dulles deals with infallibility's primary and secondary objects. The former embraces revelation, the latter whatever is indispensable to safeguard or expound it; that infallibility extends to the former is a matter of faith, whereas its extension to the latter is "theologically certain Catholic teaching" (74). After briefly considering dogmatic development, Dulles evaluates what falls among infallibility's secondary objects, questioning the inclusion of some "dogmatic facts" (e.g., Jansenius' intention), canonizations, and approval of religious institutes. The natural law's basic principles are generally agreed to be revealed, and the magisterium can infallibly teach "all negative moral norms that concern intrinsically evil acts" (CDF). Thus Evangelium Vitae's condemnation of murder, abortion, and euthanasia engages the ordinary, universal magisterium. Chapter 7 considers various...