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462 BOOK REVIEWS in his brief but thorough bibliographical survey of " Communion under Both Kinds." Although the other articles in The Church and the Liturgy are not so significant, the volume as a whole is a representative survey of contemporary Catholic theological thought concerning the ecclesial aspects of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Hence it fulfills the aim which the editors had in mind when they inaugurated Concilium. The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C. R. KEVIN SEASOLTZ, 0. s. B. The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism, by HEIKO AuGUSTINUs OBERMAN. Cambridge, (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. xv + 495, with bibliography and index. Harvard awarded its Robert Trout Paine Prize for 196~ to this work. The University's judgment has never seemed better. Prof. Oberman has produced a model of historico-theological investigation. Well organized, impressively documented in both primary and secondary sources, lucid and tranquil in style, it is a pleasure to read. Even when he feels himself obliged to dissent from the views of earlier scholars in the late medieval field, names such as Seeberg, Vignaux, Hagglund, Feckes, Lortz and others, Oberman is unfailingly courteous and amiable about it. This reviewer will find it necessary to question several of Oberman's ultimate evaluations of Rieland of Ockham as well; but there can be no question about his command of the field. With this treatise, Oberman has obviously established himself as the leading contemporary student of Biel; it is difficult to see how his work could be surpassed. Reference to this volume will be a sine qua non for ttny future treatment of Nominalist theology. Oberman intends, fundamentally, "to come to a reassessment of the impact of Nominalism on 16th century thought, especially of the elusive relationship-both negative and positive-between Gabriel Biel and Martin Luther" (p. 3). In entering into the thicket of 14th and 15th century dogmatics, Oberman realizes that he is dealing with " emotionally and denominationally colored presuppositions" (p. ~). He finds three "Schools" of interpreters already long at work there: the "Background of the Reformation" school which "stresses contrasts" between Nominalism and Luther's thought; the " Thomistic " school which views Aquinas' doctrine as the " apex " of the Middle Ages and hence Nominalism as a " disintegration " and " collapse " which led to the Reformation; and the BOOK REVIEWS 468 " Franciscan " school which, following in the spirit of the late Ockham scholar, Philotheus Boehner, is "willing to defend the orthodoxy of Nominalism" and considers Luther's teaching "an erroneous interpretation of the theology of such a Nominalist as Gabriel Biel." In the midst of conflicting perspectives, Oberman desires to study Biel for himself, to "take with utmost seriousness" the Rex Theologorum who taught at Tiibingen from 1484 into the early 1490s and instructed two of Luther's teachers, Bartholmaeus von Usingen and Johann Nathin. By placing Biel " within the context of the Tradition which he himself acknowledges to be authoritative," Oberman hopes to demonstrate that the thought of this 15th century Doctor and, indeed, Nominalism in general, is neither simply " the aftermath of High Scholasticism " nor merely " the background of the Reformation." For Oberman, "Nominalism" has a theological position and even a certain religious value of its own. Besides employing Biel's Collectorium on the Sentences and his Expositio of the Mass, Oberman breaks relatively new ground by having frequent recourse to Biel's pastoral works, his Lectures and, above all, his Sermons. Oberman insists that Biel's Sermons "must be taken seriously as documenting his thought "-a point well made. Up to now, on the basis of the Collectorium alone, Divus Gabrielis has usually been judged-and more or less dismissed -as but a verbose echo of Ockham. This still common impression Oberman corrects, in large part, a least. Oberman projects the full spectrum of Biel's dogmatic and moral theology as it appears in both his academic and pastoral writings. He finds that Biel accepted but toned down, in a suitably pious manner, the Ockhamist concept of an Absoluta Dei Potentia. Biel stressed, far more than did Ockham, the " wisdom " of God's use of His Power; the " congruity " and reliability of the moral-soteriological order " established " de...

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