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BOOK REVIEWS Man as Man and Believer: Concilium, Dogma Vol. 21. Edited by EDWARD ScHILLEBEECKX, 0. P. and BoNIFACE WILLEMS, 0. P. Glen Rock, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1967. Pp. 178. $4.50. When Modernism was threatening to corrupt the very core of Christianity around the turn of the century, the magisterimn of the Church exposed its erroneous extremes but did not yet possess the theological tools for a positive response to the difficulties involved. This volume of Concilium, theology in the age of renewal, is one sign that the Church is in the process of confronting the real crux of the Modernist crisis. It represents the relevant progress that has taken place in this regard during the past half century, culminating in the conciliar documents of Vatican II, particularly the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. This, however , marks only the beginning of future development necessary in this post-conciliar age. Anthropological and epistemological problems must be solved and added to the advances in historical and scriptural studies in order to meet the challenge of contemporary thought to Christianity and of the questions which have lingered on after the crisis of Modernism. As the editors of this volume put it in the preface: " Every branch of theology has already felt the far-reaching changes that are taking place, particularly in the fields of anthropology and epistemology. For all the faithful, the basic issue arising from all this is the question: What is the relation between man as man and man as believer? And this obviously leads to questions about revelation, faith, dogma and the magisterium or the teaching function of the Church." The central question always appears to be: How do we give adequate consideration to the complete context of human history and still attribute a unique moment in that history to Christ? Continuing the same characteristic format of the Concilium series, Part I of this volume contains a number of articles on various aspects of the general theme. The introductory article, by Peter van Leeuwen, traces the development of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation from the original plan of the preparatory theological commission in 1960 through the schemas of 1962-68 to the final text of 1964 that was the basis of the conciliar document as ultimately approved. During this long and laborious process some very significant changes were made. Principal among these were the definition of revelation and the principle of its transmission. The earlier schemata had proposed a concept of revelation as exclusively propositional and identical with revealed teaching. But the Constitution adopted a definition of revelation as salvation history with Christ at its 860 BOOK REVIEWS 361 very center (p. II). Likewise, concerning the principle of transmitting revelation the magisterium was not considered as identical with tradition, but rather as having the " special function of authoritative judging and guiding in the truth in an authentic way-i. e., with official authority, in union with the whole People of God, and not standing above the Word of God, but rather serving it " (p. 15) . Fr. van Leeuwen concludes by commenting that the Constitution has provided the context for the fruitful posing of such ecumenical questions as the" dominion of God's Word over the Church, the distinction between tradition, traditions and the function of the magisterium, and particularly the pope's pastoral function within the function of the episcopal college and the whole community of the faithful " (p. 19) . In light of the general orientation given by the first article the subsequent essays treat of the more specialized aspects of the problems revolving around the relationship between nature and grace in man. Leo Bakker, in his article, "What Is Man's Place in Divine Revelation?" starts off by showing how the problem, as it stands today, has come down to us from the Age of Enlightenment through the Modernist crisis. The fundamental question asks whether divine revelation is a supernatural speaking by God completely from outside man, or do faith and revelation have some necessary connection with man's self-understanding, his experience, his projects, etc. Because the Constitution rejected a purely intellectualist approach to revelation as a communication of truths, it opened the way to...

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