Brief Notices

BlUEF NOTICES The Bible and the Liturgy. By JEAN DANIEJLOU, S. J. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956. Pp. 382. $5.25. Theology defines the sacraments as " efficacious signs." Fr. Danielou contends that our modern textbooks insist almost exclusively on the first term of this definition and pay very little attention to the significative nature of the sacraments. He believes that a study of the significance of the sacramental rites and of Christian worship will not merely satisfy curiosity but win be helpful for· pastoral liturgy. Because they are not understood, the rites of the sacraments often seem to the faithful to be artificial and sometimes even shocking. Discovery o{ their meaning should bring back an appreciation of the value of these rites. There was no such problem in the early Church, for the sacramental rites were explained to the faithful. Therefore Fr. Danielou here presents an interpretation of Christian worship according to the Fathers of the Church, and in particular he examines the symbolism of the three principal sacraments, baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist. Baptism is treated in six chapters covering the preparation, the rite, the sphragis (sign of the cross on the forehead), and some of the types: creation, the deluge, the crossing of the Red Sea, Elias and the Jordan, There is one excellent chapter on confirmation, on the signification of the anointing. Five chaptem are on the figures or types of the Eucharist. The concluding chapters consider the various aspects of the Christian week and the liturgical year: the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, the Eighth Day, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. Considering the purpose of the author, the work is good. That the reali~ ties of the Old Testament are figures of the New is certainly an accepted principle of biblical theology. Even the prophets of th Old Testament had foretold that there would be a new deluge, a new exodus, a new paradise. Our Lord and the Apostles applied many of the events of the Old Testament to their own times. The New Testament, as Fr. Danielou says, did not invent typology but simply showed that it was fulfilled in the person of Christ, in the Church, and in the sacraments. For Fr. Danielou the reference to the Bible constitutes an authority justifying the existence and form of the sacraments by showing that they are the expression of the constant modes of the divine action, and consequently of the very purpose of God. More importantly for the author the biblical references present the symbolism in which the sacraments were first conceived, by categories borrowed from the Old Testament. Later 375 376 BRIEF NOTICES theology continued to elaborate the original significance. This is Fr. Danielou's "justification" for this book. It is in the Fathers that we meet apostolic tradition; they are its witnesses and depositaries. " Their sacramental theology is a biblical theology, and it is this biblical theology which we are to try to recover." It is not an easy book by any means. It demands slow and careful reading. There are times when one suspects the eminent patrologist is identifying the literal sense with the typical sense. Does he believe that there could be a true and complete theology of the sacraments built upon the typical sense alone? A little more explanation of typology, "the science of the similitudes between the two Testaments," would be of great help in the introduction. His definition of the principles which inspired these patristic interpretations is not too clear, either. He maintains that symbolism is not subject to the whims of each interpreter, but surely it cannot be denied that even among the Fathers there is a variety of mystical interpretations. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied either that this book represents a tremendous amount of research and compilation. The author has done well with the sparse material from the first three centuries, especially the Traditio Apostolica, Tertullian and Origen. From the later centuries his chief sources are the catec)letical sermons of St. Cyril of Jerusalem and John his successor, St. Ambrose, Theodore of Mopsuestia and the PseudoDionysius . The generally fine quality of the book is marred by misspellings (pp. 16...