Wilhelm Ockham, 1349-1949 (review)

316BOOK REVIEWS devout Poor Clares. After many alarms and verbal attacks, the good Sisters were allowed to leave Geneva in 1535 for Annecy, where they flourished until the Ftench Revolution. This excellent historical monograph is dedicated to the memory of a contemporary French Swiss Poor Clare of Jerusalem, whose autobiography and spiritual notes have just been published in English by the Newman Press as 7'Ae Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity. In this collection of her notes are to be found predictions that the Poor Clares will return to Ftench Switzerland. In this connection, for the first time since 1536, a small group of French Friars have made foundations in French Switzerland in the last four years. With all friends of St. Francis and his three Orders in Switzerland, they are praying for the vocations upon which depend the tetutn of the Poor Clares to that beautiful part of the Master's vineyard. RAPHAEL BROWN Washington, D.C. Wilhelm Ockham, 1349-1949. Aufsätze zu seiner Philosophie und Theologie. Franziskanische Studien, Heft Vi 32 (1950). Pp. 184 and four plates. Like the Franciscan Studies, so too the Franziskanische Studien has commemorated the sixth centennial of Ockham's death. This is a special number devoted to that unfortunate Franciscan, brilliant Philosopher and Theologian, and much calumniated scholastic. The articles are written by experts in the field of Ockhamistic studies: they show Ockham as he was on the basis of documents, and not on the basis of a preconceived scheme for the history of philosophy, into which. Ockham has to be pressed regardless of historical truth. It is this sober and objective approach which animates the entire number. We thought it worthwhile to acquaint our readers with the content matter of this excellent number, by enumerating the articles and digesting them, at least in a summary way. IIochstetter, Erich: Viator Mundi. Einige Bemerkungen zur Situation des Menschen bei if ilhelm von Ockham. (Pp. 1-20). According to Hochstetter, Ockham is still fitmly rooted in the old tradition of Christian thought when he conceives man as a pilgrim. For, in the Christian view, man.is a traveler on his way home. This truly religious and Christian idea was slowly replaced by the humanist idea of conceiving man as being in a workshop and forging his own life with little regard to eternity. The topic, man as viator mundi, is enlarged by Hochstetter to a rapid and excellent survey of Ockham's teachings on man. He shows that, according to Ockham, man's place in this world is that between the damnati and the beati, between the angels and the brute animals. The author then acquaints us with Ockham's metaphysical psychology: Man is composed of body, vegetative-sensitive soul, and the intellective soul. Surveying the realm of man's intellectual and voluntary activities, the author points out that there is no relativism in Ockham's Ethics. There are fine pages on Ockham's ideas of man's responsibility and insecurity. Man is free, he has the power to do good and to do evil, but his ultimate salvation depends on the mercy of God. Vignaux, Paul: Sw Luther et Ockham. (Pp. 21-30). Vignaux is known for his various writings on Ockham and especially for his studies on the relationship between Luther and Ockham. Denifle's too general statements about this relationship have been subjected to ctitical studies which have forced our author to be skeptical, of them. In the present contribution, Vignaux examines only the theses BOOK REVIEWS317 fifty-seven and ninety-four of Luthers Disputado contra scholasticam of September 4, 1517. Luther indicated: that both theses are directed against Ockhan and his followers; but they are also found in (an evnironment of) other theses likewise directed against Ockhamists. A close study reveals that Ockham's and Luther's ideas on the nature of man and his capability of being raised to a supernatural status are radically opposed (cfr. especially p. 26). We really need such penetrating studies as are made by Vignaux, in order to reach a sober judgment about this delicate topic. We conclude with the author: "Le thème: Luther et Ockham n'est point...