PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Source: CrossCurrents, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1955), pp. 276-281

Published by: Wiley
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 276 CROSS CURRENTS

we are to have the

important debtcourage to let our t
rewarding book
selves go and put our trust in another
whom we have never seen.
(Pantheon), alrea
pages in the Ger
nizes the effect of modern ideas of 8
health on Christian asceticism, and con
fronts the paradox embodied in the Also noted. Reinhold Niebuhr and
statements "Holiness is health" and Richard Fagley discuss the Evanston
"Holiness leads to disease"—it is resolved Assembly's International Affairs repor
only on the Cross. Goldbrunner urges in Christianity and Society (Spring
. . . The April Blackfriars contained
a more positive approach to the natural
demands of the body, reminding us of F. H. Drinkwater's "Conversation on

St. Francis' tardy recognition, "I wasthe Hydrogen Bomb" and Sir Desmo
too hard on Brother Ass". An ideal of Morton's "Morality in International
holiness as the sum of all virtues im lations". As in his recent Commonweal
article, Father Drinkwater, while refus
poses an oppressive imitation: "a man
becomes spiritually ill when he lives
ing a pacifist position, feels that a Chris
against his truth". "A formation of life,
tian has a moral obligation (whether as
an individual or in the formation of
which, though it may be ideal, is foreign
to the soul, impedes the formationnational
of policy) to shun the use of
the individual personality, makes mass-destruction
it a weapons such as the A
lie, and leads to illness, neurosis." In and Η bombs . . . The same issue of
the last part of the book GoldbrunnerBlackfriars contains a perceptive com
discusses the effects of faith, hope and mentary on the recent Italian films, by
charity on psychical health. Here again Maryvonne Butcher. She recognizes the
there are brief but significant insights,implicit criticism they contain that reli
as in the interpretation of the often misgion and government are doing little to
used, "See how the birds of the air alleviate the human situation, salutes de
never sow, or reap, or gather grain into Sica's Umberto D as a great film, re
barns"; we are not here receiving a rash quiring a new direction in future Ital
consolation, but are being exposed ian to efforts if they are not to appear as
total fear, and in the midst of this fearanti-climactic.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

1 series of positive principles which ori
ginate in the most fundamental sources
From Protestantism to the Church. of Catholic truths. Salvation by faith
This is the English title of a workalone
in did not mean for Luther and Cal
vin (or the most faithful Protestants
French (published by Editions du Cerf)
by Father Louis Bouyer which suggests
after them) that man is not really justi
by its depth, importance and ecumeni
fied, but simply that in salvation noth
cal concern Newman's Apologia. The
ing comes from man, and that every
first 144 pages are concerned with thingde is the work of the all-powerful
monstrating that the famous "Protes grace of God Himself, which, in Christ,
tant" formulas, sola fide, sola gratia,saves us. Similarly, "to God alone be
soli Deo gloria, customarily reduced bythe glory" does not mean an arbitrary
Catholic preachers to a completely predestination
ex with which Calvinism is
trinsic conception of justification, are a
often identified. Nor did the primacy

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NOTES ON OTHER PUBLICATIONS 277

