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BOOK REVIEWS 15i perennial character" (p. 252}. Again: "What I have said about the nature of theological assertion is ... perhaps the most important intellectual task facing the Church. I believe that the . . . criteria for ' goodness ' of theological assertion lie primarily in the areas of meaning and value judgment, and not in the area of empirical fact " (p. 253) -especially if " fact " is understood in an outdated empiricist fashion. Finally, Hesse concludes the chapter and the book on this note: " Fundamental theological disputes may well break out again [in the current intellectual climate], but this will be a sign of health, because it will show theology being again incarnated in its own time, and even perhaps differently in each of the many and deeply distinct social systems of our time. We shall not create the successors of Augustine and Aquinas overnight, but if we are faithful to our own concerns, in his own good time God may " (p. 254) . In short, we have here a first-rate thinker carrying as far as she can the insights of the new philosophy of science of Kuhn and Quine (and others}, who is willing even to face the consequences of these views for religious belief. (Hesse goes further than others in being open even to Continental influences, such as that of Habermas or the social thinker Emile Durkheim.} Many theologians and religious philosophers will be uncomfortable with the cultural relativism she sees implicit in these views. But she has issued her challenge forthrightly, and they would be well advised to take it up with the same openness, honesty, and rigor she has displayed. University of Delaware Newark, Delaware PAUL T. DURBIN Commentary on the Gospel of John, Part I. By SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS. Translated by J. A. WEISHEIPL, 0.P., and F. R. LARCHER, O.P. Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1980. Pp. 505. $35.00. Fr. Weisheipl is responsible for the Introduction and Notes of this volume and, seemingly, for most of the translation-at least that is what the explanatory statement, "translation of J. A. Weisheipl with F. R. Larcher" implies. At any rate, the work comes with the authority of the author of Friar Thomas d'Aquino: His Life, Thought and W9rk-and that is approbation indeed. This, the first of two volumes, covers Jn 1-7. In his masterly introduction, Fr. Weisheipl explains that the commentary is a reportatio, that is to say, the gist of a professor's lectures. In our case the reporter is Reginald of Piperno, Thomas's faithful socius; Moreover, there is evidence that this reportatio was revised by Aquinas 152 :BOOK REVIEWS himself. There may be even more to it than that. There are indications that the commentary on the first five chapters of the gospel is not a reportatio at all but an expositio: the text of the lectures. All in all, this commentary is an impressive witness to Aquinas's exegetical skill and theological acumen. Weisheipl carefully points out that the commentary is typically medieval, lacking the unction, colloquialism, and informality of patristic commentaries , and suggests that it is easier to read Augustine's commentary on John than that of Thomas. An apt observation. But as one whose formal theological formation was in the scholastic tradition, I find it easy to read Thomas. What Weisheipl implies, and correctly, is that fewer and fewer find it so. There is no doubt that, for a man of his time, Thomas's exegetical competence is remarkable. He sought out the literal sense of the text. And though, of course, he commented on the Vulgate text, he knew some Greek; he knew of variant Greek readings and the precise meaning of certain words. His text of Jn 1:3-4 read: "All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. What was made in him was life". He was aware that the punctuation in the Greek was different and cites Chrysostom as an authority. " Chrysostom is held in such esteem by the Greeks in his explanations that they admit no other where he expounded anything in Holy Scripture. For this reason, this passage in all the Greek works is found punctuated exactly as Chrysostom...

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