Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths by Matthew Levering (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 310 as mere reiterations of satanic temptations in the desert. To relinquish such “obvious” goods is to overcome what is perceived as a genuine good by ordinary standards; such a withdrawal of the self away from some particular good in order to move more perfectly toward the true Good, as known through faith, is impossible on one’s own; with the knowledge of faith and the love of caritas this difficult move is possible, but only through the grace by which God makes such movement certain. Doyle’s book ably illuminates how this virtue of hope, taken specifically as a theological virtue with Thomas, is essential for any account of humanism that would be Christian, not merely in name but in substance as well. ROBERT BARRY Providence College Providence, Rhode Island Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths. By MATTHEW LEVERING. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. 238. $110.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-19-960452-4. Saint Ignatius told the Jesuits to talk about predestination rarely and cautiously . He was worried that they might lead people into fatalism or disdain for freedom and for good works. Although Matthew Levering’s Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths understandably mentions predestination on every page, it would surely receive the saint’s approval. By caution, Christocentrism, and emphasis on the love of God, Levering has given us a treatment of predestination that affirms common Catholic teaching while avoiding the pitfalls named by St. Ignatius. This book is controversial and ambitious, yet it ought to be well-received by many pastors and teachers. In Predestination Levering writes for an ecumenical audience of theologians. His sources are Scripture (read through current Catholic and evangelical biblical scholarship) and the writings of selected Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox authors past and present, with marked appreciation for the thinking of Karl Barth, Sergius Bulgakov, and David Bentley Hart. Among Catholic authors Levering favors Sts. Catherine of Siena and Francis de Sales, whom he credits as inspiring sources for his own position. Levering’s argument is that we ought to confess both predestination and God’s “prodigal,superabundant love” (197) even for the reprobate while resisting the lure of “systematic clarity” (95). Levering expects that universal divine love and selective divine predestination must stand in unresolved tension “until the eschaton” (178). “The task of predestinarian doctrine is to bring these two affirmations together” (36), holding them in tension or balance “so that the logic of one does not overpower the other” (11). BOOK REVIEWS 311 As its subtitle suggests, Predestination is largely a description of “biblical and theological paths,” starting with “The Biblical Roots of the Doctrine of Predestination” (chap. 1) and proceeding historically through “The Patristic Period: Outlining the Problem” (chap. 2), “The Medieval Period: Seeking a Balance” (chap. 3), “The Reformation and Early Modern Period: Causal Chains” (chap. 4), and “The Twentieth Century: God’s Absolute Innocence” (chap. 5). The final chapter, “Two Affirmations,” is where Levering sums up his case and “offers a contemporary theology of predestination” that “[reexamines] the witness of the New Testament with an eye to the insights and pitfalls found in the theological tradition” (176). Here the same thesis advanced throughout Predestination is repeated and augmented by further biblical reflection: theologians must affirm both God’s predestination of some and his love for all without trying to resolve the apparent tension between these two points. Chapter 1 is concerned mostly with St. Paul, and looks to J. M. G. Barclay, N. T. Wright, Brendan Byrne, Joseph Fitzmyer, and others to assess the “Biblical Roots of the Doctrine of Predestination.” The bottom line, in Levering’s assessment,is that the New Testament “teaches a doctrine of predestination” (33) but gives us “the challenge of holding together” the fact that God’s love “has no deficiency, limitation, or stinginess” and the fact that God “allows some of his rational creatures to remain in their sins” (34-35), making the “upholding of both these affirmations . . . the measure of a proper doctrine of predestination” (35). The possibility that God may predestine all humans to eternal life is one that “calls for broader dialogue with contemporary biblical scholars” (29), and is revisited in Levering’s last chapter...