Theology in a New Key by Robert McAfee Brown (review)

672 BOOK REVIEWS not with the evil that fear has to do with, but rather with " the eminence of the divine good, by whose power some evil can be inflicted." And in the ad 2 St. Thomas quickly tosses aside the objection, as not being about the gift of foar at all, because that objection had to do with the sort of fear which has evil for its object. Plainly, the position now is that the gift of fear does not have any sort of evil for its object. That is not the position either of the De spe or the ST 2-2 (and seems at odds also with ST 2-2.19.9. ad 2 and ad 3) . And if reverence, an act of the gift of fear, is a form of fear, what has become of the position that the objectof fear is evil? All I mean to argue here is that Guindon should have presented a full-dress discussion of this issue, not the few remarks such as he gives at pp. 77-79 and 246-247. This is especially so in view of his own judgment concerning the importance of the doctrine at stake: thus, at p. 319, he can speak of St. Thomas's keen awareness of the ultimate foundation of fear, namely the finitude of the creature faced with the infinity of God. A much less serious point: Guindon's use of the expression "la pedagogic nouvelle" for the learning process proper to the New Law (cf. p. 139, p. 323, etc.). "Pedagogue" suggests the stern discipline proper to the Old Law (cf. p. 134). At p. 330 he speaks with more finesse, in my opinion, using "pedagogic" for the Old Law and "education" for the New. The book is well proof-read by today's standards, but on p. 359, the first mode of amor sui (wrongly numbered" 3 ") has a lacuna: this at an important moment of the discussion. The size of the numbers used to designate the notes is inconveniently small. College dominicain de philosophie et de theologie Ottawa, Ontario, Canada LAWRENCE DEWAN, 0. P. Theology in a New Key. By ROBERT McAFEE BROWN. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978. Pp. 212. $6.95. This appealing book is an introduction to a body of literature, Latin American liberation theology, that is not well-known in the Englishspeaking world. Thanks to Orbis Books, founded by the Maryknoll Fathers, the principal books and documents of this theology are available in English. Still, since the method of this theology is of recent origin, and since its starting point is very disturbing to the industrialized countries of the West, it is not easy to understand what is being said by this theology. What is this disturbing starting point? According to the theology of liberation, the Gospel can be grasped only if we analyse the concrete form which BOOK REVIEWS 678 evil takes in our society and understand the Christian message as God's initiative summoning and directing us to overcome evil. According to the Latin American theologians, the dominant systemic evil in their society is the international capitalistic system that inflicts on this society economic and cultural dependency, pushes large sections of the population into destitution and early mortality, and creates in the middle classes a distorted perception of reality. Robert McAfee Brown, a well-known Protestant theologian, is famous for his ability to introduce a wide Christian audience to issues discussed in high theology. Brown writes about learned things in a simple and direct style and relates them to people's experiences. He knows where the mind and heart of the Protestant community are. For him, theology is never a conversation confined to academics: 1t must always involve the believing community. This is so because Christian truth is propter salutem. The conversation with the local congregation protects the theologian from losing the thread. The book under review is a brilliant application of this method to an explosive topic. Can one kee'P a congregation in their seats while explaining to them that capitalism may have a distorting effect on the perception of God and divine salvation? Brown does it. Brown offers us a propaedeutic of...