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Book Review: All That Is: A Naturalistic Faith for the Twenty-first Century. By Arthur Peacock. Edited by Philip Clayton. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Pp. 219. $22. ISBN 978-0-8006-6227-1

the desires of one person necessarily collide with the desires of others. Such conflict is resolved by a desire for communion. But such a resolution requires a certain renunciation of one’s personal desires, a death, a self-denial, in order to build a ‘we.’ ‘Tragic misfortune’ refers to the situations of human failure that result from a refusal to consent to communion. It has its roots in a refusal of the death and renunciation that is inherent in tragedy and wherein lies its creative capacity. Only forgiveness, which re-establishes communion, can address situations of ‘tragic misfortune.’ It is this kind of thinking, L suggests, that can escape the suffocating power of evil which leaves us without hope and that in fact allows for a well-grounded hope. He then moves to speak about God from the perspective of desire, tragedy and tragic misfortune. This necessarily leads to the paschal mystery, and a much more radical meaning for redemption than merely victory over evil. Jesus transforms the ‘tragic misfortune’ of destruction into the tragedy of love. In this way, L’s explorations effectively enable suffering to be disentangled from evil as such, and thus to be ‘correctly understood.’ They also lead L to the mystery of the Trinity as mutual exchange, ‘the law of the other’ as fundamental moral principle, and the theme of God as Gift. In the course of his reflections, L reiterates his argument for ontological discourse in theology, laments the disuse and neglect of logic in analytical philosophy, and applauds current renewals in this area (p. 112). Finally, albeit briefly, L proceeds to a hopeful vision of authentic globalization (p. 124ff): ‘perhaps globalization, like Christendom in former times, is the projection of hope of the kingdom of heaven’ (p. 126). Given a simpler and more accessible approach and a less academic style of writing, this volume, compared to his other works, offers a most helpful and instructive introduction to this significant European Catholic theologian’s thought. It also offers a synthesis of a lifetime of scholarship, teaching, prayer, and reflection. Born in 1928 and now entering his eighties, L writes in the preface: ‘There are times when a theologian of a certain age is invited to write a short, synthetic initiation, somewhat simplified and more readable than what he has written to date’ (p. viii). More readable it certainly is, but still by no means easy. Such is true to what L describes as ‘the demanding task of Christian reflection.’ ANNE HUNT Australian Catholic University, Ballarat