The Church and the World by Rodger Charles, S. J. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 66.5 Theology Today Series. 43. The Church and the World. By Rodger Charles, S. J. Pp. 89; 27. The Theology of the Eucharist. By James Quinn, S. J. Pp. 94; 33. The Priest as Preacher Past and Future. By Edward P. Echlin, S. J. Pp. 92. The Church and the World is a title which is apt to deceive. It does not deal with what we might immediately expect to be dealt with behind such a title. The thesis of the book could be said to be this: it is from Christianity, and not from secular humanism, that man can come to a sense of his dignity as a creature of God and can learn how to live out the implications of this dignity. The claims of the secularisers: 1) that what they are rejecting of structure, and morality, and dogma is really only peripheral to Christianity; 2) that in rejecting these "medieval" inessentials man, in the famous phrase of Bonhoeffer, "has come of age"; he has somehow become more Christian than the Christians themselves. With a wicked touch of irony the author asks: the casual disrespect for life today, the rationalization of the drug menace, sexual promiscuity, the destruction of environment and resources, the belief in anarchy and licence, the greed of the more affiuent societies-are these the signs that man has come of age? And what of Christianity? It teaches that God made man in his own image and likeness that, over and above this, God offers him a share in his own divine life. There is no conflict between the life of grace and man's own personal characteristics. Far from being destroyed in this higher life, these personal characteristics are enriched. But this life must be lived according to a law-the objective law of God. This law was brought to the world by Christ, and Christ gave to his Church the mission to interpret this law unerringly for men until the end of time. That Christianity is being rejected by so many today is not an argument that the Church has failed in this mission. The Church, and it only, provides man with a purpose worth his seeking, and offers him effective means for attaining it. The book is worth reading for at least this: the amount of detail it packs into its short ninety pages. It is not a book for everyone. But anyone genuinely interested in the phenomenon of secularization, and a theologians' answer to it, has everything to gain from reading it. The Theology of the Eucharist is an excellent little volume, one of the most satisfactory that I have come across in the Theology Today series. In fifteen brief chapters the author touches on all the important aspects of Eucharistic theology. The exposition is clear, in welcome contrast to much theological writing nowadays. The style is simple, but anyone acquainted with recent writing on the Eucharist will immediately recognize the competence that lies behind this unpretentious exterior. About half the book is devoted to a treatment of the biblical background of the Eucharist, and this should prove especially valuable to those who studied 666 BOOK REVIEWS this particular tract of theology at a time when scripture was invoked almost exclusively to prove the Real Presence and the sacrificial character of the Mass. The author shows how the Eucharist, when situated in the Passover context of berakah and memorial, takes on a rich new depth of meaning. Perhaps more might have been made of the memorial dimension of the Eucharist, along the lines indicated by Jeremias and Bouyer. A minor criticism that might be made is that the very wealth of material provided in some chapters (e. g., ch. 5) tends to confuse the clear lines of development of the author's treatment. All in all, however, this is a very satisfying piece of work. It makes one realize with a sense of regret what the Theology Today series might have been if all the volumes were of the same high standard. The Priest as Preacher Past and Future might be described as a commentary on the statement in Presbyterorum Ordinis (n. 4) that " priests. . . . have as their...