Studies in Revelation and the Bible by Mario W. Shaw, O. S. B. (review)

184 BOOK REVIEWS Dass wunderbar in Gottes Brudernaehe Von Niedrigkeit umhuellt ihr reines Bildnis stehe. Roughly translated, the artist wanted " her pure image, though wrapped in lowliness, to stand-oh marvell-in the brotherly nearness of God." These criticisms are small, they concern only blemishes. Still, I consider it important that we who seek to do away with the often vicious stereotypes against Jews do not ourselves use cliches, never make an assertion without trying to verify it, never present a conjecture of ours as a statement of fact, and so on. The battle against anti-Judaism or any other negative stance must be fought, not only on the theological but also on the psychological plane. Our prejudices are certainly born of hostile emotions but they are midwived by careless thinking. It is not only against hatred and rancor we have to guard ourselves, but against that naivete which leads to fast and thus false conclusions. To my mind, one of the outstanding characteristics of Jules Isaac is that, for all his passion, he is a humble, clear thinker. The Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey JoHN M. OEsTERREICHER Studies in Revelation and the Bible. By MARIO W. SHAW, 0. S. B. Indianapolis : Catholic Seminary Foundation of Indianapolis, 1970. Pp. 92. $2.50. This is a collection of occasional papers of varied provenance. One, concerned with the revelation-drama of the Fourth Gospel, was written in 1960; two others concern revelation in the ancient Near East and covenant-revelation in the Old Testament (1962-63). The final ones, dealing with the rupture between Judaism and Christianity, are the most recent (1970). The dates are worthy of note as the bibliographies for each paper have not been updated, though they are selectively thorough up to that time. Hence the work of such as Rene Latourelle or Gabriel Moran on revelation or Dennis McCarthy on covenant or even Raymond Brown's magisterial study of the Fourth Gospel is not mentioned. Perhaps some bibliographical addenda and a more complete revising would have enhanced the value of such period pieces for the average reader. However, the articles do serve as useful summaries of biblical information for the times represented. They are generally well-organized and clear, and the longest essay, that on the Fourth Gospel, is intriguing and readily adaptable in the light of later research. The last sections on the Judaic-Christian rupture are current in thought and bibliography and are rather passionate appeals against anti-Semitism. BOOK REVIEWS 185 Unfortunately, the reviewer was somewhat distracted from the trend of thought in the appeal by the fact that page 90 is entirely blank-hopefully, the defect is unique to the reviewer's copy. Generally, the proofreading has been well done save for " principle " instead of " principal " on p. 38-a common oversight. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. ALAN SMITH, 0. P. Hellenistic Ways of Deliverance and the Making of the Christian Synthesis. By JoHN HERMAN RANDALL, JR. New York and London: Columbia University Press. 1970. Pp. ~54. $7.95. This little book, with the disproportionately long title and the even more disproportionately high price, represents a rather ambitious project requiring a scholar of Randall's expertise and stature to carry it out. And, in his own way, he does carry it out very well. He has not aimed at a detailed, comprehensive study of the topic but, rather, he has written a series of connected essays which are characterized by conciseness and clarity. Basically, the book may be divided into two parts, the first dealing with Hellenism and the second with early Christianity. The first part impresses one as certainly the better of the two, for it deals with an area in which the author has for a long time given abundant proof of his scholarly competence and in which he seems to be more at home. He begins by discussing the main characteristics of the thought and culture of the Hellenistic world, especially as centered around Alexandria. He then presents a clear and well-drawn picture of the principal secular ways of deliverance, the Epicurean, the Stoic and the Skeptic, the last of which...