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DOI: 10.1177/0040563963024003251963 24: 516Theological Studies

James CollinsBook Review: Essai sur l'agir humain

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516 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

astical and religious superiors. Indeed, R. himself is not always fair; thushe refers repeatedly to Teilhard's "condemnation and exile by his Church."

The truth is that refusal of an imprimatur need not imply condemnation;many other factors have to be considered, such as the judgment that anexposition involving theological teaching may be formulated in terminologyfor which the Catholic reading public is ill-prepared. And permission grantedby superiors to accept invitations to take part in scientific expeditions canhardly be called exile. Certainly the statement on p. 17 that Teilhard wasforbidden "to hold any office or publish during his lifetime any of his writings" is quite untrue. Many of his writings were published throughout his

active life in reputable Catholic journals such asEtudes',and as for holdingoffice, Teilhard occupied a number of responsible positions, although he wasnever a religious superior. But that is the case with most Jesuits, especiallythose who have received highly specialized training in scholarly fields. Whydissipate the unique gifts of Teilhard by making him a superior, a positionin which there would be little scope for the exercise of his scientific genius?

Several other inaccuracies occur, such as the suggestion that in Teilhard'sview the line between animal and man was crossed often during long periodsof time and in a number of areas. Actually Teilhard argues, on the purely

scientific plane, against this hypothesis, and in TL Phenomenon of Mancomes to the conclusion that the science of man can decide convincingly infavor of monophyletism.

In spite of a few shortcomings of this kind, R. conveys an idea of thereasons which underlie Dr. Tindell Hopwood's appreciation of Teilhard deChardin: "When the history of his time comes to be written it may well befound that he did more to influence the development of French thought,and hence of European thought, than any other man of his generation."

St.Mary^sCollege,Kansas CYRIL VOLLERT, S.J.

ESSAI SUR L'AGIR HUMAIN. By Joseph de Finance, S.J. Analecta Gre-goriana126. Rome: Gregorian Univ. Press, 1962. Pp. 444. $4.70.

Fr. de Finance's philosophical achievements are just now beginning toattract the wider attention which they have always deserved. His professional work in philosophy began with his 1938 dissertation on to-be andto-act in the philosophy of St. Thomas, which could not be published in full

until 1945. It was followed by his comparative study of reflection in St.Thomas and Descartes, his book on existence and freedom, and his treatiseon general ethics. All these books were marked by an attractive combination of a thorough knowledge of the classical sources in philosophy, a pro-

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BOOK REVIEWS 517

found rethinking of both St. Thomas and Marchal, and a sensitivity to

the actual problems and prevailing modes of thought of our time. Thus hewas able to avoid the two easy pitfalls of rigid repetition of Thomistic thesesand equally rigid refusal to use the metaphysics of St. Thomas himself intreating contemporary issues.

When I reviewed his dissertation for THEOLOGICAL STUDIES (8 [1947]173-76), I was struck by two sentences: the experienced real does not consist ofesseand essences but of existent beings which haveesseand essence;and for a finite being, to be is also to surpass oneself in action. With thefirst of these positions, de Finance achieved a balance which enabled him to

weather the excesses of existentialism and essentialism which moved likethe tides during the intervening years. And with the second proposition helaid the foundation for his present book on human to-act or action. Consistent with a briefly sketched theory of explanation, the analysis of humanaction is carried out on four planes, the first three of which (psychological,phenomenological, and metaphysical) minister to the fourth or ethical approach. One original feature of this book, then, is its persistent effort torelate the phenomenological views of action found in Janklvitch and

Ricoeur to a metaphysics of existent beings and God and an ethical view ofhuman action. This procedure differs from some attempts to move directlyfrom the phenomenology of human action to a religious and ethical interpretation. Here, as well as in his dissertation, de Finance rightly holds thatthere is no tenable contrast between the God of philosophers and the livingGod, unless one artificially restricts the metaphysical meaning of esse,act,action, and causality.

In its general plan, the study begins with motivation as the mark ofhuman action, relates motive with desire, then considers the relation be

tween freedom and the ideal sought by human reason, and focuses all thefindings upon the concluding study of man's task in the world. The themeof the concluding part is particularly significant. Theists have been criticized for several generations now by secular humanists, Marxists, and someexistentialists for referring man to God and thus for diverting human actionfrom its temporal responsibilities. Clearly, the response to such criticismcannot consist in abandoning the transcendent reference or in making afoggy, and basically dishonest, transition from experience to God without

showing the epistemological and metaphysical principles which would support that transition. What is required is a renewed inspection of the dynamism of human action, in order to show more carefully that it is essentiallycomposite or directed both toward God and toward work in the world.Hence, de Finance includes his actional inference to God within the broader

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518 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

framework and concludes his analysis with an account of man's full task inthis world. This contexting of a treatment of God in the full range of human

aims is a major point worked out here.The detailed analyses raise many issues which will deepen our appre

ciation of human action. For instance, the author is well aware from readingHartmann, Scheler, and other axiologists thathecannot simply equate valueand the good. Nevertheless, he suggests that there may be more resourcesin the theory of the good for treating some contemporary aspects of valuetheory than is usually realized. Again, the suggestion is made that knowledgeof the good by way of connatural inclination is nothing esoteric but is by

far the most ordinary, yet least examined, source of our knowledge of thegood. In this connection, de Finance also breaks out of the whirlpool ofarticles on the natural desire of God by using the theme of the human ideal.God's presence introduces into me a principle of interior tension andself-surpassing, out of which comes my ideal for the life of action. The aim oftheistic analysis is to show that in some respect my human ideal is also mypersonal mode of being open to the personal fulness of God.

One final indication that this book is well balanced, as well as aware ofcontemporary tendencies, is found in its treatment of negation. Somehow,

de Finance has managed to recognize the great importance of negativeaspects in human action, without himself becoming mesmerized by thecurrent fashion of dialectical negativity. He makes a generous but sobercriticism of Hegel on the metaphysical grounds of the meaning of finitebeings, and of Sartre on the phenomenological and metaphysical grounds ofthe relation of being and negation in human awareness.

Looking at all this from an American standpoint, I consider de Finance'sstudy of human action to be quite relevant to present philosophical prob

lems.We can all find some common ground for discussion on the terrain ofman the agent. What this book does is to situate the study of action in acontext of other aspects of man and to stress the need for using severalmodes of analysis and inference. Fortunately, there is a project underwaynow for translating the works of de Finance into English. Thus his ideaswill be introduced into the mainstream of philosophical argument here,doubtless with good effect.

Saint Louis University JAMES COLLINS

DICTIONARY OF MORAL THEOLOGY. Compiled under the direction ofFrancesco Cardinal Roberti. Edited by Msgr. Pietro Palazzini. Translatedfrom the 2nd Italian edition under the direction of Henry J. Yannone.Westminster, Md.: Newman, 1962. Pp. xxxvii + 1352. $25.00.

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