Saint Thomas d’Aquin et le sacerdoce (review)

320 BOOK REVIEWS at through careful observation of their accidental properties strikes me as a strange way to describe what seems to be sound, scientific methodology. The accuracy of Bastit's interpretation of Scotus in general is questionable. Indeed, whether he has a firm command of which works are authentic and which spurious is uncertain; on pages 202-8, notes 108-9, for example, he appeals, as to a genuine work of Scotus, to the Pseudo-Scotus's (probably John of Cornwall's) Questions on the Posterior Analytics printed by Wadding. Finally, Bastit's remarks on Ockham are riddled with misreadings. To give an obvious instance, Ockham does not hold that virtue of any sort is impossible without knowing by revelation the will of God, as Bastit thinks (324-26); what he does hold is that the highest virtue is impossible without loving God for his own sake, but this is just a rather commonplace position on the privileged status of Christian virtue. In conclusion, I do not recommend this book, since it depicts poorly the historical figures it seeks to compare. The idea of a comparative study of these authors' metaphysics and ontology is one worthy of pursuit, but I fear that it will take the learning of a Gilson or a Boehner to be able to put that idea into practice. Until such a great scholar should once again arise, the goal of this book will remain unfulfilled. The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. TIMOTIIY B. NOONE Saint Thomas d'Aquin et le sacerdoce. Actes du colloque organise par l'Institut Saint-Thomas-Aquin les 5 et 6 juin 1998 aToulouse. Revue Thomiste 99 (1999). Pp. 295 (paper). As the editor of this volume, S. Bonino, formulates it, the premise of the colloquy whence this collection of papers proceeds is as descriptive of the United States as of France: the high academic study of St. Thomas has moved from the care of theologians to philosophers, from clerics to lay men and women in secular institutions. While there are aspects of this movement to rejoice in, there are also dangers to avoid, since St. Thomas is not understood well in abstraction from the explicit theological intention of his work, an intention most easily assimilable in institutions of ecclesiastical character. Hence the gathering of mostly clerics, mainly Dominican, preponderantly associated with the teaching of theology in an ecclesiastical institution, that has produced this collection of papers. And a very nice collection it is indeed, illustrating, as Bonino says, the sapiential and contemplative character of contemporary Thomist studies, as well as their historical-critical maturity. BOOK REVIEWS 321 Whether it also demonstrates the abiding capacity ~f the mind of St. Thomas to respond to contemporary concerns is more difficult to judge, and depends in part on the place the reader accords St. Thomas in the tradition. The collection is ably introduced by Msgr. E. Marcus, archbishop of Toulouse. He articulates the challenges to any attempt to make St. Thomas speak to contemporary concerns about the priesthood, challenges that range from the relative dearth of extended treatments of priesthood by St. Thomas, to the absence in St. Thomas of an ecclesiology in which to situate the concept of priestly mediation, to the greater role contemporary discourse on ministry accords to the triplex munera. The American reader may find just as interesting the archbishop's insightful summary of the theological questioning of the priesthood in France from 1943 (La France pays de mission) to the present. The contributor most easily recognized by English speakers will doubtless be J.-P. Torrell, and indeed, his article on the priesthood of Christ in question 22 of the Tertia pars can claim a certain pride of place in the collection, since Christ is the cause and exemplar of the entire Christian priesthood and cult (a. 4). Torrell's commentary shows how question 22 is a crossroads of tradition and Christological principle: both Augustine and Cyril of Alexandria, both the instrumentality of the humanity of Christ and the personal dignity of the One who uses the instrument, are in play in understanding the priesthood of Christ. A sort of nerve-center of the Tertia pars, question 22...