God Within Process by Eulalio R. Baltazar (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 151 a new opportunity for fruitful exploration of the peculiarities of its language, but the selections chosen to illustrate the application are few and, in this reader's view, not among the best in what has become an extensive and richly diverse body of literature. Two points can be made in the editor's defense: He was apparently required to pare down his original selection of essays considerably, and he was no doubt mindful of the fact that numerous collections of essays on religious language have appeared in the past few years-many of them containing the best journal articles in the field-indeed, some of them duplicating essays already reprinted more than once. Does this collection of readings serve the purpose for which it was designed? As indicated, Ramsey illustrates the development of language analysis in this century with a perceptive and economical choice of basic essays. However, the book offers the student a limited exposure to the theological uses of language analysis. It will have to be supplemented with the now well-known collections of Flew and Macintyre, Basil Mitchell, Dallas High, and others. Scholars in the field will be familiar with the literature condensed into this volume. On the other hand, students with limited philosophical training will find much in this book too difficult for them. The book will, then, be of primary use to students with some philosophical sophistication -advanced undergraduates and graduate students. The book should do good service in advanced courses in the philosophy of religion. The publisher has priced the book too high for a paperback edition of readings of less than 250 pages. College of William and Mary Williamsburg, Virginia JAMES c. LIVINGSTON God Within Process. By EULALIO R. BALTAZAR. New York: Newman Press, 1970. Pp. 186. $5.95. It is difficult to sort out the many issues to be raised in a discussion of God Within Process. (I} There is the use of the process thought of Teilhard de Chardin; there are many who would object to this approach in theological discourse. (2) But even if one has a somewhat open mind to evolutionary thinking, it is possible to question whether it can ever find substantive use in God-talk; God is to be kept removed from the arena of process and evolution. (3) And it is possible to go along even this far without thereby committing oneself to accepting the formulations and conclusions developed by the author. I find it necessary to keep at least these three points distinct; my enthusiasm for Baltazar's work is more or 15! BOOK REVIEWS less pronounced, depending upon which of these levels I happen to find myself. Let this review divide itself along the lines of the distinctions just made. (1) I am always anxious to read new statements in the terms of processive thinking. There can be no doubt that the scientific, philosophic, and social atmosphere today has structured itself in evolutionary categories. The evidence for the evolution of biological species is so convincing that the paradigm of evolution has gained widespread application in many areas. It is always to be expected that as a scientific theory becomes more and more acceptable within the scientific community, it will come to be regarded as a scientific fact. Then this scientific " fact " serves as a useful organizer of data in other disciplines; difficulties and misunderstandings arise when we treat this organizer, this paradigm, as a fact in those areas in which it has not established itself as a fact. The evolution of biological species may merit being considered a scientific fact; " evolution " in the speech and examples of men like Chardin and Baltazar is hardly factual in all instances; it is a very useful theory-no less and usually no more. It would be unfair to suggest that the categories of evolution are the only ones which can be extended past their sphere of origin. One of those philosophies which Baltazar finds inadequate today grew from the scientific evidence for matter and form into the metaphysical " insight " of potency and act. Such " insights " (a more felicitous description than " theory " or "paradigm," which can easily sound as if they are not too securely...