Review of Urspruenge des Atheismus by Winfried Schröder

Marquette University Theology, Department of

e-Publications@Marquette

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

1-1-2013

Review of Urspruenge des Atheismus by Winfried
Schröder

Ulrich Lehner

Marquette University, ulrich.lehner@marquette.edu

Published version. Theological Studies, Vol. 74, No. 2 (2013): 518-519. Publisher Link. © Theological
Studies, Inc. 2013. Used with permission.

518 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

celebration of the 1910 Edinburg World U rsprünge des A theismus: U nter-
Missionary Conference. A formidable
array of knowledgeable authors con- SUCHUNGEN ZUR METAPHYSIK- UND R E U -
tributed to the symposium.
GIONSKRITIK DES 17. UND 18. JAHR-
The first two articles chart the remark- H u n d e r ts. By Winfried Schröder. 2nd ed.
able history of the World Council of Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 2012.
Churches from two prospectives, Protes- Pp. 645. €148.
tant and Orthodox. The Orthodox writer
revealingly notes considerable tensions This is the second edition of Schroder’s
in the recent Special Commission that 1998 groundbreaking study on the origins
exemplified “the obstreperous and other- of atheism. It differs from the first edition
wise frustrating character of us Orthodox” through an important new essay about
and also the WCC’s “fickleness and obsti- atheism as the topic of philosophical his-
nate refusal to yield a certain de facto toriography and a considerably enlarged
superchurch pretension” (23). and updated bibliography (altogether
80 pages). The latter will be especially
Subsequent articles follow a more appreciated by English-speaking scholars
irenic pattern. Mary Tanner, tracking who are not fully immersed in specialized
the remarkable progress in the Faith literature and new critical editions in
and Order dialogues, affirmed with an French, Italian, German, and Dutch.
early bishop, “We have dared and God
has justified our daring.” Despite the fact that experts in early
modem history regard this work as the (!)
After the four overarching reports, magisterial work on this topic, Anglo-
individual authors describe in succinct American philosophers and theologians
and frank detail the many bilateral dia- are to a great extent still unaware of it.
logues in which the Roman Catholic S. challenges Michael Buckley’s claims
Church is engaged—Lutheran, Method- in A t the Origins of Modem Atheism
ist, Reformed, Pentecostal, Evangelical, (1990) that modem atheism had its
Disciples of Christ, both Eastern and foundation in d’Holbach and Diderot,
Oriental Orthodox, Baptist, and Menno- that historical biblical criticism helped
nite. Each author speaks from a strong the emergence of atheism, and that
theological and experiential background. natural theology was the “midwife” for
atheist thought. Long before Diderot
Jared Wicks in “Lutheran-Roman and d’Holbach published their texts, a
Catholic World-Level Dialogue” under- clandestine milieu existed where manu-
scores four major achievements in the scripts with atheist content circulated. In
ecumenical movement: (1) the faith affir- these texts, authors freely speculated
mation of the World Council of Churches and could do so because they did not
(1948, 1961); (2) Vatican II’s Decree on have to hide their thoughts out of fear of
Ecumenism, Unitatis redintegratio (1964); censorship. It is this clandestine atheist
the WCC Commission on Faith and culture that the author resurrects in his
Order document, Baptism, Eucharist and study and meticulously analyzes. S.’s
Ministry (1982); and finally the break- scholarship, which consequently relativ-
through Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declara- izes what distinguished authors like
tion on the Doctrine o fJustification (1999). Louis Dupré (The Enlightenment and
the Intellectual Foundations o f Modern
Those wanting a more integrated view Culture, 2005) and Charles Taylor (A
of ecumenical achievements might turn Secular Age, 2007) have communicated
to Walter Kasper’s Harvesting the Fruits about the origins and nature of early
(2009), in which he summarizes the posi- atheism, because they relied entirely on
tive convergences of ecumenical dia- Buckley (and Peter Gay). The appendix
logue and lays out a map for the future. gives an overview of the most important
manuscripts and the hitherto published
The Radano collection, however, is a editions (395-526) and thus helps the
great resource for scholars and students reader understand the context of the
of ecumenism who wish for excellent analyzed texts better. It is time that theo-
summations of all the bilateral dia- logians take up this important book and
logues with the Catholic Church. learn from it the complex history of

