Les anges et les démons: Quatorze leçons de théologie by Serge-Thomas Bonino, O.P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Les anges et !es demons: Quatorze leqons de theologie. By SERGE-THOMAS BONINO, O.P. Bibliotheque de la Revue Thomiste. Paris: Parole et Silence, 2007. Pp. 351 32.00 €(paper). ISBN 9782845735606. The French Dominican theologian Serge-Thomas Bonino is the longtime editor of the Revue Thomiste, and as such, the recent director of a new series of Thomistic monographs entitled "Bibliotheque de la Revue Thomiste." Four volumes of this series have appeared, while at least six more are projected. The aim of the series to "exposit in a synthetic and pedagogical manner the major themes of theology based upon the principles of Thomas Aquinas, while taking into account the contemporary renewal of theology in an integral fashion" (2). Thus the series sets for itself a fascinating task: self-consciously to reconceive the form of a postconciliar Thomistic theology, at once rooted in the classical Thomistictradition (including the great Thomistic commentators such as Cajetan and John of St. Thomas), while assimilating modern historical insights concerning the context and nature of Aquinas's work (inspired by the efforts of Chenu and Gilson, etc.), and responsive to the concerns and physiognomy of modern theological questions and methods (not excluding the patristic ressourcement movement of la nouvelle theologie, as well as the situation of modern European theology). This is of course no mean task, and one fraught with historical and methodological difficulties. Yet it also bespeaks a promising possibility: the movement of Thomistic theology into a new phase that speaks to the current theological setting, and which assimilates the valid yet partial concerns of various critics and promoters of Scholastic Thomism from the previous century while integrating these into a renewed and greater whole. Bonino's work, as his title indicates, is divided into fourteen chapters, yet these are themselves grouped into four main sections. The first section is historical, treating the question of the theology of angels from the Old Testament to the Middle Ages, followed by two very lucid chapters on demythologization, and the problem of angeology in modernity. The second section is on the nature of angels (their metaphysical structure}, based in large part upon a detailed exposition of the positions of the Thomistic tradition. The third section considers the "history" of angels: the rapport in them of the inclinations of nature and grace, their vocation to beatitude, the confirmation in glory of the blessed angels, and the fall of the sinful angels. The last section treats 145 146 BOOK REVIEWS the role and function of both angels and demons in the divine economy, and their effect upon the human community. On the first page of his work, the author introduces the principal objection this particular study could raise: is this not a peripheral topic, far down on the hierarchy of truths, and somewhat "lateral" with respect to modern theological concerns? If so, what then is the value of a contemporary reflection on this topic? (5-6). Thought-provoking responses are offered. First, "to compare the manner in which this or that perfection (life, knowledge, language, love) is realized in a pure spirit and in man, permits one to determine the 'core' of this perfection, which is analogically universal, and to distinguish this from the particular conditions in which this perfection is realized in man. The specificity of the human condition is thereby understood more clearly" (6). Second, "angeology obliges a theologian to understand more clearly a number of notions that are central to his discipline: the meaning of creation, the Trinity's plan for the divinization of creatures, the universality of providence, the place of Jesus Christ in the economy of salvation, the nature of the Church" (7). Third, the study of the angels reveals something about God, the creator who is their source, and "is a means to reestablish the truth of Christian theo-centrism obscured by a certain way of understanding the 'anthropological turn' in contemporary theology" (8). The author's initial study of the biblical origins of the doctrine of angels in the Old and New Testaments (chapters 1-2) is a succinct but intellectually potent theological synthesis of contemporary biblical exegesis. Bonino's point is clear: there is no reason to stereotype Thomism...