God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions by John Duns Scotus (review)

49.2 BOOK REVIEWS tinge:tit (~eceJJsary), being, i. e. a being which. if it exists, c1m:Q,Ot not exist. Thougp tihe book get).erally is replete with developed arguments,, the section where Shepherd undertakes to develop the char&eteristics of the CEB is much too brief and sketchy, and at. times characterized by bad arguments . A case in poi11t is his foray into the theelogy of God'!! timelessness . The argument which he gives for God's tempora1ity is simply that creativity is "correlative with temporality." {p. ll!t) But the form of the :;irgument USl'ld here is precisely aµ inference which he la~ls illicit on the following page. That is, he argues from the fact that humaµ creativity is correlative with temporality to the conclusion that divine creativity is such. But what i11dependent grounds are there for applying to Ged concepts associated with the human model?: No careful decision procedure is provided to allow us to decide which concepts are applicable a.nd which are not. These objections aside, there is much to be said for the book. It again shows tha.t the argument from contingency can be developed as a pla:usible support for theism. Further, though his attempt to connect the CEB with Chrisianity is simplistic and dogmatic, he has, I believe, shown that a CEB (or better, a necessary being) is a religiously relevant concept. Augsburg College Minnea,polis, Minnesota B~UCE. R. REICHENBACH God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions. By Jom~: DuNs ScoTUs. Translated with an introduction, Notes and Glossary by Felix Alluntis, O.F. M., and Allan B. Wolter, 0. F. M. Princeton University Press, 1975. Pp. 582. $!M.OO. The story of the influence of Duns Scotus remains to be written. In the English speaking world, there is the intriguing matter of his direct and indirect appearances around the turn of the century: Harris's twovolume work, for e:i.ample, and even in James Joyce and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Perhaps Charles Peirce's eccentricity has distracted us from asking why Scotus was there to be read at all. Since the philosophy (and theology) departments of Catholic colleges gener1J,lly have tended away from scholastic manuals, there is probably not interest enough at present to trace the extensive Scotist influence in the development of neo-scholasticism . And although there is now a ferment of sorts in Medieval Studies at secular universities, Scotus seems less worked on than Aquinas and Ockham or even Anselm and Abailard. Of course, Scot:us is. a difficult thinker-and writer!-and it is not as if he were being conipletely ignered. B00K REVIEWS 498 But the research effort does not seem to match the extent of his influelilce in medieval and modern thought. So it is not only against the background of limited skills in Latin today that one welcomes the appearance of Scotus-texts translated into English. I thought potential translators had been put off by the fact that the critical edition of Scotus's works is still incomplete. But Frs. Wolter and Alluntis have shown that the piroblems are not insurmountable. It was no easy task, of course; for the Spanish edition, which is the ancestor of the present volume, Alluntis had preduced an almost entirely new text. The cheice of the Quodlibeta On God. and CreaturetJ is an apt one. In this. single, mature and wide-ranging text, we find succinct displays of major themes in Scotus. In the present book, helpful footnotes direct the reader to relevant passages in the other works of Scotus, so that, althm1gh it was not s.o intended by the editors (or Scotus), anyene relatively familiar with Scotus could-were it not for the price!-use the book to lead beginning students in philosophy and theology into Scotus's system. It is clearly suitable for advanced courses that follow Up some specific topic. And, with a minimal sophistication in scholastic philosophy, one could use it and its references to educate oneself in Scotus. The theological content of most of the questions is obvious: the Trinity of Peirsons, the Human Nature of Christ, the Eucharist and so on. There is even a touch of " casuistry " in a...