Brief Notices

Curley, Augustine J. (Comp.). New Jersey Catholicism: An Annotated Bibliography. (South Orange, New Jersey: New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission. 1999. Pp. xi, 135. $15.00 paperback.)

The New Jersey Catholic community is the sixth largest among the fifty states and has a recorded history going back a quarter-millennium. Thus New Jersey Catholicism: An Annotated Bibliography published under the auspices of the New Jersey Catholic Historical Records Commission is a welcome scholarly tool as well as a window on a large and diverse local church.

The nearly eleven hundred entries are arranged in helpful groupings including, among others, diocesan histories, internal controversies, religious communities, education, and ethnic groups. The entries are clear, and in most cases two locations are listed for each item. The introduction is helpful in explaining the editorial policy utilized and in directing the reader to wider studies that provide broader background to the New Jersey Catholic experience. As with any work of this scope, there are occasional errors. Thus, the Maronite Diocese of Brooklyn is St. Maron, not St. Sharbel (p. vii), and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Milltown is in Middlesex County rather than Morris County (p. 53). But these are few and far between and do not detract from the overall usefulness of this volume.

In the introduction, the compiler explains that this volume is a "preliminary edition," and solicits the help of the user in adding to and refining the work for subsequent editions. Perhaps one area that might be expanded is the entries on the laity in the section on "Individual and Family Biography." Somewhat peripheral New Jersey Catholics like Will Durant and G. Gordon Liddy made the list, while other individuals who either were reared in Catholic New Jersey or participated more fully in Catholic life from the state--Joyce Kilmer, Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward, Nicola Montani, John Gilmary Shea, Ella Edes, Peter Rodino, and Joseph Tumulty come to mind--are omitted.

The bibliography has been a labor of love undertaken by Father Augustine J. Curley, O.S.B., Benedictine librarian and archivist in Newark. His diligence in searching out sources and shepherding this project from inception to publication is praiseworthy. New Jersey Catholicism is an immensely useful tool both for local historians as well as for those doing research in the larger issues of which the New Jersey Church is a microcosm. Raymond J. Kupke (Seton Hall University)

Leppin, Hartmut. Die KirchenväTer Und Ihre Zeit. [C.H. Beck Wissen in der Beck'schen Reihe, 2141.] (Munich: C.H. Beck. 2000. Pp. 126. DM 14,80.)

This book is, in keeping with the format of its series, of modest size, does not address itself to professional theologians, and does not pretend to break new ground. Nevertheless it is to be recommended, because of the conciseness and clarity of its presentation, to all students of the formative centuries of Christianity. Leppin writes from the perspective of a historian, not that of a theologian or hagiographer, and places his subjects in their historical context. He aims at, and achieves, objectivity. His language is scrupulously neutral: "Nizäner" rather than "orthodox," and "Arianismus" or "Donatismus" in quotation marks. He is aware of confessional differences in approach to and understanding of the Fathers of the Church.

The chronological range of Leppin's book is from the fourth to the sixth century. Within that range he chooses his subjects judiciously: four Fathers of the Church representing the Greek-speaking East, namely, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom; and four Fathers of the Church representing the Latin-speaking West, namely, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, that is, the "Four Doctors of the Church." To each of these eight Leppin devotes a necessarily brief segment consisting of a biographical sketch and some comments on major works. The eight segments are preceded by an introduction and followed by an epilogue, both brief but good. Each of the segments can profitably be read and readily be understood apart...