The Meaning and End of Religion (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 99 outlined, is quite inadequately presented (pp. 361-362). Though the liar paradox is mentioned , Tarski's theorem relating to it is not, and there is no reference at all to work done after 1931. In general, a distorted, and too often faulty, account of contemporary logic is given. It is strange, too, that, whilst mathematics has held the center of the stage up to this point in the book, with earlier logic receiving scant attention (tim Stoics get one page, p. 78, the medievals four, pp. 160-164), once logic reaches the limelight mathematics leaves it--we hear nothing of contemporary changes, abstract algebra, games theory, cybernetics, etc. A book of this kind must be eclectic, but these chapters are eclectic to a fault. The book is nicely produced, though it contains a lot of minor errors (the misstatement of conversio per accidens on p. 66 is a typical case). One or two would seem to be translational, though I have not seen the original work. Thus "the theory of branched types" (p. 346) should be "the ramified theory of types", and "many-valued" instead of "polyvalent" (logics) is standard. A good many proper names are incorrectly anglicized Boetius, Crisippus, and the like. My favorite is Pirro. E. J. LEMMON Ctaremont, Cali]or~ia Professor E. J. Lemmon, the author of this review, died suddenly of a heart attack on July 29, 1966. Formerly a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, Mr. Lemmon had completed a three year assignment as Professor of Philosophy at the Claremont Graduate School. On July 1, 1966 he had begun his tenure as Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. In December of 1965 Thomas Nelson and Sons published Mr. Lemmon's Beginning Logic. It is hoped that other manuscripts which were in an almost completed form will be published during the coming year. Mr. Lemmon had many friends and admirers wherever he taught. His untimely death bereaves all who are familiar with the high standards of excellence he adhered to in his philosophical work and with the charm and clarity which accompanied his discussion of any topic. JOSIAH B. GOULD,JR. The Meaning and End o] Religion. By Wilfred Cantwell Smith. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1963. Pp. 340. $7.00. Also Mentor Book MT 575, 1964, pp. 352, $0.75.) This study is particularly interesting for the history of philosophy because of the history of the concept of religion which it presents. We shall not here consider its possible implications for the study and the philosophy of religion as such. Smith's thesis is that "... the concept of a religion is recent, Western-and-Islamic, and unstable " (p. 120), that this concept implies "... the notion of a systematic religious entity, conceptually identifiable and characterizing a distinct community" (p. 119), and that it should be replaced by concepts which are more adequate to designate properly religious reality. "Neither religion in general nor any one of the religions, I will contend, is in itself an intelligible entity, a valid object of inquiry or of concern either for the scholar or for the man of faith" (p. 12). Chapter II, " 'Religion' in the West," summarizes the history of the concept of religion in the West. Attention is given successively to the etymology of religio, its use by Lucretius and Cicero, and by the Fathers. Arnobius and Lactantius, Jerome and Augustine (De vera religione) take the word in a richer sense than it had before. The Middle Ages attached less importance to the term which then referred rather to the monastic life. A change occurs, however , with the beginning of modern times and especially the Reformation, as the abundant use of it by Ficino (De christiana religione), Luther in his German writings, Zwingli (De vera 100 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY et ]alsa religione commentarius), and Calvin (Christianae religionis institutio) proves. The rationalist era, since the seventeenth century, tends to pay more attention to religious forms and systems than to the question of the relationship between God and man. Grotius' De veritate religionis christinae marks this trend of thought. For the Enlightenment religion is identical to doctrine. The word is now also used in the...