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BOOK REVIEWS 807 lectures do give a general impression of the state of theology concerning these big questions on the American scene, one proportionately wonders how much exact dialogue is going on. Has theology become the domain of individual and independent prophets? This point can be illustrated by asking a few specific questions: is Dewart's notion of presence as divorced from the notion of being as he thinks? It may be divorced from a Greek conception of being, but from being itself ...? What would Johann have to say on this, seeming to imply that God must be in man's life in order that he might be himself? Why is there really so much prejudice against the Absolute in Protestant thought? Does Gilkey, in showing up the basic questions that life poses about the Absolute, end, in unanamity with his Protestant colleagues, by rejecting it? Bennet wishes to keep the Transcendent : can he do this without affirming the Absolute as Teilhard seems to have .done? If God is so absent in modern culture as Lonergan has it, is it the time to interpret the reality of the Church in purely historical categories as Murray has done? Were the Council Fathers so completely wrong? Is there a way of seeing the Church as the presence. of the Absolute within history that is neither a Platonic dream on the one hand nor a reality completely conditioned by history on the other? Finally, is not the rich burgeoning of American theology at the moment still too much at the mercy of images rather than insights; of slogans .rather tha)l judgments; of independent theory rather than a communal quest for truth? So much of this present volume is dominated by the image of on-going process, of non-conceptualizable reality, of non-being presence, that one cannot but feel that sooner or later it will be up to the theologians to dig in their heels and say there is an Absolute finalizing the process; there is a truth that cannot be contradicted, and for that matter, there is a gospel that must be respected. All in all, an interesting volume of lectures. May the Institute that sponsors these lectures and the continuing publication of them fulfill the intention of the great Cardinal in whose memory they appear. St. Mary'11 College Wendouree, ViD. Australia ANTHONY J. KELLY, c. ss. R. The Knowledge of Things Hoped For. By RoBERT W. JENSON. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. ~48. $5.75. It is Robert Jenson's subtitle, "the sense of theological discourse," which. describes his intent. The title of the work, presumably a play on the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1, does telescope some of Jenson's con" 808 BOOK REVIEWS elusions. The argument of the " essay " relies first upon a Western preoccupation with analytic significance for "God-talk." Second, it seeks to trace the author's ruminations concerning both historical theology and contemporary philosophy. Introducing his discussion with a brief chapter on " The Problem About ' God,' " Jenson justifies the endeavor as follows: " This is by no means the first book devoted to this attempt. Why, then, yet another? Because it seems to me that the most vigorous analyses of theological language have been pursued in relative ignorance of theology-that is, of that language as it has in fact been spoken." (pp. ~~. 23) He admits from the outset that the book claims only to be " a beginning " in its exploration of theological discourse. Two succeeding chapters, on Origen's use of " image " and on St. Thomas's reliance upon "analogy," establish Jenson's via negativa for a subsequent " conversation with a great number of thinkers." (p. ~3) He dwells on the appropriateness of image to prototype, in the case of Origen, and on the components of analogical predication for Thomas. In common, they rely on eschatological verification, according to him. In chapter 4, however, "The Continuing Problem,'' Jenson accuses Thomas of lacking the "christological logic" employed by Origen. Moreover, he claims, " If we turn to the differences between Origen and Thomas, we note immediately that they cancel each other out. Origen's christological concentration, whereby we speak of God precisely...

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