Theology and Sanity by F. J. Sheed (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 527 The manifestation of considerable insight into the sources of current philosophic frustration together with acceptance of the teachings which perpetuate that dissipation of speculative power give to The Theory of Human Culture an appearance of unreconciled electicism. The implications attendant upon the recognition of the reality of essence are left undeveloped ; the consequences radicated in essential as distinguished from accidental differentiation are denied; the contrived universals produced by dialectical concern with the contingent are given parity with, if not superiority over, the necessary natures reality reveals. The familiar theses of naturalism are rendered inevitable: the denial of a transcendent, personal God, and of the spirituality of the soul, the affirmation of the self-. sufficiency of nature, the exclusive ·reliance .upon the " method of science." Yet, Dr. Feibleman perceives that the organic whole is more than the sum of its parts (p. 4), that the historicist is an incomplete account of the nature of things (p. 9), that change is not to be explained by change (p. 834) . More strange, perhaps, is his equalization of inquiry with the processes of digestion and generation, a favorite reduction of the behaviorists and instrumentalists, while rejecting the attainment of control as the sole function of thought. (p. 327) In terms of Aristotelianism, the book is characterized by continuous reaching toward the speculative science ·of the Stagirite's "First Philosophy ," the while blocking every avenue to true metaphysics that reason discloses. In terms of Thomism, the profession of belief in truths and values which constitute an order of being independent of mundane actuality and experience and in principles eternal and immutable beyond the conditions of change (p. 298) are a reaching for God, the while denying Him. The accusation leveled. against an outstanding anthropologist is apropos: he contructed metaphors and then proceeded as though the metaphors were realities. The Theory of Human Culture is a study of reality as seen through dialectic metaphor and its principal fault is that it never returns from the metaphor. Aquinaa College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. B. u. FAY, 0. P. Theology and Sanity. By F. J. SHEED. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1946. Pp. 417, with index. $3.00. In his introduction to " A History of Science " Sir William Dampier says that " if we are to see life steadily and see it whole we need not only science ... we need the apprehension of a sacred mystery." To tell us about the realities of this sacred mystery Mr. Sheed has written a book, 528 BOOK REVIEWS a fasci~ating, desperately-needed book about reality from the standpoint of Catholic faith. It is his contention that " sanity means living mentally in the real world"; for this one must know, if not in full detail, at least the minimum of truths which make up the essential outline of that reality. It is plain to him as it must be to us that one who pilots a plane by the aid of an automobile map only, just does not possess the sufficient knowledge and data of the earth that he needs for such a task. Given the ordinary circumstances of flying, involving awareness of cubic as well as surface measurements, he must fail and be lost. The barest minimum of truth must include a core of theology, for some of the reality of the real world is knowable only by revelation. Mr. Sheed's concern is for the intellect not the will, as he says, he is concerned " ••vt with sanctity but with sanity." Knowledge is the work of the intellect; to give that mimimum of knowledge for living mentally in the real world, this book is dedicated. Any priest who teaches adults or near-adults Catholic philosophy or Catholic theology quickly becomes aware of the totally inadequate notions that are his students' summary of the matters of Catholic faith. All too often he finds it difficult for them to recollect even the simple catechism formula which they have learned in their childhood and which is pertinent and applicable to the occasion of his query and their answer. It becomes evident that there is a tremendous hiatus of mental development relative to the things of faith. Much of what they learned was, to...