Belief and Unbelief, a Philosophy of Self-knowledge by Michael Novak (review)

138 BOOK REVIEWS cal conditions. But it is only by a return to a metaphysical foundation of jurisprudence that a " compromise " may be found between the axiological absolutes and a sociologically conditioned existence. St. Thomas's treatise on Law underlies most of Fr. Utz's thinking, but the references are not excessive. One would occasionally expect in a work like this a more substantial treatment of such controversial issues as capital punishment and even of St. Thomas's view on it. A number of other similar topics are passed over rather too summarily. The reader may also be surprised that, unlike many current and especially Catholic publications on social questions, Ethique Sociale makes no explicit use of or reference to the issues raised by the Second Vatican Council or even by previously published encyclicals. The reason for such absence, at least in the present -volume, lies in the nature of the work itself which is primarily a philosophical treatise addressed to a specific audience on a specific subject. It would be wrong, nonetheless, to conclude that Philosophy of Right is irrelevant to practical problems. Our political constitutions, judicial procedures and our concept of law and obedience to it have always been greatly influenced by theoretical thinking. A critical analysis of such thinking as well as the thinking itself must, therefore, go on. Saint Albert's College Oakland, California JANKO ZAGAR, 0. P. Belief and Unbelief, a Philosophy of Self-knowledge. By MICHAEL NovAK. New York: New American Library, Mentor-Omega Books, 1967. Pp. This paperback reprint of the book published in 1965 will give college students an opportunity to be introduced to a renewed, if somewhat summarized , version of a theme of classical Catholic thinking. The main purpose of the book is to present an argument for the existence of God. Belief here means belief in the existence of God, not faith in revelation, so the discussion is instituted between philosophical theism and atheism rather than between faith and unbelief. The author thinks, and rightly so in my opinion, that the question of philosophical theism, and metaphysical enquiry in general, cannot be ignored if there is to be any kind of reasonable conversation between a theistic and an atheistic philosopher. The relationship between philosophy, belief and faith is left undertermined, as is the integration between existential decision and intellectual enquiry, if the existence of God is not simply known but believed. Nevertheless, the book's basic argument is the dynamism of understanding. " The choice of belief springs from confidence in the centrality of the phenomena of aware- BOOK REVIEWS 139 ness, the drive to understand, insight, and critical reflection in this universe." This starting point might answer some of the difficulties which have accumulated concerning the problem of the existence of God. A philosophy of self-knowledge begins with a more human, personal, critical point of view than the existence or the order of the physical universe, as they are taken in naive realism. But in order to be valid and convincing the argument of the capacity and dynamism of the intellect supposes a whole metaphysics of knowledge and reality. Here the metaphysical depth of the argument is always presupposed but never completely elaborated. Michael Novak refers the reader to the movement initiated by Joseph Marechal and followed by Bernard Lonergan which tries to integrate the Kantian critique of knowledge into a metaphysic of being. In popularizing this very important trend of Catholic philosophy, Michael Novak makes excellent remarks about the silly presuppositions, the false images or representations of God which in believers or unbelievers hinder the authentic search, in truth and spirit, for God. But Michael Novak's essay, like so many books published today in American theology and philosophy, brings to mind the wise prediction of Bernard Lonergan: "What will count is a perhaps not numerous center, big enough to be at home in both the old and the new, painstaking enough to work out one by one the transitions to be made, strong enough to refuse half-measures and insist on complete solutions even though it has to wait." (Bernard Lonergan, Collection, p. 267) . AuGUSTIN P. LEONARD, 0. P. Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire Collection: Papers by...