The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, vol. 1: Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas ed. by Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran (review)

500 BOOK REVIEWS exaggerated emphasis on subjectivelyexperienced needs, and reduced emphasis on the identity of the sacrament of the altar with the mystery of the Cross). These criticisms certainly apply de facto to much contemporary celebration; whether they can be laid at the door of the Pauline Missal simply as such is another question. It would, however, be a pity if the deficient sympathy of many readers for the author's liturgical preferences stopped them reading on and reaching his valuable statement of Thomas's "liturgics." Here he brings together a number of principles, discussed at some length by Thomas in the two Summas, and capable of acting as building blocks for the theology of the liturgy Thomas never got around to constructing. Within an "analectic" reading of Thomas's intellectual vision as characterized by deliberate balance, comprehensiveness, and interconnection, Berger sets out in brief compass such themes as: theocentricity; man's physical-spiritual nature as a worshiping being; the return of man to God through the instrumentality of the humanity ofJesus Christ, the High Priest whose continuing action the liturgy is; the sacraments as efficacious signs of his saving work; the Eucharist as the center of the "liturgical cosmos"; and the sacramental character as the share of Christians in the high priesthood of Christ. What is needed and, for reasons of the book's brevity, cannot be furnished, is the integration of these, more fully reflected on, into a satisfying whole. The footnotes provide useful bibliography for those interested in the conservative wing of theology and liturgical commentary in present-day German Catholicism. AIDAN NICHOLS, 0.P. Blackfriars Cambridge, England The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, vol. 1: Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited by FREDERICK E. CROWE and ROBERT M. DORAN. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. Pp. xxiii + 513. $24.95 (paper), $80.00 (cloth). ISBN 0802083374 (paper) 0802047998 (cloth). Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought ofThomas Aquinas is the latest volume ofthe CollectedWorks ofBernard Lonergan, a series arranged and edited by the Lonergan Research Institute. This new volume contains two important works of Lonergan: a critical edition of his 1971 book Grace and Freedom and his doctoral dissertation, entitled Gratia Operans. The editors BOOK REVIEWS 501 made the decision to publish these two texts together because the 1971 book is a reorganized and reedited form of the dissertation. The central thesis governing both of these works is that St. Thomas continually refined his conception of the human condition, causing developments in his understanding of operative, cooperative, habitual, and actual grace. Lonergan contends that these refinements can best be understood by tracing the historical development of St. Thomas's thought through three major periods. Lonergan presents St. Thomas's first period as roughly coinciding with the completion of his Commentary on the Sentences. There, St. Thomas maintains that perfection is measured by the proportion between potency and act. God is all act and is therefore perfect. Humans are mostly potency and, while open to perfection, are not perfect. They must develop in space and time, and this process of growing creates the possibility offlawed development. SaintThomas believes, Lonergan argues, that perfection becomes possible for humanity only through the infusion and action of new habits-what he terms operative and cooperative habitual grace. Operative habitual grace establishes new habits and desires; cooperative habitual grace works in conjunction with the human will to bring these new habits and desires into fruition through external action. Together, these graces enable human persons to actualize their potency effectively and become more perfect, more Godlike. Lonergan contends that while St. Thomas has a clear understanding of habitual grace during this time, he barely develops the category of actual grace. Actual grace encompasses an enormous variety of events and gifts that may lead to one's repentance and conversion (e.g., a preacher's sermon, loss of health, speaking in tongues), but the category lacks any definitive meaning. On Lonergan's account, St. Thomas's second period is roughly equivalent to the completion of De Veritate. In this text, St. Thomas slightly alters his understanding of the human situation and, consequently, his solution to it...