Philosophy and the Future of Man: Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association ed. by George F. McLean, O. M. I. (review)

188 BOOK REVIEWS than secular; expressed by way of adaptation and literary creation; proposed progressively and not all at once or in any one book, but after the close of revelation complete and decisive for the faith of subsequent ages. His point is that, in the gradual development present in the composition of the biblical canon, God makes corrections (e. g., regarding the nature of human survival after death) or, better, tolerates certain outward appearances of error which he little by little eliminates. This is divine pedagogy from which men are to learn. Is the divinely directed process of development itself (and not simply the final truth attained) intended to be instructive? An affirmative seems the warranted answer and does not keep the doctrine of life everlasting from being the truth for future ages. Perhaps the development with regard to the office of Christian teacher in the New Testament deserves to be considered in an analogous way. Unless questions regarding the normative character of the direction development took in the New Testament are faced, Christians run the risk of needless ecumenical disillusionment. Projected unions of churches may be rejected for good as well as for ignoble reasons. If the good ones point at some future date to the fact that systematic theologians are not doing their homework now, the cause of Christian unity will not be well served. I may be mistaken on this but it is my view. It is also the reason why I consider the historical studies of Colson and Benoit so important for those concerned with the past and future development of Christian institutions and doctrines. The Catholic University of America Washington, D. C. CARL J. PETER Philosophy and the Future of Man: Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. Edited by GEORGE F. McLEAN, 0. M. I. Washington, D. C.: Catholic University, 1968. Pp. 245. In recent years social thinkers mainly in France, the United States, and Great Britain have increasingly turned attention to the track of the future and especially the shape of the human city in the year 2000. According to Daniel Bell, Chairman of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Year 2000, a combination of the old and new may throw some light on the upsurge of futurism and the special fascination of the year 2000: the old, a residual strain of chiliasm; the new, an overweening technological optimism, complacently trustful that man will be able to create new mechanical miracles. A deeper reason seems at work; contemporary man, who, in the somewhat self-prt>ening phrase, has " come of age," feels confident that techniques like linear programming, decision-making BOOK REVIEWS 139 theory, systems analysis, plus advances in social theory may bring within reach a conjectured prevision, if not control, of certain sectors of the future. For reflections and projections concerning things to come, various symposia have drawn on physicists, chemists, zoologists, social psychologists, psychiatrists , social theorists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists, communications experts, ethnologists, State Department professionals, military analysts, computer experts, and theologians. The lack of philosophers among participants in futuristic conversations seems glaring in the light of philosophies of history propounded by Vico, Spengler, Sorokin, Comte, Hegel, and Marx among others that have endeavored to foretell at least glimmers of what lies ahead and that, some hold, have remotely inspired futuristic ambitions. To remedy in part this deficiency " Philosophy and the Future of Man " was adopted as the 1968 ACPA convention theme. Considering how doubly hard it appears in an age adoring nonconformity to get philosophers (sometimes self-analyzed as a particularly ornery breed) to hew to any set intellectual policy, some may judge it a minor thematic triumph that all seven plenary session papers directly or indirectly ponder lines of the future and, of fifteen panel session papers, seven touch on the meaning of the future in some way. Because of the nature of the theme, roughly two-thirds of the papers are concerned with practical issues. Two other unlinked items may be noted. Thirteen papers are presented by thinkers not connected with church-related institutions. Curiously, little or nothing throughout bears on or derives from Teilhard de Chardin, a seer celebrated for his grand...