Autobiographies of Ten Religious Leaders: Alternatives in Religious Experience by Radoslav A. Tsanoff (review)

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 other Christian churches. These churches, Protestant as well as Orthodox, have some ecclesiological meaning as churches and not just as collections of good but invincibly ignorant Protestants or Orthodox. These considerations, in this reviewer's opinion, should lead the Catholic Church to a renewed evaluation of its traditional opposition to inter-communion. If Thurian's little book helps lead to this reconsideration of positions, it will have more than made its publication worthwhile. Berkeley Priory Berkeley, California PETER DEMAN, 0. P. Autobiographies of Ten Religious Leaders: Alternatives in Religious Experience . By RAnosLAV A. TBANOFF. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1968. Pp. 804. $7.00. Radoslav Tsanoff was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and emigrated to the United States as a young man in 1908. He graduated with honors from Oberlin College and in 1910 received his doctorate in philosophy from BOOK REVIEWS 185 Cornell University. Practically his entire professional life has been spent at Rice University as a professor of philosophy. Since 1961 he has been a Distinguished Trustee Professor of Humanities at Rice University. Among his previously published works the following titles deserve special mention: The Problem of Immortality: Studies in Personality and Value (19~4); Religious Crossroads (1942); The Moral Ideals of Our Civilization (1942; second impression 1947); Ethics (1947; revised edition 1955); The Great Philosophers (1953; second edition 1964). Professor Tsanoff's most recent work, prior to the present volume, was Worlds to Know: A Philosophy of Cosmic Perspectives (1962) . In the present volume Professor Tsanoff offers an ecumenical panorama of outstanding religious personalities, starting with St. Augustine and terminating with Pope John XXIII. He does not restrict himself to Catholic figures nor even to European Christians, although he does exclude from his study the Oriental mysticism of Asia and India. Thus, the reader will find in this volume a stirring account of the religious experiences of ten Christians who have emerged influential leaders in the course of the centuries: St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, George Fox, John Bunyan, John Wesley, Cardinal Newman, Ernest Renan, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Schweitzer and Pope John XXIII. As in any selective anthology, readers may argue about the inclusion or emission of certain individuals. Some may be unwilling to admit that Bunyan, Renan and Tolstoy deserve to be classified as religious leaders in Christianity. Others may be disappointed to find that Professor Tsanoff omitted from his list such persons as St. Paul, St. Jerome, Luther, St. John of the Cross, Calvin, Fr. Liebermann, St. Therese of Lisieux, de Foucauld, and others. Perhaps the historian of Christian spirituality...