Theology and Education by Thomas C. Donlan, O. P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Theology and Education. By THOMAS C. DoNLAN, 0. P. Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown Company, 1952. Pp. 134 with bibliography. $3.00. This study of the role of Theology in education, originally a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Pontifical Faculty of Immaculate Conception College, is dedicated to the late Father Walter Farrell, 0. P. Such a dedication is significant, for Father Farrell, more than any other individual, has been responsible for the inception and growth of Theology courses in colleges. This movement, despite its numerous and vigorous critics, has been so successful that the name of Theology has become fashionable in collegiate circles, indeed, so fashionable that the courses it is sometimes used to describe are only by the broadest extension of the term truly Theology. Thus, while the fury of earlier critics has somewhat abated before the accomplished fact, the debate has continued on the nature of the fact, as is evidenced by the 1959! Proceedings of the American Catholic Theological Society. It is high time, then, that the exponents of College Theology published a reasoned defence in actu signato of what they have been doing in actu exercito. Father Donlan's little book fulfills this function in careful, scholastic fashion. This scholastic approach undoubtedly will not endear the book to those who are so accustomed to the rhetorical method of advertisement or the quantitative preoccupation of modern scholarship that they have lost the capacity to grasp a demonstration. But what this book sets out to do is precisely that, to demonstrate, to prove. And prove it does so well that its conclusion seems unavoidable: "In fact, the reasons adduced in favor of teaching theology to undergraduates are based upon propositions so fundamental that it is difficult to conceive that educators could feel free to hold a contrary opinion. The real problem does not center on the question whether theology should be taught to undergraduates, but rather on how this divine wisdom is to be communicated to them" (p. l£8) . Certainly a great deal of the original opposition and how much of the confusion about the thesis of this book has resulted from certain prepossessions about what Theology really is. Most people have quite naturally identified it with their own experience with Theology, which may have been as a preparation for the care of souls, or as an Apologetic, and nearly always as a series of embalmed propositions and proofs in manuals of Theology. On this point, Father Donlan's work is especially valuable for it presents the important sapiential nature of Theology derived from the work of Father Mufiiz. Even Thomists have not always been clear and definite in their use of the concept of Theology, and the material set forth 411 412 BOOK REVIEWS here does much to illuminate the meaning of the very first question of the Summa. Having thus explained Theology itself, Father Donlan turns to the nature of Catholic education, and here he is engaged in a careful analysis of the encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI, Divini lllius Magistri. After a preliminary investigation, he proceeds to a detailed study of the four causes of education. In this entire discussion, one cannot help contrast the high ideal of Catholic education with the reality, which so much of even the highest human endeavor, falls far short. To say that Catholic education as it actually exists is imperfect is not to disparage the noble work of earlier builders; if we look for faults, we do so that later building will be less imperfect. If we have any reason to complain about the spiritual life and general ineffectiveness of the alumni and alumnae of Catholic colleges-and there are few so smugly sanguine as to be completely satisfied-some of the blame must be levelled at impoverished " Religion " courses. Generally speaking, when the curricula of Catholic colleges had any inner order, they were subordinated to Philosophy. Thus it became easy to speak of the "Philosophy" of Catholic education. The trouble was, and to some measure still is, that such a program is entirely too natural when the subject and aim of Catholic education is not natural, but supernaturaL One of the greatest contributions St. Thomas...