490 - Revelation and Truth: Unity and Plurality in Contemporary Theology

Revelation and Truth: Unity and Plurality in Contemporary Theology
By Thomas G. Guarino
Scranton, University of Scranton Press; London and Toronto, Associated University Presses, 1993. 228 pp. $38.50.

This book is a carefully argued defense of theological pluralism in contemporary Roman Catholicism. The author, who teaches in the Graduate School of Theology at Seton Hall University, tries to do justice to the full range of Catholic positions on the issues but does not disguise his preference for a "commensurable pluralism" that avoids both the rigid monism of neoscholasticism and the chaos of an unchecked "random pluralism" of method. He finds support for his position in many of the leading theologians of the twentieth century, including both existential and transcendental Thomists. Moreover, he insists that older Catholic tradition, including St. Thomas himself, authorizes and even requires a plurality of theological approaches without compromising the integrity of the depositum fidei.

Apart from a few brief references to Karl Barth, Guarino remains almost wholly within the self-enclosed world of Catholic theology. The most interesting foray beyond it is the discussion of recent philosophy of science (especially the writings of Thomas S. Kuhn) as an analog to issues of theological epistemology.

Garrett Green
Connecticut College
New London, CT.