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356 BOOK REVIEWS ture may not provide a norm for judging the morality of the total human action. In the light of these shortcomings one cannot but feel uneasy about some of the practical judgments Father Curran makes in the course of this volume. He does not claim certitude for them but puts them forward as instances of the kind of conclusions to which his premisses logically lead. Thus he suggests that euthanasia does not merit total condemnation in all cases, that direct abortion is not always wrong, that masturbation is not always grave matter and usually not so important, that homosexual actions do not generally involve the person in mortal sin, that sexual intercourse outside marriage in some cases may not be wrong, that in the sacrament of penance it is not always necessary to confess all mortal sins nor to list them in subsequent confessions. These instances of current approaches to moral issues indicate the hesitancy and uncertainty of many moralists today, a state of affairs which the author maintains will continue in the future. The professional theologian will find little new in this volume. Pastors and students of moral theology may be enlightened about present problems and trends but, in the absence of a well worked-out elaboration of moral principles, may be either disturbed or confused by the author's practical judgments. The work could be of use to non-Catholic theologians as evidence of Catholic moralists' concern to update their science in the light of modern developments, as well as to build a bridge towards Protestant ethics. But if there is one thing that emerges from the book, it is the pressing need of further investigation into the fundamental problem of moral methodology. Redemptorist Seminary, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. B. A. LEWIS, c. ss. R. Contemporary Protestant Thought. By C. J. CURTIS. New York: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1970. Pp. !'l!'l5. $6.95. This is one of the volumes in the Ecclesial Theology section in the Contemporary Theology Series of the Bruce Publishing Company. It should be valuable for a college-level survey course, but its use outside the college classroom will be limited. Curtis's explicit intention is to " contribute to the construction of the ecumenical theology of the great church of the future." He has gathered summaries of the thought of a wide variety of comtemporary theologians; BOOK REVIEWS 357 his ecumenical theology indeed hopes to embrace all. Nathan Soderblom is the Protestant parallel to Pope John XXIII in ecumenical thought. The process theology of John B. Cobb, Jr., Schubert Ogden, and Teilhard de Chardin offers, in Curtis's estimation, the greatest promise for future ecumenical work. Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and Reinhold Niebuhr are examples of neo-orthodox theology; Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann are the existentialist theologians presented by Curtis. There is, of course, a chapter dealing with the radical theology of Thomas J. J. Altizer, William Hamilton, and Paul van Buren. Judaism is represented by Martin Buber, Eastern Orthodoxy by Nicolas Berdyaev. The line which runs from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Harvey Cox to Joseph Fletcher is analyzed in some detail. And, finally, there is a good chapter concerned with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s contribution to American theology. The strength of this book is in its heavy dependence on the exact words of the men being considered; Curtis presents well-chosen quotations rather than his own summaries. However, no one could hope adequately to cover the thought of so many men in one volume. Hence, a teacher using this text should be familiar with the principal works excerpted by Curtis if he hopes to give some understanding to his students. This will also serve as a check to be certain that Curtis has not selected only those quotations which help him to make his point. The inherent weakness of any book purporting to treat of contemporary thought is that it is necessarily incomplete; such a book cannot include the works written since it was sent to the publisher. It is for this reason that the significant changes in the recent thought of Harvey Cox are not included by Curtis; Secular City is Cox's last work analyzed by Curtis. Similarly...

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