Teología de San José by Bonifacio Llamera, O. P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS adolescent's knowledge of God and religion must keep pace with his intellectual development in other spheres, otherwise the maturing youth will regard religion as something childish and without intellectual content. The author rightly sees that a generalized religion is too vague and formless to be of any use in religious education, and he sees that practical difficulties would prevent courses in philosophy of religion from being widely introduced on the secondary level, although he is of the opinion that such courses would be good. Serious doubts can be raised against the philosophy of religion courses he suggests. Are they really so objective? One point alone is enough to challenge that objectivity: often the philosophy of religion treats what is really supernatural as a merely natural phenomenon. A proposition known by divine faith is no less objective than olie known by natural knowledge, even though the relation between evidence and assent may be different. One last reservation might well be made to this chapter; that Mr. Broudy associates religion a little too much with feeling. Despite occasional modifications or additions one might make, Building a Philosophy of Education can be recommended for classes in the philosophy .of education with enthusiasm. I wish to go further and suggest it as a good supplement to other philosophy courses particularly because of the fresh way of expressing traditional teachings and because of the way it reveals and criticizes much of the philosophy of John Dewey and others. It does a better job than many textbooks that explicitly set out to do either of these two things. Lastly, anyone interested in philosophy or in education will certainly find this book absorbing and stimulating reading. Mr. Broudy has genuinely performed the functions of a philosopher and he has done so in a way that consistently arouses admiration and agreement. Harvard University, Cambridge, Masaachsetta HENRI DULAC Teolog£a de San Jose. By BONIFACIO LLAMERA, 0. P. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1953. Pp. 689 with index. " The Holy Spirit will not cease to act on the hearts of the faithful until the universal Church will shower honors on the divine Joseph with new veneration, and will erect monasteries, build churches and altars in his name, multiply his feasts and celebrate them _more solemnly.... For the honor of his name God has chosen St. Joseph as head and special patron of the kingdom of the Church Militant. Before the day of judgment it must happen that all peoples know, honor and adore the name of the Lord and the great gifts of God which He Himself has placed in St. Joseph and which BOOK REVIEWS 425 he has left almost in obscurity for a long period . the Lord will open the ears of the understanding and great men will search out the inner gifts of God that are hidden in St. Joseph, and they will find an exceedingly precious treasure such as was never found in the fathers of the Old Testament . . . his name will be listed on the calendars of the saints, no longer at the end but at the beginning." Isidore de lsolanis wrote these words in 15~1 when St. Joseph was not honored by any special feast-day nor even mentioned in the Litany of the Saints. Now that his prediction has been fulfilled in so many respects, especially in regard to the devotion of the Church, it is not surprising to find the Lord opening the ears of the understanding, and great men searching out the inner gifts of God that are hidden in St. Joseph. While many books have confined themselves to the devotional aspects, there is a discernible movement towards a genuine theology of St. Joseph which is being called Josephology. The work of Father Llamera avoids the extreme of " pious rashness " which bases itself on privileges erroneously supposed and its opposite overcautiousness which would entirely reject arguments of fittingness as if theological deduction had no value when it did not achieve complete certitude . St. Thomas says that, despite the universal character of science, theology can concern itself with individual facts, so Father Llamera feels justified in speaking of Josephology as a "part of the science of theology...