Philosophical Anthropology by J. F. Donceel, S. J. (review)

364 BOOK REVIEWS A. Lindbeck, a teacher of the history of doctrine at Yale University Divinity School, and Lutheran observer at Vatican II, indicates that doctrinal development is not a major theological problem for Protestants who do not think of it as resulting in infallible dogmas as Roman Catholics do. Although they are chiefly concerned with the problem of development within the New Testament period, there are questions about the attitude of the Reformers regarding the relation of scripture to creeds and confessional formulas. The sixteenth century view is no longer tenable since historical studies and awareness have shown that the Church's doctrines do " go beyond " scripture. After giving the points of agreement and disagreement among contemporary Protestant theologians about such problems of development, he concludes: " the present hermeneutical debates may perhaps produce a deeper and more ecumenical understanding that the biblical witness should operate as that supreme norm of all later developments which God uses to keep his Church faithful to the Lord who has come and is coming again" (p. 149). Part III, DO-C Documentation Concilium, provides an essay on an historical approach to the problem of the relationship between Gospel and Dogma by Walter Casper in which he emphasizes the need for " an interpretation of dogma which is dynamic, related to man and his problems, and spiritual and biblical in character" (p. 167). Finally M. C. Vanhengel and J. Peters make a brief report on the international theological Congress held in Rome, October, 1966, which covers very ~ursorily the ten categories considered there. This twenty-first volume of Concilium has achieved its general purpose of providing the perceptive reader with an understanding of the problems regarding the relationship between man as man and man as believer. Also the proposed solutions or, at least the approaches that might be pursued in searching for answers to the questions, are worth careful consideration. As much as one might have hoped that here and there the writers would have developed their ideas more fully, this seems to be beyond the scope of such an undertaking as Concilium. However, it is hoped that the volumes in this series will soon be made available at more popular prices for the many who can benefit by reading them. Dommican House of Studies, Washington, D. C. FREDERICK M. JELLY, 0. P. Philosophical Anthropology. By J. F. DoNCEEL, S. J. New York: Sheed and Ward, Inc., 1967. Pp. 477 with bibliography and index. $5.00. Philosophical Anthropology is the title chosen by },r. J. F. Donceel, S. J. for the third and revised edition of his earlier work Philosophical Psy- BOOK REVIEWS 365 chology. The change in the title is indicative of more than the enlarged and enriched scope of the present edition; it is reflective also of the perennial problem of writers of textbooks on psychology, namely, how to present a systematic account of the human mind which is at once clear, terse and substantiated by hard facts, and, at the same time, expressive of the rich and elusive qualities which characterize and distinguish the human spirit, the qualities which, well described, elicit from the reader the happy recognition of himself as he truly is. As one recent book states the case: " As one lives life or observes it around him (or within himself) or finds it in a work of art, he sees a richness that somehow has fallen through the present screen of the behavioral sciences" (Berelson and Steiner, Human Behavior, p. 666) Fr. Donceel aims at avoiding this regret, and indicates his purpose by giving his work the broader and at the same time more penetrating title of ' anthropology.' In a work which intends to capture the full range of human behavior as it is peculiarly human, and along with its context and meaning, an author is obliged to appeal to more than one methodological approach, and this the present author does. He draws first o:f all on the perennial philosophy in the Ai-istotelian-Thomistic-Marechalian vein for many of his fundamental insights. He complements this approach with extensive contributions from contemporary phenomenological and existential psychologies. He employs experimental and descriptive data wherever apt, and, insofar as he...