The One Bread by Max Thurian (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 188 builds his case on the observation that modern science has tended to debunk the notion of God's immediate action in miracles: he seems always to use secondary causes. (Teilhard de Chardin's theory of " hominisation " is cited at this point). A survey of some of Christ's miracles tends to bear this out: they were never performed as stunts nor simply as proofs of his own authority; they normally presupposed a minimal faith and carried with them a symbolic message (exorcisms and healings not only taught the lesson of God's mercy, but also pointed to the dawn of the messianic era). Actually, miracles represent "no intervention from without, no removal of the forces of creation, but a heightened involvement (of God) ...." (p. ~07) Indeed, " The extraordinary is at all times to be expected from God." (p. ~08} The reader who is willing to study this book will be richly rewarded. Perhaps the best recommendation which this reviewer can offer is that he has just finished using it as a satisfactory text in a course entitled, " Man and Grace." University of DaUas Irving, Texa3 MARTIN K. HoPKINs, O.P. 'l'he One Bread. By MAX THURIAN. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1969. Pp. 159. $4.50. The American publisher, Sheed & Ward, has here given us in one English volume a collection of essays of Max Thurian which appeared in the original French in two short volumes. The first part is a collection of essays on the Eucharist and related topics. The second part, however, has little to do with the Eucharist and can be unified around the theme of faith, if around anything. Much of what Thurian has to say on the Eucharist he has already said at greater length in his more substantial 'l'he Eucharistic Memorial. The present book, then, stands or falls as a work of popularization. Thurian continues to write in that calm and optimistic tone that characterizes all his efforts. These essays reflect his generally broad theological culture with a strong biblical emphasis. The author maintains a proper respect for divergent traditions, whether Protestant or Catholic, together with a desire to bring these divergencies together in an overarching unity. He thinks that many of the disputes that have had a long history in Christian theology are solvable at a deeper level. Thus, " Simplistic oppositions must be abandoned; liberty-institution, spirit-liturgy, prophet-priest are oppositions that have no sense in the message of Christ. Rather, it is a matter of complementary terms; and the first vivifies and opens eschato- 184 BOOK REVIEWS logically on the second, which in turn serves the first as support and language." (p. 56) The author shows considerable respect for the traditions of different churches on the question of inter-communion, but he definitely thinks the time has arrived for moving beyond the present practice to an actual sharing of the one bread. Thurian attempts to give some theological support for this plea by his view that faith is a " process " and not simply adhesion to a series of statements of belief. Traditional Catholic theology is familar with the distinction between implicit and explicit faith. Thus Thomas Aquinas and a peasant in medieval Sicily may have both belonged to the sames church, but the level of the explicitness of their faith varied widely. Thurian wants to apply this distinction to the question of intercommunion between churches today. The fulness of truth regarding the Eucharist is an eschatological goal toward which the doctrines of different churches tend. Therefore, it seems in order that the Catholic or Orthodox Churches, heretofore opposed to inter-communion, should feel free to allow inter-communion at least occasionally to members of other churches whose Eucharistic teaching they view as less complete or explicit. Thurian adduces no substantiation for this position from Vatican II. Certainly no student of the conciliar documents would expect any direct support from that source. However, Vatican II did place new emphasis on the historical or " process " aspect of the Church. The Church as the People of God has a past and moves forward to its future. Then too, the concilar decree on ecumenism acknowledges in an unprecedented way the theological importance of...