The Analogy of Learning by Tad Guzie, S. J. (review)

664 BOOK REVIEWS Part II, on Extreme Unction. Part III, on indulgences, after a section on their historical antecedents (vicarious satisfaction in the early Church, Celtic practice of commutations, absolution grants), treats of indulgence grants in the lith and Hlth centuries, the indulgence-theology of the Middle Ages, the Catholic and Lutheran documents of the pre-Reformation period, and those of the Magisterium from the Council of Trent to the present. The book concludes with a " Summary and Appraisal," which gives a lucid synthesis of the history and doctrinal development of Penance , Extreme Unction, and indulgences. The translations, from the best critical editions, are usually clear and, where the reviewer has checked, quite faithful to the original; however, as to the excerpts from Tertullian's On Penance, On Modesty, one would prefer at several points the English version by W. Le Saint, S. J., Tertullian : Treatises on Penance (ACW, No. ~8). The introductions and annotations are most helpful, although there might have been more of the latter. Moreover, often they give no hint that the position they espouse is not necessarily that of all Catholic authorities-e. g., " that prior to the Decian persecution Cyprian regarded apostasy as irremissible." But these are trifling defects indeed, when weighed against the over-all merits of the book. All serious students of sacramental theology and of the liturgy, as well as those engaged in ecumenical dialogue, will find this work an invaluable tool. One awaits eagerly the third (Sacraments and Vocation ) and the remaining volumes of this excellent series. Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington, N. J. GEORGE w. SHEA The Analogy of Learning. By TAD GuziE, S. J. Preface by R. J. HENLE, S. J. New York: Sheed and Ward, Inc., 1960. Pp. xiv + ~14, with index. $5.00. This book, written by a Jesuit scholastic, bears the descriptive subtitle , "An Essay toward a Thomistic Psychology of Learning." As such, the work should be regarded as a study in foundations, and the reader should not be disappointed if he finds here chiefly a concern with the origin of ideas, with only a minimum of applications for the classroom which most of us identify as the learning situation. This is not meant as a criticism. It is intended only as a guideline for those who may not understand the scope of the book from its unusual title. Indeed at this moment of intellectual history the more fundamental type of study which Mr. Guzie has so eminently made within a theoretical psychology based upon the nature of man has never been needed so urgently. BOOK REVIEWS 665 As Father Henle aptly remarks in the preface, " The reader will not find here any dry rehash of textbook Thomism or even a scholarly investigation of issues crucial in the thirteenth century but no longer of interest or importance in the world of learning." In this context, perhaps the most valuable advance made by Mr. Guzie is the clear and clean lens he offers on the crucial role of the phantasm as an instrument in understanding and as a proximate cause for differences in intellectual attainment. In the haste to reach the nature of the understanding, many " textbook Thomists " so overdraw the human intelligence that it somehow seems to stand as Ryle's "ghost in a machine." As a result, the external senses, especially the sense of touch, are often dismissed with a few generalities, and the internal senses fare only a little better. Mr. Guzie's case for the importance of the phantasm to human understanding is a refreshing emphasis on the human soul's operation as a form in matter. Why does the physicist see so much more than a layman when they each contemplate, say, the definition of energy? According to Mr. Guzie, " the cause of whatever content the intellect is able to grasp in any single act of understanding is the phantasm. And thus, it is the presence of phantasms gradually built up to become rich in potential meaning that is the causal source of the depth of actual meaning known by our accomplished physicist...." (p. Hl8). Because of the varying function of the image in various types of learning-the acquisition of skills, of...