The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics by W. Norris Clarke, S.J. (review)

490 BOOK REVIEWS The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics. By W. NORRIS CLARKE, S.J. Notre Dame, Ind: University ofNotre Dame Press, 2001. Pp. 324. $45.00 (cloth), $24.00 (paper). ISBN 0-268-03706-X (cloth), 0-26803707 -8 (paper). This book is intended to be "an advanced textbook ofsystematic metaphysics in the Thomistic Tradition." It seems to be geared towards advanced undergraduate students, or possibly graduate students. Clarke describes it as a "creative retrieval" of Thomistic metaphysics, one that adapts the teaching of St. Thomas in light of modern science and contemporary thought; it does not seek to provide a strictly faithful rendering ofAquinas's teaching. The book is divided into short thematic chapters. Each chapter contains a set of helpful questions for review and discussion and most sections of the book are followed by a list of articles for further reading. The book begins with some introductory chapters dealing with the nature of metaphysics as a science, covering themes such as the distinctive subject matter ofmetaphysics, its possibility, various meanings of"being," and types ofanalogy. It is in these early chapters that we get the clearest sense of Clarke's distinctive take on Thomism. The remainder of the book is divided into two main parts. The first part deals with the intrinsic principles of finite being. This part of the book contains an extensive treatment of the internal structure of finite beings through a discussion of three metaphysical compositions: existence/essence, form/matter, and substance/accident. Clarke devotes a lot of attention to the relation between form and matter since he thinks these concepts need to be adapted to modern science. The second part of the book is devoted to the extrinsic causes of finite being. It begins with a detailed discussion of efficient and final causality and then turns to a series of proofs for the existence of God and a discussion of the divine attributes. The remainder of the second part of the book contains a discussion ofthe transcendentals, a treatment of the problem of evil and an interesting chapter on evolution (Clarke maintains that evolution as a fact is undeniable, but he argues that there must be a higher cause guiding the evolutionary process). The final chapter is a meditative overview of metaphysics using the image of the universe as journey (away from and back towards God). Human beings play a unique role in this cosmic story because they are the mediators between the material cosmos and its divine source; the material universe would be incomplete without a rational being able to appreciate the divine gift of being and to give thanks to God in return. Perhaps the most unique aspect of Clarke's approach to metaphysics-a variation of existential Thomism-is his contention that every being, by its very nature, pours over into action which is self-revealing and self-communicative. The reader will find that this idea is applied in a number of ways throughout the book, but it plays an especially important role at the beginning where Clarke clarifies the subject matter and starting point of metaphysics. Since every being communicates itself through action to other beings and in turn receives the action of other beings upon it, it is through the mutual interaction of one being BOOK REVIEWS 491 upon another that the universe is constituted: "all the real beings that count, that make a difference, are dynamically active ones, that pour over through selfmanifesting , self-communicating action to connect up with other real beings, and form a community of interacting existents we call call a 'universe'" (33). What is important for Clarke's analysis is not simply the principle that first act is completed by, or teleologically ordered towards, second act, but that all action in some way terminates in, or is communicated to, another-"to be is to be generous" (34). Clarke seems to suggest that being qua being is self-revealing and self-communicative. The obvious objection to this claim is that a totally selfsufficient being, namely, God, could exist without communicating with anything other than itself. Noting this objection, Clarke admits that in principle a perfect being would be free to create...