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606 BOOK REVIEWS presence. They cannot interpret the behavior of individuals or societies save in the context of their awareness of the relation of their own behavior to themselves as agents acting for a goal or value. We need psychology and social sciences in our reflection on man's transcendence in value orientation for a number of reasons. Modern atheistic humanisms are both influenced by and influence the findings of these sciences; they find support for their interpretation of man in these sciences. To come to grips then with these humanisms, we must interact with them on this plane. Also, in a way parallel to the insight that modern evolutionary biology has given us in our reflection on God's creative and redemptive activity, psychology and the social sciences can illuminate our reflection on man's self-transcendence toward God. The philosopher or theologian cannot grasp this simply by self-reflection, because the self he is reflecting on is the product in part of a psychological development and social influences. The transcendence that he grasps is a part of a process that has been going on since infancy, and developmental psychology can help us to know something of the stages and factors of this process. There are factors in this process that are transcultural ; for example, the organism and the stages of its maturation are common to all men, as are the facts that man exists within a society and that he is an active agent of his development and interaction with society. There are cultural relativities also. As Erik Erikson brings out, different cultures use the stages through which the infant develops to shape the infant toward what the particular society needs in its adult members. Man's transcendence toward God is the full context of more immediate stages of his transcendence that are, in part, studied by biology, psychology, and the social sciences. One of the major tasks then of foundational theology in the immediate future is to evaluate what these sciences have to say about the structure of man and his transcendence. St. Anselm's Abbey Washington, D. C. JoHN FARRELLY, 0. S. B. Why Does Evil Exist? A Philosophical Study of the Contemporary Presentation of the Question. By CoLM CoNNELLAN, 0. M. I. Hickville, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1974. Pp. 218. $10.00. The ancient question of evil still draws the active interest of our contemporaries . And Father Colm Connellan has set for himself a difficult task. He has sought to reply to modern queries on the " why " of evil, resting his case on the soultions that St. Thomas Aquinas worked out in the thirteenth century, BOOK REVIEWS 607 His undertaking causes the reviewer some disquiet, for if it be true that the philosophic stake in the problem of evil remains constant, the historical sensitivity towards the various forms that evil takes, has evolved considerably . And in justice, in the case of evil, philosophy must pay the greatest attention to the insights of experience. The present book, which is the reproduction of a thesis sustained at the University of Fribourg, initially presents two brief expositions of the work of the French thinker, Albert Camus, and that of the English philosopher, Anthony Flew. Then the author summarizes with considerable exactitude and finesse St. Thomas's definitive views on the subject. Yet we may question whether his procedure of treating only evil's existence and not its nature according to St. Thomas is not a somewhat artificial methodological plan. Especially in a meaningful dialogue with modern thought, can we restrict ourselves to the philosophical teaching of St. Thomas on evil? It is manifest that his philosophical and theological views are inextricably conjoined. In fact, dialogue between St. Thomas and authors like Camus and Flew often resembles a conversation between deaf persons. It could scarcely be otherwise. That is why the very purpose this book is meant to serve is and remains a mystery to me. What can be found in common between the existential tragedy of Camus and the metaphysical serenity of St. Thomas before the unjustifiable character of evil? Camus is certainly one of the most eloquent witnesses of the scandal that the suffering of the innocent...

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