of Scripture initially signify th

tion of Tradition, but only the re
of those "pseudo-traditions" w
the 16th century seemed to
"added" something to the uniqu
of God in Christ Jesus. to be understood. This would help to
These positive principles of the Re- explain how Protestantism in the course
formation—which are, after all, vindi- of time would oscillate between a rigid
cated by the Council of Trent—can aid orthodoxy, in which God and salvation
modern Catholics to a useful examina- are completely unknowable, and a prag
tion of conscience. The author would matism of feeling and religious experi
appear to believe that there is a tend- ence which would end in a Pelagianism
ency to an excessively "humanistic" which Luther wished to combat,
conception of religion, and that Catho- ln the second part, the author some
lies need to be reminded that they do times uses violent formulas that may
not achieve their own salvation, that the wound other Christians, but it is an
sacraments are not magic but precisely immense love of the positive values of
the strongest of all affirmations that it the Reformation that animates the book
is not man that saves man but God as a whole,
alone, in the rites to which he has at
tached the always living and always ac- 2
tual power of Christ the Saviour. Catho
lics ought to show more clearly that the Liturgical Piety. Fath
cult of the saints is only one aspect of ajso aut;hor of this first
an essential vision, recognizing that it projected series of boo
is the grace of God alone, though in a to he published by the No
privileged manner in Mary, which versity Press, embodying
saves; they should be more conscious of given at the liturgical sum
the privileged place of Scripture in all directed by Father Mathi
the acts of the Magisterium and in authority than Josef Jungm
preaching. siders this a significant book which
Bouyer then addresses himself to the should perform a work similar to th
problem of how a religious movement achieved by the earlier Spirit of the
whose central points of emphasis were Liturgy of Romano Guardini. In fac
traditional gave rise to a schism, and a careful reading will make quite clea
ultimately to heresy. He feels that Pro- the remarkable progress achieved
testantism has allowed its conception of both historical and theological studi
grace to be such as leaves man in his 0£ the sacraments in the 30 years sin
sin, and that in Barth s system God is the appearance of Guardini's smaller
forbidden to come to man. For Bouyer study. Although rewarding, readers
the Reform was insufficiently radical, Bouyer's earlier Paschal Mystery w
because it was made with insufficiently he prepared for profound scholarsh
criticized materials of the philosophi- some technical discussions, and a som
cal framework of nominalism. If God what difficult style. Father Jungma
is relegated to a transcendence which writes:
makes him totally inaccessible to the .
world, and if on the other hand, no real The ^urgical piety
β . t_ ι courageous book speaks does not sig
relation between beings can be estab- nj£y a pjety w
lished, since they are prisoners of an of liturgica

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 278 CROSS CURRENTS

quent references to
is it fully identifia
oriented towards th
Casel's sense of that term. The con

cept of Mysterium is indeed central, 2

but it has rather the meaning given
it by St. Paul: It is God's Plan of
Salvation, which was revealed and Plato. While the unsurpassed inex
realized in time, with the Cross of haustibility of Plato's wisdom is one of
Christ
chmax; and His Resurrection
which, as as
thethe the
Wordgreatest
oftreasures
God, of , Western
° 1 phi
calls the Church together and awak- losoPhY
ens in her the echo of thanksgiving; *s willing
which, in the sacraments, makes pos- fold se
sible our transition from the earthly written
world to the world of the Risen One. taxe
The original work of redemption is , , , . . , .,
not really, therefore (as with Casel), philogists and the ingenu
regarded as being made present in the phers. The burden of P
cultus, but the latter is looked upon ship is indeed heavy, an
as the extension of that re-newal of who is committed to an in
f„7ÄsuScSn Wi'h 'he Cr°SS * capab
This majestic conception is then de- ™al,nS somf °[ t
veloped eloquently, and with ever Plato s wisdom. Recen
new applications, in terms first of all men have added, collec
of the Eucharistie celebration—the worthy contribution to P
worship of hearing and responding to ship: two have honored
God s Word, the Eucharistie Prayer, , , , , . '
and the consummation of the Sam- b>' vlSorous and
fice—then of the priestly ministry, the °f his thought,
Sacraments of Initiation, the Church eloquent and
Year, and the Divine Office (pp. 70- thought and cha
242). Small wonder that the indivi- em detra(tors
dual elements of the liturgy begin to
shine with a new light, that the assem- The first sc
bled community of the Church be- discuss is Pro
comes significant, that the Psalms take tinguished ph
on a powerful New Testament ring, ° r ° ,. r , ;
that Easter once again becomes the unknown to the English-
Feast, and that an Easter-centered, It is regrettable and to s
grateful orientation of mind and heart excusable that Italian
appears as most fitting for a true classical Greek philoso
Christian! largely unacknowledged only
By way of introduction, the author h unfamiliar> even tQ so
in his characteristically spirited style
sketches, in a few chapters, the his- competent scholars, and
torical background for the liturgical any attention should be d
movement which our age seems called fundamental and indis
upon to achieve: a renewal orien- as ^ Guzzo's unsurpassed
tated towards the ideas above men- . f , Λ η ι- ·· ι ·,ι
tioned, true to tradition, and yet the Theaetetus, A. Carlini s l
readily adaptable to present condi- translation and perceptive comment
tions and needs. This historical on the Metaphysics and L. Stefanini'
sketch studies the piety of the Bar- exhaustive interpretation of th
oque period, the artificial restoration tonic skepsis in his two-volume Plat
of the medieval liturgy at Solesmes _
and of the antique forms of art at Enn
Beuron, and the beginnings of the tonic s

