Dominican Gallery: Portrait of a Culture by Aidan Nichols, O.P. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 507 Nonetheless, some contributions are of genuine value. Direct critique of Crossan's publications (Craig, Epps) is of unquestionable pastoral importance. The attention drawn (in different ways) to the relevance of background theories (Swinburne, Fiorenza) and of Christian experience and praxis (Carnley , Fiorenza) for faith in the resurrection is of lasting value, for the resurrection cannot be appropriately treated in isolation. So too is the insistence of Soskice and Coakley that faith in the resurrection not be reduced to a minimalistic, reified content. In this regard, the sage observations ofthe outside observer at the symposium, John Wilkens, provide more food for thought than several of the lengthier presentations. Some smaller points and printing errors should also be noted. Like many contributions that strongly accent the resurrection, Newman's essay in places sounds adoptionist (80, 82; but see by way of contrast 88). A "not" is missing on page 102 (line 11). The German exegete Oberlinner is named both Lorenz (correctly) and Ludwig on the same page (219). On page 236 (line 6 from below), read "to" for "of." There are five errors in the untranslated German citation of Georg Essen's important critique of an earlier version of Fiorenza's proposal (244). On page 262 (line 18), read "copying" for "coping." On page 312 (line 19), read "avers" for "averts." The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. JOHN P. GALVIN Dominican Gallery: Portrait ofa Culture. By AIDANNICHOLS, O.P. Leominster, Herefordshire, U.K.: Gracewing/Fowler Wright Books, 1997. Pp. 443.£ 30. ISBN 0-85244-3935. This weighty work is both a delightful surprise (a biographical study of seven English Dominicans active in the period 1930-65) and a major contribution to fundamental theology. The seven figures portrayed are Victor . White, Gerald Vann, Thomas Gilby, Sebastian Bullough, Gervase Mathew, Kenelm Foster, and Conrad Pepler. Photographs of all seven are included, preceded by one of Fr. Bede Jarrett-included because one of the author's theses is that these seven friars were all recruited during Jarrett's long provincialate and/or inspired by his particular vision of English Dominican life. That vision may be described as a sort of historically informed Thomism building bridges to contemporary art and culture, and present in the ancient universities. It is this concern to touch and to transform contemporary culture that makes this book much more than a family album; it is a work of readable, attractive fundamental theology. 508 BOOK REVIEWS There are seven chapters devoted to the seven friars. Each of these chapters begins with a short biography (too short for my taste) of one of these rather original characters, followed by a systematic summary or digest of his main books and articles. The thought of each man, already dense, is made even more so by this process of condensation. This inconvenience is justified, I think, by the useful service the digest renders to the reader, who is free to explore further once the seven doors have been opened. These seven chapters are framed by three others and two appendices. The first framing chapter sketches the English Dominican background in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, its houses, its program of formation, and its quarrels over observance, apostolates, and the relation to the English universities. The second, more original, framing chapter treats the English Catholic setting of this Dominican activity. Here we learn of the London "salon" of Charles Bums, doctor and psychologist, in St. Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea. Here the reigning intellect was the cultural historian Christopher Dawson. Here too met the poet David Jones, the philosopher E. I. Watkin, H. Grisewood of the BBC, and the priests M. D'Arcy, S.J., and Ronald Knox. Among the novelists J. R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh were the best known. Cardinal Hinsley exercised a positive influence, as did T. S. Eliot from outside the Church. The final chapter consists of a brief epilogue in which the author finds the common element in the seven men he examines to consist in "a rational and spiritual intelligence which has come successfully to grips with the concrete" through the search for specifically English metaphors and examples. The first appendix treats of...