Religion

RELIGION 575 centres sur Ie mouvement ecologique au Quebec et au Canada, on peut lire une description bien documentee sur 'Le mouvement contre I'energie nucleaire en Europe de l'Ouest.' La deuxieme partie fait place it des textes plus engages, de lutte, d'action et d'intervention; plusieurs d'entre eux ont paru dans Le Devoir et dans La Presse. C'est dans cette partie que I'on rencontre les textes rediges en collaboration. La place qu'y tient la question de renergie et la lutte antinucleaire est considerable. C'est veritablement Ie theme clef de l'ouvrage, il Ie traverse d'ailleurs d'un bout a l'autre. En troisieme lieu, il ya une derniere courte section d'une trentaine de pages consacree a des recensions d'ouvrages recents en ecosociologie presentees dans une perspective critique. II faut esperer que Ie livre de Jean-Guy Vaillancourt re~oive un accueil favorable du public et rencontre Ie souhait de son auteur. Ce dernier, concevant son travail camme un instrument de conscientisation, ambitionne qu'il puisse servir a faire mieux comprendre l'une des questions les plus bnllantes actuellement pour I'avenir et la survie de l'humanite. Aussi paradoxal que cela puisse paraitre, ce livre est un des rares sinon Ie seul au sein de la production quebecoise contemporaine a etre entierement destine aux problemes ecologiques et de l'energie nucleaire. Ne serait-ce qu'a ce titre, il merite une salutation particuliere. Religion H.-MARTIN RUMSCHEIDT The books which arrived for review allow a glance at where scholarship and personal life of religion is these days in Canada. Next to works pursuing the specific interests of researchers there are others which illuminate the past for particular reasons. Another group of works place their substance in the interests of apologetic polemics. Diverse and often unrelated events of the last twenty-five years have given new impetus to the practice and study of spirituality. In the quest of 'renewed life: of both individuals and communities, are the following books: Alfred Ducharme, S), Une dynamique communautaire de fa foi (Bellarmin , 248), Andrea Richard, Les Voies spirituelles (Bellarmin, 136, $6.95 paper), and Lorraine Caza, eND, La Vievoyagere, conversanteavecle prochain (Bellarmin, 215). Their search for new forms of community life qua spiritual life takes the form of extending traditional patterns of spiritual formation and community government (Ducharme), imaginative reappropriation of Theresa of Avila's meditation practices (Richard), or histOrical -scriptural analysis of the life and work of Marguerite Bourgeoys, the founder of the very active, widespread, and large Congregation de Notre-Dame (Caza). The classic aims of spiritual union with Christ, strong service in the world as the focus both of discipleship and the achievement of one's full human potential are affirmed. What seems new is the exploration of new dimensions in these aims provided by the appropriation of the study of Scripture to which Vatican 1I has given strong impetus. A similar orientation pervades the work by Germaine Duval, SN)M, Par Ie chemin du roi une femme est venue (Bellarmin, 398, $15.00 paper), although the carrier of her intent is historiography. The work is an extensive study of Eulalie-Melanie Durocher, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Names of Jesus and Mary. This remarkable mystic, 18Il to 1849, was a 'feminist' and trade-unionist a century ahead of her time, and as such was a serious force to be reckoned with by both church and state. Her spirituality was the conscious merging of justice for individuals and society with pious devotion to Christ and the Virgin. Observers of renewals in Christian spirituality tend to depict what they see with ambiguity. As the studies of Dumont and Racine, discussed below, indicate, there is frequently no real clarity as to what purpose such a renewal serves, to what ideological position it is subject. The descriptive material of these works broadens the awareness about spiritual life in Quebecois Catholicism; wherever the note of responsibility for the secular human polis is sounded the expectation that spirituality is genuine arises. The apprehension is laid to rest that one has to do again with the exercises for a 'peace of...