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NOTES ON OTHER PUBLICATIONS 279

of a brilliant translation and

ary of the complete Plato, pu
an elegant yet highly functio
edition under the title: Piatone, I an incorrigible dualist of Manichean
Dialoghi, L'Apologia e le Epistole, ver- bent, in a vigorous and suggestive phrase
sione e interpretazione di Enrico Tur- of Augustinian inspiration: "... sha
olla; Rizzoli, Milano-Roma, 1953. The dows are not deceptive; they are rather
translation itself, although excellent, defective and inceptive." Plato does
will not interest the English-speaking indeed urge that we escape from the
reader as much as the extremely percep- world but such an escape is conditioned
tive interpretation. by a knowledge of precisely those aspects
The twenty odd years that Turolla of the world, identified in theological
has spent in a loving and laborious language as "evil" and "the flesh", fro
search for Plato's wisdom have yielded which one ought to escape. In the fina
many rich and revealing insights. That General Conclusion' Turolla focusses
rare virtue of humility, which is recom- upon the 'Myth of the Sun' (Rep., Bk
mended as an indispensable motif for VI) as the most revealing and clearest
understanding Plato, Turolla himself expression of the fundamental message
admirably practises, as he offers us a °f Platonism; in conjunction with his
dialectically elusive and essentially reli- insistence on the first hypothesis of th
gious man whose full thought he never Parmenides (which is, he believes, th
for a single moment presumes to know. key to the whole dialogue as the dia
This moral disposition becomes me- logue itself expresses the essence of Pla
thodologically and philosophically fruit- tonism) -that the One participates in
ful the moment it is transformed into no essence whatsoever, transcending a
that metaphysical humility which treas- it does every principle of unity, essence
ures a profound sense of human inade- and existence—he has released Plato
quacy and insufficiency in the face of from the rigid, logical' and sectarian
Divine Wisdom, yet surges, through a categories into which his thought has
mounting convergence of motifs, both s° often been pressed, and has capture
mythical and rational, poetic and dialec- for us precisely that unfinished qualit
tical, to that ineffable, apophatic vision *n which Plato's greatness most justl
of the Supreme One-God that constitutes lies- Hence it is that Turolla explicit
the crux and apex of human experience. acknowledges the unfinished charact
Turolla insists on the Osiric-Pytha- of his own interpretation precisely be
gorean sources (both mythico-religious cause Plato s philosophy is itself un
and mathematical) that he finds to be finished based as it is on his inexhaus
both explicit and latent in Plato's con- tible wisdom.
sciousness, and frequently evokes the Indeed, the whole range of the Di
remarkable affinity between his moral logues themselves should be read as pr
grandeur and such revealed and central faces and experienced as adumbrations
Scriptural themes as 'The Just One of a wisdom that can be consummate
Condemned' (especially pronounced in only in an eschatological vision. In
the Gorgias) and 'God is the measure sum, it is utterly impossible to honor
of all things' which pervades the entire Turolla's long labour of love withou
corpus of Plato's writings. While insist- reading his brilliant, eloquent and i
ing on the 'transcendental' and 'idealis- cisive commentary itself. Yet a fina
tic' Eleatic-Pythagorean sources of word concerning the organization o
Plato's philosophy Turolla yet dis- the books might encourage some to read

