The Crisis in Priestly Ministry by Charles E. Curran (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 383 mean that, any more than J. Walgrave would have us drop rigid logical theories for fluid transformistic theories. Newman's dogmatic principle holds, and so recognition could not be extended haphazardly. We might remember in all of this that the earliest creeds were doxological and not criteria for division, and that even the New Testament lived with pluralistic thought patterns. It took a long time to see how John's doxa fit in with Paul's kenosis Christ. There is an extended bibliography at the end of UR, drawing on German, French, Dutch, and English materials. The publisher could well have put the footnotes at the bottom of the pages rather than at the back. My final word is that this is an impressive book, deserving of a slow and careful reading. University of Louvain Belgium JEREMY MILLER, 0. P. The Crisis in Priestly Ministry. By CHARLES E. CURRAN. Notre Dame, Indiana: Fides, 1972. Pp. 146. $1.50 (paperback) . Where to classify Charles Curran's work within the currently everincreasing literature on the priesthood is difficult to judge. It eludes categorization as scholarly or popular in presentation, as specifically theological or behavioral in approach. It can seem to have some qualities of each of these genres, yet is actually none of them. The author describes his brief book as addressing " some theological reflections on the crisis of priestly ministry to those who are either actively engaged in the priestly ministry or preparing for it" (p. 1) "with the aim of trying to be of assistance to" such persons. (p. 8) He identifies and discusses three crises among contemporary priests: 1) a "crisis in ministerial identity" (Chapter I); a "crisis in spirituality" (Chapter II); and a "crisis in preaching the Word of God" (Chapter III). This review will be concerned chiefly with the convictions, both affirmative and negative, which color and govern Father Curran's outlook on the three "crises" he discerns, and the theological character of these convictions. Opinions will differ as to whether this work really consists of " theological reflections " at all. In its author's judgment, no doubt, the book is not alone theological, but something of a model of what contemporary theological methodology should produce. This is the reason, or part of the reason, why Father Curran expects his work to be of assistance to contemporary priests. But to those who hold that theological reflection springs proximately from faith's believing and pondering God's word, so that truly theological undertaking is directly illumined and guided by 384 BOOK REVIEWS the divine word enlivening the believing community, "The Crisis of Priestly Ministry " would not qualify as theological. For Charles Curran accepts and urges as ultimately normative for priestly life and ministry not the word of God but what he calls simply "the human." This point needs concretization. Catholic faith holds that many truths about the ministerial priesthood have been revealed by God. These are preached in every age, by the Church's ordinary magisterium, and some of them have been defined, at one time or another, by her solemn magisterium. These stand as changeless. No one holds that the meaning and "the model" (Fr. Curran's term) of priesthood has been throughly penetrated by, or adequately defined in, any human conceptualizations. For priesthood is an aspect of the total, and incomprehensible, mystery of the Church; and it is a special participation of Christ's saving presence and activity in history. Consequently , it transcends all human understanding. It remains true, however, that because priesthood is a gift of God to men and not a merely human institution, the ultimate norm for judging the meaning of priesthood and its role in human salvation is the word of God and not merely human exigencies. Nowhere in his discussion of priestly identity or functioning (in fact, nowhere in this book) does Father Curran so much as state what God's word, as understood by the Church, tells us about priesthood; nowhere does he accept and use this body of sacred teaching as normative in determining priestly identity, meaning, and function. For example, Catholic theology has taught for centuries that the priestly role includes prophetic, sacramental, and leadership functions...