The Believer and the Powers That Are: Cases, History and Other Data Bearing on the Relation of Religion and Government by John T. Noonan (review)

704 BOOK REVIEWS into clear and readable English. There are, however, some minor faults that can easily be removed in the next edition. Rahner's acknowledgement of gratitude to Frau Dr. Annie Kraus and Frau Rosmarie and Roswitha Imphof in the Preface has inexplicably been omitted. On p. 102, 'Fachtheologie' would be better rendered as academic discipline; on p. 156, the words in parentheses 'des Trostes, der Zuversicht usw.' (p. 156 of the original text) have been omitted; on p. 162, A. Pangrazio was .the archbishop of Gorizia-Gradisca, rather than of Gorz; on p. 231, .the important phrase 'der absolute Heilsbringer' referring to Jesus is missing; on p. 233, the opinion attributed to Leo Sche:ffczyk is obscurely translated; and on p. 252, :the title should read :the ' re· demption' (Erlosung) of the body, and not the 'resurrection' of the body. There are some misprints: On p. 15 (1. 15); p. 52 (1. 14); p. 57 (1. 2 from bottom, delete the comma after 'back'); p. 59 (1. 6); p. 89 (1. 10); p. 131 (1. 6 from bottom, 'who' instead of 'whom'); p. 133 (1. 18, a period instead of a comma after 'them'); p. 264 (1. 9). The Catholic University of America Washington, D.C. PETER c. PHAN The Believer and the Powers That Are: Cases, History and Other Data Bearing on the Relation of Religion and Government. By JOHN T. NOONAN. New York: Macmillan, 1987. Pp. xvii + 510. $35.00. In his essays on Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that religion in the United States "takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country." John Noonan's unusual and useful book delivers substantial evidence for that 19th century observation and lends support for those who contend that religion has much .to do with and say about contemporary public affairs. Noonan is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals, a legal historian , and a law professor, and he brings all these occupations to bear (especially the last), presenting a casebook-anthology that contains nearly as much non-legal material as judicial writings. Religious liberty in America is the subject of the book, particularly as the Supreme Court for good or ill has shaped the contours of religious liberty by its 20th century interpretations of the Religion Clauses of the first amendment. At the outset, however, Noonan recognizes that BOOK REVIEWS 705 the substance of that liberty, "ithe experience that undergirds the constitutional principles," must be gleaned from an awareness and sense of "the hard, living reality of religion for believers" (p. xiii). Taking his cue from Justice Holmes ("The life of the law has not been logic but experience ") , Noonan submits that one must sense the reality of religion for the believers to perceive .their stake in religious liberty, " to glimpse how the law was modeled " (p. xiv) . The search for this constitutive experience takes us back, first of all, to the Decalogue (pp. 3-5). The book has three Parts: Roots; the American Experience; and Contemporary Controversies. Each Part contains a great variety of writings-essays, letters, portions of addresses and, of course, casessupplemented by .the editor's own notes. " Roots" holds the greatest variety of offerings, reaching from the Ten Commandments to John Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (pp. 78-90). The path is instructive . Noonan introduces the biblical material no:ting that public human history is the theater of Judaco-Christian faith: e.g., the Decalogue " has a date, a place where it was issued, and a direct sanction : God's favor," and among other things it provides "permanent criteria for judging human enterprises, including governments" (p. 3). Other OT texts exhort God's people to lives of mercy and justice and encourage fidelity to God's law even at the risk of martyrdom by the State. The NT selections demonstrate the Christian distinction between the Reign of God and "this world." The further "Roots" chapters present St. Augustine's letters on the quasi-ecclesial duties of Christian magistrates and St. Thomas Aquinas on freedom of conscience. Issues of throne and altar {their mutual...