Incontro con Cristo. Credibilità della Religione Cristiana by Vladimir Boublik (review)

BOOK REVIEWS SS5 christianization of the Berakoth, the Qedushah, and the Keter which are found in the ninth-century collection Seder Amram Gaon. The parallels are striking. The prayers of Book Seven of the Apostolic Constitutions are unquestionably Jewish prayer formulas. But a problem still remains, and Bouyer has not faced it squarely. Are the prayers of Book Seven of the Apostolic Constitutions liturgical prayers used in the Christian Eucharist, or, are they a collection of Jewish prayers made by a Christian convert from Judaism? Some Patrologists of note, e. g., Quasten, regard these prayers as "a very interesting collection of Jewish prayers." When we remember that the author of the Didascalia which comprise the first six books of the Apostolic Constitutions was, in all probablity, a convert from Judaism, the suspicion is strong that the prayers of Book Seven were taken from a Jewish prayer collection and not from a Christian Eucharistic liturgy. This English translation of Bouyer's book contains a supplementary chapter on the reform of the Roman Canon and the three new Canons recently added to the Roman liturgy. The author remarks in his Foreword: " this reform has fulfilled some of the most important desiderata of this book, a fulfillment which could never have been hoped for at the time that I undertook to write it." Indexes of biblical texts, rabbinical texts, of the synagogue liturgy, of ancient Christian writers, of Christian liturgies, and of modern authors round off what is one of the most important studies on the history of the Eucharist produced by modern scholarship. St. John's Univ~aity, Jamaica, N. Y. RICHARD KuGELMAN, C. P. Incontro con Cristo. Credibilita della Religione Cristiana. By VLADIMm BouBLIK. Rome: Lateran University, 1968. Pp. 802. In the preface the author admits that to some his enterprise may seem presumptuous today when fundamental theology is hedged around with difficulties. But he is modest and does not propose to solve all these difficulties but to present a modernized version of the old manuals on De Revelatione, such as Father Garrigou-Lagrange published many years ago. Regardless of the Western world, in the East one feels continuously the need for clear ideas on basic things like revelation, the supernatural, pain and death, the Risen Lord. The author is well acquainted with the manuals, a list of which appears on p. ix. But at the end of each chapter there is an ample bibliography of special treatises and articles. For the ordinary student these lists are far too long. It would be better to give two lists, one for specialists and one for seminarists. 336 BOOK REVIEWS The whole book bears the stamp of thoroughness, and if the author begins by saying that he cannot solve all the problems, the student will be pleased with the way in which most difficulties are presented and answered. One of the unfortunate side effects of ecumenism is the modem contempt for apologetics. The faith is to be proposed but not defended. Yet the fact is that today the faith has to be defended from the old errors that more or less survive and from new ones that hide behind the assumed title of theology. In this book the author deals with modem errors. The chapters on Revelation itself, his treatment of myth and demythologization are excellent. He analyses the various exegetical positions of Bultmann. However, with regard to Christ and his miracles, a confrontation with living, hostile forces would have been more beneficial than a fresh charge versus Loisy, Von Harnack and Renan. From the missionary point of view, a defence of Christian mysticism, of the Church's power to make saints, of the excellence of her worship, of the Church's right and duty to evangelize, would make excellent appendices to some future edition of this book. Indeed, an apologetic of the Christian priesthood is one of our pressing needs, especially in the "tiers monde " where so many are losing awarenses of the priest's supernatural role. The absence of this kind of apologetic is due, I think, to following too closely the order of the old manuals. Nevertheless, a professor's manual is limited by the time available for lectures and...