Cursus Philosophiae by Henri Grenier, Ph. D., S. T. D., J. C. D. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 465 object loved is found in the one loving: " St. Thomas would have rendered us an appreciable service if he had taken the trouble to give us the precise meaning he attached to this embarrasing principle. He did not judge it good to do so. But perhaps this omission can be explained by the fact that the holy Doctor in c. 19 had made extended remarks on this point and gave many applications and developments, which the attentive reader has not forgotten ... " (p. 141). Such statements as these seem to be habitual with writers on St. Thomas who pride themselves on over-minute textual study of the Angelic Doctor. Dom Lucien set out to establish a thesis. It has seemed to this writer that he failed, not because of his careful study of the texts involved, but because of his failure to interpret them in terms of St. Thomas' whole doctrine. His work has brought out the emphasis that St. Thomas places on exemplary causality and the assimilation of the rational creature to God. However, St. Thomas is too explicit, both in regard to the unity of the divine action in the order of efficient causality, and in regard to the special mode of presence through knowledge and love, to admit the interpretation of Dom Lucien as valid. St. Thomas is always his own best interpreter; and it was St. Thomas that Perc Gardeil used in giving his interpretation of the doctrine on the missions of the Persons of the Trinity. Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D. C. JAMES M. EGAN, 0. P. Cursus Philosophiae. By H~;NRI GRENIER, Ph. D., S. T. D., J. C. D. Quebec: Le Seminaire de Quebec, Editio altera, 1944. Vol. I, lntroductio generalis , Logica, Philosophia Naturalis, pp. 490; Vol. II, Metaphysica, pp. 33~; Vol. 1!1, Philosophia Moralis, pp. 431. The fact that this course of philosophy comes to us from the University of Laval in Quebec as well as its typography and format reminds one immediately of Lortie's Elementa. The same font is used, and the same general arrangement of matter into books, chapters and articles with an outline at the head of each chapter is followed. The general appearance is that of an attractive, easily read book. But here the resemblance to Lortie ends. Abbe Grenier, while he follows the major divisions of philosophy now canonized by usage, includes and arranges matter according to a plan which, however .fresh and novel it may appear, has the sanction of Aristotle and St. Thomas. The general tenor of the whole course is struck in the first volume where more than half of the brief introduction to philosophy is devoted to St. Thomas Aquinas, his relation to Aristotle, his works, how they are cited, and the approval of his 466 BOOK REVIEWS works by the Church. Hence the mind and teaching of St. Thomas and Aristotle are faithfully adhered to, and, whenever possible, any of the Twenty-Four Theses pertinent to the discussion is quoted. The whole course then has a strongly theological slant, and attempts to present not merely a philosophical background to seminarians, but an ambitious and Catholic outlook on life to college students in general. Thus for example, we find on the question of the origin of the world," Statuitur thesis. Thesis eat ex fide (sic) ex Cone. Vaticani, Can. V, Cap. I, Seas. III" (vol. IT, p. 304), and a discussion of the knowability of miracles closing the volume on metaphysics. The third volume is the most noteworthy due to its uncommon adherence to the terminology of Aristotle and St. Thomas. For Abbe Grenier, moral philosophy is neither a speculative nor a hyphenated science, but essentially and formally practical both from the matter and from the viewpoint. It is subordinate but not subalternated to any speculative science, since it has its own self-evident principles. While he appears to differ from the stand taken by Fr. Ramirez, 0. P., on the relation of moral philosophy to theology, actually he concludes that moral philosophy is not a sufficient guide for human acts, because of the ·fact of man's elevation to a supernatural end, the attainment of which requires...