Initiation à la Pratique de la Théologie. Volumes I and II ed. by Bernard Lauret and Francois Refoulé (review)

170 B06K :REVIEWS Initiation d la Pratique de la Theologie. Volumes I and II. Edited by BERNARD LAURET AND FRANCOIS REFOULE. Paris: Les Editions Cerf, 1982. Pp. 544 (Vol. I) and 526 (Vol. II). These two volumes are part of a four-volume series published by Cerf. The authors are principally French Dominicans who have written in the context of a world and a church profoundly changed since the Second Vatican Council. The spirit of theological pluralism and interdisciplinarity pervades the series, to which over sixty authors from diverse disciplines and religious confessions have contributed. The unifying principle of the entire series is the interpretation of the Christian story for a given time in history. These two volumes succeed in so interpreting the Christian story for our time. The first volume. Initiation d la pratique de la Theologie, Introduction, sets up a methodology for doing theology. First it defines the way of experiencing God within the J udeo-Christian historical tradition, which is a response in faith for living in and transforming the world. Secondly, it deals with characteristics of doing theology, such as analyzing norms and criteria as these are manifested in various theological traditions, perceiving truth as historically conditioned in the traditions, and studying theologies of the ecclesiastical life. The guiding principle is discerning the unity of faith in diverse modes of understanding. In the third part the authors analyze Christianity through the eyes of non-Christians, Marxists, Buddhists, and Muslims. They conclude their introduction with two actual analyses. The first deals with psychoanalysis and religious consciousness, the relationship between fantasy and religious belief supported by insights from Freud and Jung. Yves Lebeaux brilliantly concludes this chapter with a penetrating discussion of psychoanalysis and ideology, which prepares us for the final chapter of the book and the second analysis, a critique of theological formulas. In this chapter Lebeaux penetrates the question of language, cognition, and the limitation formulated doctrinal statements impose on the theological enterprise. The authors strive to empower the believer to transcend the limits of language and form and to enter into the mystery of the Divine life. The two problems of existence itself and man's relationship to existence are both presented and resolved together in dogmatic theology. The authors have overcome a current tendency to fragment, atomize, and compartmentalize theology. A good theological method considers and adequately interprets all of human experience. This they have succeeded in doing. The author's view is primarily francophone; while this is a valuable BOOK REVIEWS i.?'1 contribution to the theological enterprise, it is somewhat limiting and may indeed impair the universality of their viewpoint. In the second volume, Dogmatique I, we are introduced to their practical methodology, which is basically a discussion of the scriptural basis for Christian belief. Christian Duquoc and Bernard Dupey initiate this project with a discussion of the covenant alliance of God in the Old Testament followed by a discussion of messianism. Much of this kind of work has been done in English by Frank Devine and in German by the Jesuits at the Canisianum in Innsbruck. More recently Dulles, McBrien, and Tracy have attempted to do theology in this manner. They follow basically a method that appears in Rahner, Lonergan, and De Lubac and which is clearly enunciated by M. Helwig in Christian Tradition and What are the Theologians Sayingr Their methodology is a four-step process: first, data retrieval (Scripture) ; second, data context, an examination of the time, place, and language in which a revelation is situated; third, historical sequence, an examination of the historical development and evolution of a belief or doctrinal statement; and, finally, the community's definitive statement as expressed by its teaching authority. Our authors use this methodology to develop their critical, practical theology. In addition they see it as a spiral process which springs from God's revelation to a community and the community's response to this as it tries to express the experience of faith; finally, as this revelatory experience is reflected upon, it becomes intellectually an object of belief and practically a principle of action. This triune approach is used then to discuss the question of God's revelation, followed by a...