Toward a Christian Ethic by William H. M. van der Marck, and: Das Peccatum Mortale ex toto genere suo by Anton Meinrad Meier (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Toward a Christian Ethic. A Renewal in Moral Theology. By WILLIAM H. M. VAN DER MAReK, 0. P. Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1967. Pp. 176. $3.95. Das Peccatum Mortale ex toto genere suo. Entstehung und Interpretation des Begriffes. (Studien zur Geschichte der kath. Moraltheologie 14). By ANTON MEINRAD MEIER. Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 1966. Pp. 405. DM 45. This little book of Fr. van der Marek contains so many theological novelties that it must be regarded as an attempt to renovate not only moral theology but theology tout court-dogmatic, moral and fundamental -together with revolutionizing the philosophical basis of all sound theological thinking as well. And all this he proposes doing in the name of St. Thomas (see p. 6) . The author is well aware that he is attempting something daring and revolutionary and it is quite obvious that he is not altogether at ease in his undertaking, as witness the frequently recurring restrictive " as I see it," " as it seems to me," " I have the impression," etc. He is fully conscious that others may very well not see things as he sees them and, as is no more than right, he makes full allowance for that eventuality. l\Iany of his contentions and assertions, in fact very many of them, appear at first sight so extraordinary and far-fetched as to be both theologically and philosophically inacceptable. But then there are so many such contentions and assertions concerning Church teaching and St. Thomas's mind that one is constrained willynilly to come to the conclusion that he is using language in a novel and personal way. That, I suppose, he has a perfect right to do. It is, however, a great pity that he does not make perfectly clear in what precise sense he is using language. Had he but done that, the dialogue between him and his readers would be, it is hoped, very much more profitable. The following examples, taken more or less at random, will show what I mean. We are told that nature is grace (p. 14); God did not become man by being born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, for the Incarnation is seen to be a salvational event from the very foundation of the world and in that way the jarring dualism of the divine and human natures in Christ is successfully overcome (p. 16); man's body is his soul (p. !?!4); end is the same thing as means and means as end (p. !?!4) ; person is community (p. !?!7) ; divine and infused virtue is human and acquired virtue (p. 84); will is intellect, intellect is will (p. 160161 ). On the face of it, these are all strange and novel sayings. Had the 245 ~46 BOOK REVIEWS author only told us clearly what he understands by the verb " to be " and the copula " is," all would have been well. Then we could perhaps have entered into dialogue with him. For that, indeed, the question of linguistics or semantics is obviously of prime importance. It is not my intention to go into these matters. I merely wish to record them for their intrinsic interest and on account of their direct or indirect bearing on the matter formally in hand, namely, the renewal of moral theology, which is the main concern of the author. As to renewal of or in moral theology, which is van der Marek's prime concern, the author's theory may quite legitimately be reduced to two fundamental positions: a new conception of moral science as such in general and a completely new understanding of the Christian or theological ethic in particular. Everything the author has to say in his book must be understood in the light of his new and very personal approach to these two fundamental questions. With regard to moral science as such the renewal proposed and demanded by him may be put very briefly in this way. Moral science must no longer be regarded as normative, at least not in any generally accepted sense of that term; it is merely descriptive of what people do in this or that particular community, in this or that age. He writes: "neither the concrete...