Santiago Ramírez O. P., Su Vida Su Obra by Vicente Marrero (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 187 and as linked with the total society and culture, and bring him to consider work, society, and culture in the invaluable light thrown on these realities and concepts by giants who have struggled with them, e. g., Fourier, Comte, Marx, Durkheim and Veblen. He keeps making one well-ordered thought of the problems and of fragmentary solutions in moderns and ancients. I hope Vukan Kuic and others go on editing these important studies and that the editors and Mrs. Simon and son Anthony are working on a biography. An extensive Yves Simon bibliography by Anthony 0. Simon is appended to the present volume. University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana LEO R. WARD Santiago Ramirez O.P., Su Vida Su Obra. By VICENTE MARRERO. Madrid: Consejo Superior de lnvestigationes Cientificas, 1971. Pp. 334. $3.50. Very few Americans, even among those who are familiar with the current philosophical and theological periodicals, know Father Santiago Ramirez's writings. This phenomenon is even more remarkable when one considers the world popularity attained by some of the theologians of the recent Council, such as Congar, Raimer, Kling, and others. Father Ramirez, however , as history will tell, is superior to all of them. As the best theologian of the twentieth century and the foremost commentator on St. Thomas, he surpasses Cajetan, John of St. Thomas, Bafiez, Vitoria, etc., both in quality and in quantity. The theological stature of Father Ramirez, however, is not unknown in Europe. He was professor at the Angelicum in Rome for three years and at the University of Fribourg for twenty-five. The last twenty years of his life were spent in Salamanca totally devoted to writing and theological research. While there he published La Filosofia de Ortega y Gasset, which, against Father Ramirez's wishes, triggered a philosophical-political controversy which lasted for months. Once the storm was over, he withdrew completely from public life and retired to his monastery where he peacefully spent the last years of his life. Father Ramirez was an exceptional professor. He possessed an unusual clarity, a profound insight into problems, a prodigious memory and an amazing theological erudition. Listening to his lectures was enough to make one realize he was not only a good professor but also a genius, the like of which appears only rarely. Perhaps the phrase that synthesizes his theological attitude is illustrated best by his own words, " Science deals with problems that are eternal. It is not wise to deal with the little problems of everyday life to abandon 188 BOOK REVIEWS those that are perennial." Paradoxically, he knew perfectly the philosophical and theological problems of everyday life and accepted from them everything that could transcend the fashion of the day and be eternal, for truth, wherever it may be found, was his only concern. Father Ramirez was a convinced Thomist, because he believed the fundamental principles for any valid theological synthesis were contained in St. Thomas's theology. His Thomism, however, was not servile, for truth is more important than St. Thomas. In questions concerning grace, not only did he feel St. Augustine to be superior to St. Thomas but he also had words of admiration for Suarez, Scotus, Newman, and other modern theologians and philosophers. Father Ramirez knew modern exegesis as well as the positive sources of theology. He placed, however, much importance on the rational analysis of faith, the theological discourse, and maintained that it is impossible to have a good theology without a good philosophy. The erudition of his knowledge is so great and the analysis of the problems so exhaustive that it may perhaps hinder the appreciation of his writings. There are few ready to follow the detailed and exhaustive analysis of the problems. His approach to them, however, is not purely analytical. In the end he always rPduces everything to unity and order, without which there cannot exist a good theology or philosophy. In theology his method is historical. He approaches the problems by going to the sources and by following their historical development, which he considers essential in evaluating and finding their solutions. His three volumes of De Hominis Beatitudine are pioneer works in this sense. When reading them...