Moral Theology By the Rev. Heribert Jone, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D. (review)

118BOOK REVIEWS a pure spirit can be conceived as sexually differentiated, but whether such differentiation is incompatible with the idea of a perfect man, whether such differentiation could not have been included in God's first conception of man as part of his nature. A composite creature, as man is, made of spirit and matter, must have development, generation and history. If Adam had not sinned, we would have had a very different kind of history; man's would have been a different story to tell in eternity; but there would have been a story all the same, or else God would never have created the kind of creature man is. That S. K.'s doctrine is unjustified, can be demonstrated by the fact that in the beginning and before the fall, God created them man and woman, "and God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." There are many passages in this book which indicate a profound dissatisfaction with Hegelianism, idealism, rationalism and other trends of thought which were beginning to invade the mind of Protestantism in his time; and yet, in spite of all that, it is not true to say that S. K. was even oriented in the direction of the truth, certainly not as far as this book goes. How could Kierkegaard, who spent his life thinking and writing about religious problems, miss the simple and obvious solution? How could he fail to discover the sweetness of the yoke of Christ? Why all this "fear and trembling," "sickness unto death," when one has the good news of the Gospel to tell, a story which, even in the sufferings of the saints and the torments of martyrs, is bursting with joy? It may be that S. K. himself gave us the answer to all such questions: "But men are not willing to think eternity seriously, they dread it, and dread discovers a hundred ways of escape." Fakhri Maluf Cambridge, Mass. Moral Theology. By the Rev. Heribert Jone, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D.; Englished and adapted to the Code and Customs of the U.S.A., by the Rev. Urban Adelman, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D. (Newman Book Shop, Westminster , Md., 1945. Pp. xx+634. With analytical and alphabetical indexes. $3.00.) Father Heribert Jone, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D., published his Katholische Moraltheologie in 1929. It met with such universal success in Germany and Austria that it was republished in as many as nine editions. Written "with special reference to the stipulation of the German, Austrian and Swiss Codes," this successful German edition was translated and adapted to French law and custom by Marcel Gautier in 1936. The present edition, written entirely in English, was translated and adapted to the Code and American customs by Fr. Urban Adelman, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D., journalist and editor. The present American edition fills a real need in that it supplies the American priest with a ready and handy reference book of moral science adapted to the customs of his own country. Many will find it of primary value since it is conveniently written in English. Its main advantage, however , consists in the fact that it is a comprehensive study of moral theology BOOK REVIEWS119 in the light of American law and custom. Fr. Urban has captured the essentials of the subject and has admirably succeeded in presenting these abstract principles in a clear, concise and orderly style. The brevity of exposition does not, as it might possibly seem to the scholar, obviate the necessity of consulting larger and better-equipped manuals of theology. Rather it presupposes a knowledge of these authors without which such a brief summary would be of little value. Therefore, it is not recommended as a substitute for the ordinary manuals of Moral Theology but only as a vade-mecum for quick and accurate reference. Although all the tracts are well done, the most interesting ones are those on "Ownership in General" and "Titles to Ownership." In speaking of the subject matter for contracts the author notes that every contract must have four qualities: The matter must be possible, belong to the disposing contractants, morally...