Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of Preachers ed. by Kent Emery, Jr., Joseph Wawrykow (review)

136 BOOK REVIEWS community. He also did much to influence Vatican thinking on the question of anti-Semitism, although he never succeeded in persuading Pope Pius XII to publish an encyclical condemning the mistreatment of the Jews. These matters are all taken up in some detail in his letters to Journet. The Correspondance further shows the two men in discussion overthe emerging intellectual currents of the post-war era: Sartre and existentialism, De Lubac and the nouvelle theologie, etc. It also includes documentation on an interesting three-way debate between Maritain, Journet, and M.-M. Labourdette, O.P., on the historical dimension of dogmatic theology. The Correspondance has a great deal to offer. Scholars oftwentieth-century Thomism will find it a valuable resource for understanding the historical setting of Maritain's and Journet's influential contribution to this tradition. Since so much of Maritain's work was published in response to_ particular events, these letters will provide a vivid feel for the existential context of its elaboration. Non-specialists will discover in the Correspondance a delightful introduction to Catholic intellectual life in this century. The reading varies from the speculative to the everyday to the meditative to the prayful. Both men open their hearts and speak their minds freely. Here we have testimony to a modern spiritual friendship that would have made Aelred of Rievaulx proud. International Peace Research Institute Oslo, Norway GREGORY M. REICHBERG Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations ofChrist in the Texts and Images ofthe Order ofPreachers. Edited by KENT EMERY, JR., and JOSEPH WAWRYKOW. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998. Pp. 754. $80.00 (cloth), $45.00 (paper). ISBN 0-268-00831-0 (cloth), 0-268-00836-1 (paper). This volume is composed of the contributions from the Conference in Medieval Studies held at Notre Dame in September 1995. It is a high-quality collection of rare breadth: 25 contributions examine the place of Christ in exegetical and theological reflection, as well as in the preaching and iconography of Dominicans from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. As an appendix, the editors have established a catalogue that testifies to the rich presence of medieval Dominican authors at the University of Notre Dame Library: 82 manuscripts, incunabili, and sixteenth-century books (493-541). At the end of the work, 103 artistic reproductions magnificently illustrate the reflections of the contributors. The studies assembled in this volume can be divided into four groups: (1) Dominican pastoral writings, (2) Christology of BOOK REVIEWS 137 St. Thomas Aquinas, (3) Christology of other Dominican theologians, and (4) spiritual writings and iconography. The collection provides a vast overview of medieval Dominican Christology which manifests, in spite of the differences, the profound continuity of theological and spiritual reflection in the Order of Preachers. But the first merit of this book is to recall that the Dominicans, before doing philosophy, have been primarily theologians searching to account for the heart of their faith: the person of Christ. These studies thus contribute to rediscover the specifically theological matter of the Dominican tradition, which the philosophical enterprise of twentieth-century neo-Scholasticism has sometimes obscured. In the first group of works, several studies demonstrate the place of Christ as the model preacher in the Dominican understanding of the preaching ministry. In this pastoral reflection of the first brothers, the figure of St. Dominic appeared only very discreetly-thus differing from Franciscan hagiography, which presents St. Francis as alter Christus. The analyses ofJ. Van Engen, J. Cannon, and S. Tugwell converge in establishing convincingly the unique character which the person of Christ assumes at the heart of the Christian and the apostolic life, according to the first Dominican tradition. The series of studies consecrated to St. Thomas Aquinas does not offer a comprehensive view of his Christology, but rather clarifies particular aspects of it. On the exegetical side, D. Bouthillier presents an excellent choice of collationes from the Super lsaiam, showing how the thought of St. Thomas unfolds as a spiral around a unique axis who is Christ (139-56). On the liturgical side, R. Wielockx clearly establishes through a literary and doctrinal analysis the authenticity of St. Thomas's prayer "Adoro te devote"; this contribution...