The Wisdom of Faith by Charles Journet, and: Sacra Doctrina by Gerald F. Van Ackeren, S. J. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The Wisdom of Faith. By CHARLES JouRNET. (tr. by R. F. Smith, S. J.) Westminster: Newman, 195~. Pp. ~41. $4.25. Sacra Doctrina. By GERALD F. VAN AcKEREN, S. J. Rome: Catholic Book Agency, 1952. Pp. 135 with index. The question of the nature and functions of Sacred Theology is one that has evoked considerable interest in recent times, and within the past few years these two works, among others, have appeared treating of different aspects of the subject. Msgr. Journet indicates that the principal purpose of his book, as the title suggests, is to explain and elaborate the idea of " the wisdom of faith," which he takes to be identical with Christian doctrine or theology. The first portion of his work-after a preliminary chapter on " The Wisdom of Love," which is a discussion of the wisdom which is the infused gift of the Holy Ghost-is devoted to what he calls " doctrinal," as distinguished from "historical," theology. Here he develops an important idea when he speaks of " ambivalent propositions " (Chapter 2) for he points out that the terms which are predicated of God, such as " one," "good," "wise," are analagous not only as they are terms applied to God and creatures, but also as they are used in natural theology or theodicy and in supernatural theology; for as they are terms used by God to make known to us something of the Divine Essence Itself, they have a meaning simply diverse from that which is attained even in the metaphysics of Uncreated Being. When he begins to discuss more in detail the precise character of doctrinal theology, Msgr. Journet puts the emphasis strongly upon what can be called the " organizational " function of theology. This is for him its principal role, for while insisting that "that which specifies theology and makes it distinct from faith and from natural disciplines is . . . the discursive procedure of reason under the illumination of faith and from the data of faith ... ," he immediately adds: " This discursive procedure can begin with one truth of faith . . . and conclude to another truth of faith. In such a case, the procedure of theology permits us to organize the truths of faith." (p. 43) He quotes with approval a passage from Jacques Maritain wherein this function of theology is called " principal," and theology is said to include "chiefly, the very truths of faith, which are penetrated and connected one to another with the aid of human inference." 255 256 BOOK REVIEWS He makes correspondingly little of the other role of theology, the deducing of new truths from revealed principles, which he calls " the extension of the revealable." To pass so lightly over this function of theology is, of course, to avoid an area filled with problems; to omit, for example, any discussion of the nature of theological conclusions or of the way in which one truth can be contained in another. Perhaps Msgr. Journet had no desire to enter into this field, but the omission of some treatment of it can only be considered as a rather serious defect in a work that professes to give a comprehensive introduction to the nature of theological science. In the second portion of his book Msgr. Journet considers "historical theology." Here again he has recourse to the organizing character of theology ; for whereas he has indicated that the function of doctrinal theology is to discover the internal order of what has been revealed, he makes it the purpose of historical theology to discover the successive order found in the dispensation and unfolding in time of what has been revealed. Here the author makes a distinction between the discipline which is concerned with the historical examination of the sources of theological knowledge on the one hand, and what he terms historical theology on the other. To this former discipline, which he notes is generally called theology, he would not accord the name theology in the full sense. " Rather it appears ... to be but an initial movement, a fundamental phase of doctrinal theology-the phase of topological exposition." (p. 66) The term historical theology he would accord only to a discipline which he concedes "has not yet been founded; nor," he adds...