The Service of Glory: The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” on Worship, Ethics, Spirituality by Aidan Nichols, O.P. (review)

654 BOOK REVIEWS footnotes). It is recommended as a text for seminary/graduate-level courses, as well as an authoritative source for scholarly work in ecumenism. Lutheran-Anglican-Rnman Catholic Covenant Group Chambersburg, Pennsylvania MARKE. CHAPMAN The Service of Glory: The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" on Worship, Ethics, Spirituality. By AIDAN NICHOLS, 0.P. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997. Pp. 310. $29.95 (paper). ISBN 0-567-08555-4. In this second volume of commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the author launches immediately into his analysis of the paragraphs which introduce the Catechism's treatment of part 2, "The Celebration of the Christian Mystery." Thus one needs to consult the Preface to the first volume of his commentary in order to discover the plan for his second: After expounding what the Catechism has to say on these vital topics (sacramental, ethical, spiritual), I will go on, in the sequel to the present study, to investigate and respond to some of the criticisms that have been voiced of the Catechism's project, and/or the way in which it has been effected. Some words on the artworks used to illustrate the French paradigm of the Catechism, and a select bibliography, will close the second book. (The Splendour ofDoctrine, p. x.) In fact the author does execute in the second volume the plan he articulated in the first. Almost three hundred pages provide commentary on the last three parts of the Catechism. The last chapter addresses some of the criticisms leveled at the Catechism. An appendix treats the iconography in the Catechism. And a brief bibliography concludes the book. Before assessing the content of the book, some preliminary observations on the presentation of the material seem appropriate. The author closely follows the outline of the Catechism. His commentary proceeds through the last three parts of the Catechism in the methodical fashion of an articulate professor anxious to cover all the material. He addresses what the Catechism addresses and even, at times, what it neglects. For example, after a rather withering critique of politically correct and pontificating theologians, he reproves the Catechism for avoiding a treatment of limbo. BOOK REVIEWS An even more pronounced reverent agnosticism afflicts the Catechism when it comes to speak of the destiny of unbaptized children, for in their case there would seem to be no human act which God could regard as an act of conversion. Rather than speak, in their connexion, of a possible limbus puerorum, a kind of happy attic, with restrictive prospect, in the house of heaven whose windows look out on the vision of God (an analogy, fundamentally, with the limbus patrum, the antechamber of that house where the just who lived before Christ awaited the advent of the Redeemer), the Catechism prefers more simply to entrust these babes to the mercy of God. (48) 655 Quite often, however, the author allows his imagination to lead him and the reader into domains which one would not immediately associate with analysis of Church doctrine. These digressions comprise some of the most engaging and evocative sections of the book. The reader would expect to encounter references to Augustine, Aquinas, Newman, von Balthasar, and John Paul II. But still somewhat surprising are the frequent references to artists and poets, such as Dante, Dickens, Herbert, Milton, and Tolkien. For example, in order to develop his point that the liturgy is a Christocentric sign-system, he turns to daVinci's Treatise on Painting to observe "the motions of the dumb, who speak with movements of the hands and eyes and eyebrows and their whole person, in the desire to express the idea that is in their minds" (30). The style of the book's composition seems, at times, garrulous and ponderous. Since the Catechism is so succinct and lucid, perhaps any commentary would seem wordy. But one is compelled to ask from time to time while reading the book, "Why does it take so many words to explain what the Catechism communicates so clearly and concisely?" In addition the repetition of the phrase, "not for nothing," diminishes the otherwise erudite and articulate prose. It seems this good book would have been improved by careful editing. The...