Religion and Creation by Keith Ward (review)

656 BOOK REVIEWS has much to recommend it-not the least being an eradication of the "us vs. them" psychology behind the populated-hell advocates that has broken the solidarity of the human race and led to atrocities. My only criticism with Oakes's presentation has to do with the absence of a discussion of Henri de Lubac's significant influence on Balthasar. Both Medard Kehl, S.J., in The Von Balthasar Reader, and John O'Donnell, S.J., in Hans Urs von Balthasar, list de Lubac as one of the four decisive influences on Balthasar, the others being Przywara, Barth, and von Speyr (all dealt with in Pattern ofRedemption). Balthasar's own The Theology ofHenri de Lubac and The Theology ofKarl Barth, which he said owed almost everything to de Lubac (cf. Balthasar's letter in de Lubac, Theology in History), would seem to attest to de Lubac's formative influence in the central areas of nature and grace, ecclesiology, patristics, and hermeneutics. Oakes believes that "an adequate assessment of the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar is not possible at this time" (301). He holds that there simply has not been time to assimilate Balthasar's work and that of his mystical influence, Adrienne. It would appear to this reviewer that, to complicate matters further, Balthasar is advocating a "paradigm shift" in theology-in fundamental methodology (theological aesthetics and dramatics), doctrine (trinitarian inversion and descensus eschatology), and praxis (secular institute)-as important and decisive for the Church as those of Augustine and Thomas. The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. MARK D. NAPACK Religion and Creation. By KEITH WARD. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. 346. $70.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-19-826393-7 (cloth), 0-19-826394-5 (paper). Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University, has written previous books on the philosophy of religion, such as The Concept of God, Images ofEternity, and Revelation and Religion. In the first part of this book on comparative theology, he takes classic texts of four religions-Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism-and one twentieth-century reinterpreter of each (Heschel, Barth, Iqbal, and Aurobindo). He finds that each of these reinterprets God as more relational, more dynamically involved with the world than the classical texts of their tradition did. He elides the differences between these religions rather too easily-one wonders whether the book will help interreligious dialogue. BOOK REVIEWS 657 In the second part he begins by noting that contemporary materialists and empiricists deny the existence of God, largely because of the dominance of the scientific view of the world that entails for them a naturalism. He finds these philosophies do not do justice to such things as design or purpose in the physical world. Theism is more an expression of a practical attitude toward the universe than a theoretical view of the world, but-contrary to many philosophers of the analytic tradition-an attitude that supposes metaphysical beliefs. Since metaphysics is also needed to show the coherence of a reality such as God, it is essential to religious faith. Ward also has a chapter on metaphor and analogy. Contrary to Tillich, not all statements about God are symbolic. For example, Anselm's statement that God is that greater than which nothing can be thought is realist and literal. Contrary to Sallie McFague, her metaphorical statements about God suppose literal assertions about deity (e.g., her statement that God is on the side of life and human fulfillment). Thomas's view of analogy is helpful here. God is indeed wise, but with a wisdom that totally transcends the wisdom we experience. Perhaps this part shows us that the audience Ward is primarily addressing is one that has some respect for traditional religions but whose faith is eroded by the inconsistency of these religions with one another and with the modern scientific and humanistic view of the world. The third part of the book, "The Nature of the Creator God," is the longest and addresses this latter difficulty with belief in God. In the first chapter here, on "Divine Power and Creativity," Ward holds that God has a necessary nature-one that he does...