A Survey of Catholic Theology: 1800–1970 by T. M. Schoof, O. P. (review)

516 BOOK REVIEWS A Survey of Catholic Theology: 1800-1970. By T. M. ScHOOF, 0. P. Trans. by N. D. SMITH. New York: Paulist Newman Press, 1970. Pp. ~75. $4.95. Somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century certain Northern European Catholic theologians began wrestling with the problem of theology 's debt to history. This movement led, on the one hand, back to renewed awareness of biblical and patristic sources and, on the other hand, ahead to ecumenical perspectives and sensitivity to contemporary problems. Its natural environment was Germany and France where, despite distinctly different accents, similarities of purpose could always be recognized. (England and the Netherlands provided footnotes-occasionally dramatic ones-to the main activity.) Furthermore, the manifestations and transmutations of this movement, which preserved continuity and singlemindedness of purpose despite its ups and downs, have been known variously as "Modernism," the "new theology,'' and the " theology of renewal." Its vindication was Vatican II; and only in the light subsequently shed by the work of that Council can these turbulent hundred years be understood. Such is the thesis of Mark Schoof's Survey. Schoof's book has many merits. It brings together within a single sustained historical investigation many figures who have been mere shadows in the sententiae condemned by papal encyclicals and warnings. It provides a face, a history, and a feeling to go along with the names of Mohler, Kuhn, Hermes, Giinther; of Blonde!, Loisy; and of many other lesser figures of the movement. It traces the indebtedness of second-generation figures of the movement, such as Guardini and Adam, to the earlier work of Tiibingen. But more important, this study speaks with the authority of careful and measured judgment. It is a genuine gift to American theologians and students of theology, for along with its scholarship it can be praised for its readability. Its tone reminds one of the excellent work of Owen Chadwick, whose work Schoof so much admires. His seriousness in never so lugubrious as to overlook a lighthearted touch, e. g., that Harnack classified dogmatic theology under belles lettres (p. 55) ; or that an American bishop at the Council was astonished to discover that theologians could be useful for something other than educating seminarians. (p. 11) The story of Catholic theology's Breakthrough, as the British edition of this text is entitled, is the story of a dialectical tug of war between some Catholic theologians painfully conscious of the secularized, historicizing environment of contemporary Europe and the neo-scholasticism of "Roman " theology. Schoof argues that the negative response repeatedly given to the " renewal " movement is not directly the work of the magisterium as a juridically determined institution of the Church. Rather, he says: BOOK REVIEWS 517 the restraining factor is attributable to the fatal alliance between this teaching authority and neo-scholasticism, and even this statement has to be narrowed down-neo-scholasticism has not acted as a re,'ltraining factor so much because of its formal position of monopoly within the Church's thinking. . .. but rather because, as the system of thought which has in fact become inextricably involved with the tradition of the Church in recent years, it has hardly been able to regard any other possible approaches to the reality of faith as anything other than heresies. (p. 148) The problem at issue became increasingly the problem of inaugurating and sustaining a dialogue between the Church and the contemporary world. The most tactically effective method of conducting such a dialogue without incurring the censure of Roman neo-scholasticism was worked out in France. This was the creative re-interpretation of scholasticism itself within the context of a return to the scriptural and patristic sources of theology . Gardeil provided the leadership for the Dominican school in Paris; Rousseiot guided the parallel work of the Jesuit school in Lyons. " It is important to mention here," comments Schoof, " that the real basic questions of the modern age were raised for discussion behind the scholastic presentation--ne is almost tempted to say, beneath the mask of scholasticism ." (p. 101) Debates about grace and nature and about incarnational and eschatological attitudes towards history clearly provided a way to discuss the contemporary problems of humanism...