Christian Ethics by Dietrich von Hildebrand (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 897 titled. It is inadequate if the purpose of a theology course is to present a mature, or equivalently a college-level, reasoned exposition of what Christ reveals and His Church teaches. Anything gives best results when it is treated according to its proper and specific nature, a college student is no exception. Christ, it is true, taught great truths by story and example to the childish minds of His unlettered hearers, but our collegians feel justly resentful at being treated as children, and being put to children's tasks will never make adults of them. Interest is not the true measure of. the value of a course; battle-scarred professors are wary of what students like, they seek to give them what they need. For intellectually mature Catholics, an orderly, reasonable, clear, brief presentation of their faith is imperative. To explain Christian doctrine in the order in which it occurs in reading the Gospels is superficial the first time, because of the pressure to cover ground, as well as repetitious and confusing the second time, leaving the student with an undigested series of events or facts, without rhyme or reason. These are precisely the obstacles to learning which St. Thomas seeks to avoid. Thus such a plan is impractical since it does not lead to the end sought. As a discipline of the mind it lacks order and proportion, subordinating the whole of theology to a part. It ignores the doctrine of St. Thomas on the subject of theology, which is God; it overlooks the fact that the Holy See looks with disfavor on those who minimize reasoning and the scholastic method; it fails to enrich the student with the highest achievement of Christian man, the theocentric culture of the Middle Ages. May the students who use it well learn through Christ of His Heavenly Father, and may teachers of religion learn from experience that old ways may still be good ways, especially when fashioned by the Angel of the Schools. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. IGNATius McGuiNESS, 0. P. Christian Etkics. By DIETRICH VON HILDEBRAND. New York: David McKay, 1958. Pp. 480 with index. $6.00. This new work of Dietrich von Hildebrand is a profound and enlightening study of basic moral philosophy. The title: "Christian Ethics," does not indicate that the author subscribes to Maritain's "adequate moral pllilosophy ,'' but rather describes the "philosophical exploration of the totality of morality, including the natural moral law and all moral and morally relevant values accessible to a noble pagan, as well as the morality embodied in the sacred humanity of Christ and in those men aud women who have been transformed into Christ-the saints." (p. 454) The analysis is a strictly philosophical one, not based on arguments from principles 398 BOOK REVIEWS known by faith but on natural reason. The author proposes a philosophical study of the immediately given data in the field of ethics, without claiming adherence to any particular system of philosophical thought. This analysis seeks to attain these elementary data. The " given " in this sense is a "necessary, intelligible entity," and an "absolutely certain insight" is to be attained by severe purification of the mind. The inquiry will not reach its "climax" with mere definitions, but will aim at a full grasp, a more profound and richer insight and intuition. The author reveals thus the influence of his contact with Husserl and Scheler, but his approach is by no means merely phenomenological, any more than it is purely Aristotelian . Without the prejudice of any system to support or apply, and yet avoiding a merely descriptive ethic, von Hildebrand pursues his study often with remarkable insight, if not always with lucid expression. The student of Thomistic ethics should welcome this presentation of moral philosophy, if for no other reason than to see the value of a different approach. The Thomist, while not always agreeing with the author, should be able, through von Hildebrand's analyses, to penetrate more deeply into the thought of the Doctor communis. The author is greatly indebted, in many places, to St. Augustine, and many Augustinian and Platonic positions are adopted. The author's method itself provides sufficient...