The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

1~0 BOOK REVIEWS questions of philosophy are in effect simply questions of language. Quine hopes to avoid this position by a " semantic assent," a shift from talking in certain terms to talking about them, e. g., from talking of miles to talking of "mile." This is the attempt, finally, to reach the object. This question of the object, of what there is, is shared by philosophy with geography and astronomy, by physics and even pure mathematics. All that distinguishes the " ontological philosopher's " concern is breadth of categories and a scrutiny of an uncritical acceptance of the realm of physical objects or of classes. The philosopher's task, then, can differ only in detail. But this view of Quine once more leaves the philosopher only as an analyst, a critical commentator, of what others have said. The philosopher has the task " of making explicit what had been tacit, and precise what had been vague; of exposing and resolving paradoxes, smoothing kinks, lopping off vestigial growths, clearing ontological slums" (p. ~75). The value of such work cannot be denied. How it will resolve into any " ontic decision " worthy of the name is another question. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. JoHN A. OEsTERLE Christianity in Conflict: A Catholic View of Protestantism. By JoHN A. HARDoN, S. J. Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, 1959. Pp. 300. $4.50. In this sequel to his excellent descriptive manual, which was entitled The Protestant Churches of America, Father Hardon has attempted to provide Catholic readers with a comprehensive and readable appraisal of contemporary Protestant thought and practice. The result is a book which is certainly readable but something less than comprehensive, for the focus of attention is upon the author's special area of competence with regard to Protestantism in the United States. Father Hardon rightly argues that Protestants and Catholics should cooperate against the rising tide of secularism. If they are to do this intelligently, they must have more than a superficial knowledge of their respective points of view. Furthermore, the rising interest in Christian unity among Protestants and the emphasis given to it by Pope John's convocation of the approaching general council call for more studies of the kind which Father Hardon has undertaken. In addition, the apostolate of good will on the part of Catholics, which is a vital obligation for both laity and clergy, requires a knowledge of the extent and the limits of the common ground which Catholics and Protestants hold together. BOOK REVIEWS 121 That common ground has been much reduced since the sixteenth century, and nowhere is this mdre evident than in the liberal Protestantism which prevails so widely in the United States. When Luther insisted upon the supreme authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, he was not taking a stand against Catholicism's traditional view so much as he was opposing the antinomian assertions of the Anabaptists. Yet, the end of the matter was the separation of the inspired Word from its roots in the community of the faithful and an increasing rejection of the place of tradition. As Father Rardon says, the real point of difference between Protestants and Catholics was not the authority of the Word of God, but the question of who has the right to interpret it. Insistence upon the grace given to the individual believer to make his own interpretation led finally to the dichotomy which today separates the fundamentalist minority from the liberal majority of Protestants in the United States. Among the latter the Scriptures are not infrequently thought of as the mythological manifestation of developing religious insights but hardly as necessary channels of salvation. Father Rardon points out that in recent years a certain reversal of trends in Protestant Biblical studies has led, as in the work of Cullmann, to at least a greater appreciation not only of the role of the Church in its historical relation to Scripture but also of the way in which the New .Testament establishes the idea of the Church's organic unity from its first foundation by Our Lord. If this trend continues, it may do much to regain part of the common ground which was lost in...