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 280 CROSS CURRENTS

them: a long int

mo e idee nel si
forth the frame
rolla moves thro
mentaries to each
final, synoptic 'G
analytic index an
of 'difficult term
language of Plato
guides to a medi
text itself. though brief, is well worth reading as
A remarkable and, to the student of it elicits focal poin
Plato, highly encouraging convergence logue; and the bib
of minds on the meaning of the Dia- should neither be o
logues may be seen in the recent book ly looked at.
by the eminent French classical scholar, The third book
Pierre-Maxime Schuhl: L'Oeuvre de is by an American sch
Platon, Librairie Hachette, Paris, 1954. Levinson: In Defense of Plato, Harvard
In this little book of some 200 pages University Press, 1953. Prof. Levinson
M. Schuhl has compressed the full has undertaken the un-wanted and ter
weight of his vast knowledge of Greek ribly exacting task of defending Plato
culture in general and of Plato's philoso- against the unjust charges of his militant
phy in particular. We do not wish to modern detractors—Chapman, Fite,
force a concordance of texts where such Crossman and Winspear—whose com
may not be found; yet we cannot escape posite views have been crystallized by
responding to what is there, and what Karl Popper in vol. I of The Open So
we find at the very outset are these ciety and its Enemies entitled 'The
words: "Plato is without doubt the Spell of Plato.' The enviable range and
greatest name in the history of philoso- textual precision of Levinson's scholar
phy . . . He owes his preeminence to ship, both historical and philosophical,
the richness and depth of his thought, serve as powerful instruments for de
to the extreme variety of those talents stroying Popper's polemical obstinacy
and gifts which are rarely united in the and propagandistic obsession. Apart
same degree in any one author." Tu- from legitimate and defensible differ
rolla and Schuhl both display the happy ences of philosophical beliefs, what can
faculty of eliciting focal points from the not be excused, what must not go un
labyrinthine dialectic of the Dialogues, challenged is the distorted mis-reading
thus making possible a synoptic vision of another man's written words. It is
of the essential Plato. Schuhl too in- on this precise point that Levinson's
sists on the Pythagorean sources of Pia- work is eminently successful for he has
to's philosophy, on the peculiar synthe- shown, passage after passage, reference
sis of a dialectic of love and a science by reference, how Popper's Plato is based
of logic, on the decisive difference be- on a constant expanding and narrowing
tween the necessity and justice of a di- of the textual evidence to suit the wax
vinely inspired art and the unholy, un- ing and waning of his private propagan
necessary and inferior character of 'imi- distic purposes; and how Popper
tative' art (Turolla's analysis of the wrenches passages out of context, there
Phaedrus advances some of the most by yielding at best half-truths, at worst
sensible ideas yet written on the nature false generalizations. In sum, Levinson

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NOTES ON OTHER PUBLICATIONS 281

has demonstrated how Popper's

tent perversion of Plato is simp
jection of his own private ideol
aspirations, some of which may
be noble and well worth defend
though they should never be su
for the actual recorded thought
aspirations of another person. A
torical work should be read neither Socratic" tradition, nor again was he
apologetically nor polemically; neither the totalitarian ghoul that Popper seems
should it be read as a monologue. Per- to enjoy describing. Moreover, granted
haps one ought not to be too severe the limitations of Plato's vision of man,
with Popper, for one should not expect his un-historical, 'essentialistic' orienta
to find in a man trained in the analy- tion and his sympathy for the 'un-demo
tico-tautological categories of logical cratic' practises of Spartan society, the
positivism the degree of complexity re- issue can still not be settled on a simple
quired for the exercise of that historical- either/or, black-or-white basis: care
mindedness that is indispensable for fully documented reservations are re
understanding the thoughts of another quired, and as they are gradually un
man. One great advantage of Levin- folded Plato again emerges as that corn
son's historical-mindedness is its capa- plex, subtle and elusive figure that he
city to situate a given doctrine or out- js. m. Schuhl, who has devoted much
look in its proper socio-political context t;me to tbe problem (as we know from
without either condemning or justify- jiis Machinisme et Philosophie), speaks
ing it. Hence it is that Plato's "aristo- q£ plato>s .rehabilitation of the techni.
cratic, anti-humanitarian, totalitarian" . ,·ι_·, .-ι j
, , . , cal arts in his later dialogues, despite a
outlook on sex and marriage, slavery . . .
, , , , ... „ , lingering aristocratic distaste for man
and manual labor, democracy and ο ο
,, f π * . ual work, and even constructs 'a kind of
the common man falls into its proper '
historical place without committing philosophy of work', again despi
either Levinson or any other Platonic misunderstanding of technolog
scholar to those elements in Plato's is. after all, not only a modern but a
thought which are open to criticism pre- pressing contemporary problem.

HISTORY AND HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE

A book that may be profitably read historical knowledge, in the tra

and linked with some of the problems of Dilthey's Geisteswissenschaft
already discussed while raising still new M. Weber's verstehende Soziolog
ones is H-I. Marrou's De la connais- exhibits a well justified distrust
sance historique, Editions du Seuil, torians such as Spengler and To
Paris, 1954; M. Marrou should be who advance grandiose, artificial
known through his two major contribu- somewhat unsupported schemes
tions to the understanding of classical terpreting the secret and pr
antiquity: Saint Augustin et la fin de sense of history, and professes a
la culture antique, and Histoire de needed and healthy skepticism
I'education dans I'antiquite. In his cur- such enterprises. He proposes a
rent book M. Marrou speaks as a phi- humble and far more fruitful 'r
Iosopher meditating on the nature of nominalism', purely methodolog

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