Brief Notices

BRffiF NOTICES ANNOUNCING: A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy. By MoRTIMER J. ADLER. The Review of Politics, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana. This latest work of Dr. Adler appeared originally in the pages of The Review of Politics. In it Dr. Adler proceeds "dialectically against those who say there is no moral knowledge; who say that good and bad, right and wrong, are entirely matters of opinion; who say, as a consequence, that might makes right in the sphere of politics." This dialectical treatment of morality is lively and interesting, for, as Dr. Adler says, "The dialectic of morals which I shall now proceed to outline is not an imaginary process. It is rather a distillation of actual arguments which President Hutchins and I have had with students in courses devoted to the reading of great works in ethics and politics." Publication is promised for October. Man's Triumph With God in Christ. By FREDERICK A. HoucK. St. Louis: Herder, 1940. Pp. ~44, with Index. $~.00. Widespread ignorance, error and indifference in matter of religion, and large-scale atheistic trends in our modern life are the occasion of this latest book of Father Houck. A summary of the chapter titles-Knowability of God; The God-Man; Man, the Image of God; The End and Purpose of Man; The Mystical Body of Christ and Blissful Eternity-will indicate the book's scope as definitely broad. In spite of the excellent choice of sources, the same as the Council of Trent, the very breadth of the author's intention demands that some of these subjects receive sketchy attention. It is regrettable that St. Thomas is made to speak for himself in long quotations from the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. While St. Thomas speaks the truth, very often it is a truth which, unexplained, will be unintelligible to the average reader. The Divine Crucible of Purgatory. By MoTHER MARY OF ST. AusTIN. Revised and edited by Nicholas Ryan, S. J. New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1940. Pp. viii +185. $!U5. The reality of the fire of Purgatory is a paramount issue in this book. The first of its two sections is dedicated to the establishment of the conclusion that the fire is only metaphorical. As such, the sensible suffering of the souls in Purgatory is caused by infused knowledge, in a manner similar to the sufferings of the soul immersed in the "dark night." Just as the soul on earth is purified by this infused contemplation, so too the 678 674 BRIEF NOTICES souls in purgatory are purified and prepared for the beatific vision in much the same way. The meditations, which comprise the second and major portion of the book, trace and -describe the progress of the departed soul through the sufferings of the " dark night," the silence of the " twilight " and, finally, the soul's transformation and union with God. Comparisons to the sufferings of Christ and of the Church Militant add to the clarity and practicality of the meditations. The conclusion of the first section will undoubtedly be considered by many as untenable-and with reason-but the utility of the meditations for souls who already have a fair grasp of the principles of the ascetical life will be nuestioned by few. Science, Philosophy and Religion: A Symposium. New York: Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, 1941. Pp. 443. $1.50. As most of our readers know, this volume contains the papers read at the Conference -On Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, held in New York City, on September 9-11, 1940. Many of the papers are simply learned articles on their authors' special subjects, with a few introductory or concluding remarks on democracy . There are some very valuable papers, especially those by Finkelstein , Sorokin, Adler, Maritain, Van Wyck Brooks, and Johnson. The papers of this first conference give us very little opportunity of judging the success or failure of the confer~nce itself. Success or failure can be judged only by those who were present at the discussion of the papers. Van...