Mixed Pasture
Redeeming the Time. By Jacques Maritain. (Bles. 12s. 6d.) THE opinions of one of the most eminent Catholic philosophers of the day on the problems of our time cannot fail to be interesting, and M. Maritain has much to say that is of importance. A reader, however, may be misled by the title and form of the book into supposing that he has before him a continuous treatise, whereas, in fact, what is really offered is a collection of essays on such various subjects as the Metaphysics of Bergson, Human Equality, the Political Ideas of Pascal and the Jewish Question ; the unity of the book is provided by the fact that all problems are approached from the standpoint of the Thomist Philosophy. No doubt it is a manifestation of original sin, but one reader at least must confess to a certain feeling of irritation at finding St. Thomas so monoton- ously right. The essays are of unequal merit and seem to be written for different classes of readers. One on the Natural Mystical Experience is too much concerned with interpretations within the framework of the Scholastic Philosophy to be of much value to those who do not start with that metaphysic as a datum, while it leaves out of account some important work by non-Roman Catholic scholars such as Rudolf Otto. The essay on Sign and Symbol is tentative and, strangely, seems to have been written without reference to Edwyn Bevan's Gifford Lectures. Two essays, how- ever, are of outstanding value and significance—that upon Bergson and that on the Mystery of Israel. In writing about Bergson, M. Maritain is at his best.. As a pupil and friend of the author of Creative Evolution, he is able to write of him with warm affection and understanding of the progress of his thought ; as one who has passed out of the school of his master into an opposed camp, he can write with a critical spirit which has no touch of bitterness. It would be difficult to find a better appreciation and critical estimate of the great French philosopher in a short compass. Briefly, it may be said that Maritain draws a distinctibn between the creative intuition which is at' the heart of Bergson's metaphysics and the. conceptual forms in which he embodies it ; the former is, Maritain thinks, of permanent value, while the latter contains errors
- which prevented it from expressing all that .the original insight contained. The crucial point of the difference between Bergson and his critic is the alleged intuition of " duration," with the allied doctrine of the reality of change apart from things that change. . Naturally one who writes from a Thomist and Aristotelian stand- point must maintain, as Maritain does, that the true reality and the ultimate object of intuition is not movement but being. The pages which Maritain devotes to Bergson's later conclusions. on Morality, Religion and Mysticism are models of delicate discrimina- tion. The chapter on the Mystery of Israel will no doubt be dismissed by many readers as vitiated by theological assumptions which they do not accept, but even they will be the wiser for seeing what one who takes a somewhat literal view of the prophecies about the Jews has to say about the problem of anti-Semitism. "The Jewish problem is a problem without a solution," so Maritain holds, except that spoken of by St. Paul, the reintegration of the people of God by the conversion of the Jews to the Christian faith. Partial solutions must be found and the horrors of anti-Semitism must be put down ; but " Israel is a mystery of the same order as the mystery of the world or the mystery of the Church." M. Maritain has not lost his power of lighting up truth by darting phrases ; one on the causes of Jewish unpopularity may be quoted: " They do not know how to make people forgive them their success." ' W. R. MArrxEws.
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