RELIGIOUS BOOKS by Henry St. John, 0.P.

It is hardly yet realised among Catholics that modern critical scholarship has brought about a new way of approach to the understanding of the Scriptures as the history of salvation, that God in His redeeming love has provided for us. To grasp this to the full we must be instructed, in a new way, bow to understand God's Word to us.
In A Sketch Book of Biblical Theology by Joseph Blenkinsopp (Burns and Oates 25s.), a wellknown Scripture scholar has given us a series of discussions of key issues in the way Gatho-. lies must now learn how to use the Bible as the source and nourishment of their faith. as it is given to the Church in the inspired Scriptures. He discusses biblical theology, the nature of revelation, he inspiration of Scripture and what it involves and does not involve, the relation of the Old Testament to the New. biblical imagery, salvation history and much else.
The book will be useful, particularly, to priests who wish to prepare themselves for biblical preaching on 'he good news of redemption, aid to be leaders in promoting parochial study groups, in order to persuade people to enter more deeply into the mind of the Church as it is expressed in the Old and New Testaments, and even, in the interests of unity, to start joint Bible study groups at parochial level, to include Anglicans. Free Churchmen and Catholics working together.
The Bible and History edited by William Barclay (Lutterworth Press 50s.) will prove of great use in helping to work out, in practice, the common view that is possible, in these days, for separated Christians to take of the Bible as God's Word. It relates the history of the chosen people, the old and the new Israel, to the world, in which, as the People of God, it found itself from very early times. The authors are Protestant scholars teaching in universities and colleges in England, Scotland and the U.S.A.
Understanding Biblical Research by Louis Alonso Seholtel (Burns and Oates t6s.) is a small paperback which compresses into just over a hundred pages a succinct history of the growth and line of development of biblical studies within the Catholic Church, from the Reformation to the present day, It describes the remarkable revolution in biblical understanding and the historical process which brought it about, very slowly at first, hut with astonishing speed during the last twenty or thirty years, so that today Protestants and Catholics can work together peacefully in united study of God's Word, not always agreeing, but with full understanding. The knowledge contained in this small book is essential for any Catholic who wishes to understand how modern research, jointly carried out and shared, has had the effect of changing our way of viewing the place of the Bible in the Church, and in Christianity at large, without substantial change in our belief that it is indeed the Word of God to men.
The God of Christians by Marie F.. -gues (Geoffrey ,Chapman 42s.) has been written primarily for those who teach religion to children. It is simple in the best sense, though at the same time profound. In consequence it is well suited to adults, as it means of introducing them to the deeper aspects of human life, in which God is seen to be of supreme importance. and where to recognise this demands the kind of faith. child-like, which even the most intelligent, acute and learned must have.
The basis of the whole book is biblical : it opens with creation, spells out salvation-history centred in Christ and His Church, and ends with the last things and the consummation of all things in Christ, when God will be all in all.