P a t r i c k J. H o w e l l , S.J.
Seattle University

SHORTER NOTICES 519

modem atheism. An abridged, English understand accurately what the bishops
translation of this important book would
be highly desirable. intended to say through Nostra aetate

U lr ic h L. L ehner and other conciliar documents but also

Marquette University, Milwaukee to appreciate what the postconciliar

A f t e r V a t i c a n II: T r a j e c t o r i e s a n d implementation of this teaching has
H e r m e n e u tic s . Edited by James L.
Heft with John O’Malley. Grand brought, both in success and failure.
Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans, 2012). Pp. xxii
+ 194. $40. In her chapter on Henri de Lubac
(“A Soldier of the Great War: Henri de
This collaborative volume followed Lubac and the Patristic Sources for a
a meeting organized by Heft to discuss Premodern Theology”) Robin Darling
O’Malley’s landmark work, What Hap-
pened at Vatican II. The book is framed Young evaluates the context and contri-
by an introduction by O’Malley (who pre- bution of his thinking and, in particular,
fers to speak of “trajectories” emerging
from the council rather than of its “her- his nostalgic “fabrication” of a patristic
meneutics”) and by Joseph Komonchak’s
closing chapter (“Interpreting the Coun- past. Incidentally, Jean Daniélou died
cil and Its Consequences”). in 1974 (not 1964) and was considered
by very few observers to be “a candidate
Darlene Fozard Weaver (“Vatican II for the papacy” (148).
and Moral Theology”) outlines the
profound shift brought by the move Massimo Faggioli continues to make
from preconciliar moral theology to his mark in Vatican II studies. His
the teaching of Gaudium et spes, chapter (“Between Documents and
Dignitatis humanae, and other conciliar
documents—not least Lumen gentium Spirit: The Case of the ‘New Catholic
with its insistence that all baptized Movements’”) argues that these move-
Christians are called to an exacting and ments have not helped implement the
committed life of holiness. She ends with collegiality and ecclesiology of the local
remarks about the trajectory of post- church that the council espoused from
conciliar moral theology and Pope John the very first document promulgated,
Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis splendor. Sacrosanctum concilium.
Applying the three fundamental issues
proposed by O’M. (change and con- Some contributors continue to speak
tinuity; center and periphery; and of the council “as event” (singular). The
rhetoric and style), Cathleen Kaveny expression can make sense and be justi-
(“The Spirit of Vatican II and Moral fied. But, historically speaking, it seems
Theology: Evangelium vitae as a Case more accurate and illuminating to
Study”) argues that this encyclical, speak of the often dramatic “events”
far from being simply against the spirit (plural) that constituted the run-up to
of Vatican II, embodied many quali- Vatican II, the four years of its being in
ties of moral teaching nourished by session, and its complex aftermath. I
the council. find a similar difficulty with the expres-
sion “the experience of the council.” It
Concerns about the followers of respects better the historical record to
other living faiths inspired the chapters speak of “the experiences” (plural)
by Francis Sullivan (“Vatican II and of Vatican II that affected two popes,
the Postconciliar Magisterium on the individual bishops, national groups of
Salvation of the Adherents of Other bishops, the periti, the observers, the
Religions”) and John Connelly (“The auditors, Catholics and other Christians
Catholic Church and Mission to the around the world, and other people
Jews”). Here it is essential not only to involved in one way or another in the
council’s preparation and history. While

their experiences often converged, they
also remained irreducibly personal. To
speak in the singular of “the experience
of the council” risks selling short the
complex and radical differences between
the ways in which Vatican II was experi-

enced, interpreted, and implemented
(or not implemented).

But, all in all, the contributors to
this volume offer many sharp and