Church and the world at large during the past three hundred years. Whatever, therefore, will contribute to a fuller understanding of a philosophy which has in practice so uncontrovertibly verified its theory should have an interest not confined to the Society which it directly animates and governs. No small literature contributing to this end has grown up around the Book of the Exercises wherein that philosophy is formulated a literature, however, mainly explanatory and illustrative of the doctrine of the spiritual life as set forth in the Exercises. For a history of the work itself and its use and spread during the early life of the Society the interested student has had to draw upon the large Lives of St. Ignatius by Maffei, Bartoli and Orlandino. In 1700 the Belgian Jesuit, Fr. Diertins, published at Rome his "Historia Exercitiorum Spiritualium," covering the history of the Exercises during the lifetime of St. Ignatius. Death prevented the author carrying the narrative farther. The first edition and a second, published in 1732, are long out of print. The present edition contains, besides the matter of the two former, several documents from the Bollandists pertinent to the early history of the Exercises. The work is intended as fundamental to a Manresan series of books which the Society of Jesus intends publishing.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

DEMON POSSESSION AND ALLIED THEMES, being an instructive study of phenomena of our own times. By Rev. John L. Nevins, D. D. Chicago, New York, Toronto: Heming H. Revell Company. 1896. Price, $1.50.

Origin and Development of the Nicene THEOLOGY. By Hugh M. Scott, D. D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History iu Chicago Theological Seminary. Chicago: Theol. Sem. Press. 1896. Pp. 390.

LIFE AND LETTERS OF FATHER JOHN MORRIS, S. J. (1826-1893). By Father J. H. Pollen, S. 7. London: Burns and Oates, Limited. Received from Benziger Brothers.

PRIMER OF PHILOSOPHY. by Dr. Paul Carus. Revised edition. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Co. 1896. Pp. 242. Price, $1.00.

SCIENCE AND THE CHURCH. By Rev. J. A. Zahm, Ph.D., C.S.C. Chicago: D. H. McBride & Co. 1896. Pp. 299. Price, $1.50.

NATURE OF AN Universe of LIFE. By Leonidas Spratt. Jacksonville, Fla.: Vance Printing Co. 1896. Pp. xii., 210.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE Most Reverend Delegate Apostolic, in a letter which we hastened to make known to the public as soon as received, has decided that (adversely to the opinion expressed on page 890 of our last volume) permission to retain a nominal membership in the three societies recently condemned must, in each individual case, be sought from the Apostolic Delegation. We are sincerely grateful to His Grace for having enlightened us on a point concerning which there had been a wide divergence of opinion, and request our readers to note the correction.

We deem it opportune to reiterate that the editors of this REVIEW do not hold themselves responsible for the opinions expressed in its columns by their contributors, who are at liberty to exercise their ingenuity within that wide debatable region into which the infallible authority of the Church has refused to enter. No other restraints are placed upon our esteemed writers than those imposed by orthodox faith and sincere charity. In thus defining our policy we but repeat the words written by our revered editorin-chief when he assumed the supreme direction of the AMERICAN CATHOLIC QUArterly Review:

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Contributors will be allowed all proper freedom in the expression of their thoughts outside the domain of defined doctrines, the REVIEW not holding itself responsible for the individual opinions of its contributors." (July, 1890.)

Our readers have, no doubt, been pained to learn that one of the ablest and most faithful of our staff of contributors, ARTHUR F. MARSHALL, B. A., has departed this life after long and excruciating sufferings, borne with the heroic Christian fortitude which had sustained him throughout a life of utter self-renunciation. His papers, especially upon the subject of the Anglican schism, were models both in form and matter; and he possessed, in an eminent degree, the art of enforcing his arguments with an inimitable wit, at times pungent, but always charitable. May he rest in peace!

QUARTERLY REVIEW

VOL. XXII.—APRIL, 1897.—No. 86.

AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOK OF ACTS.

HE vivid interest manifested of late in the Book of Acts is

due to the contrariety of opinions concerning its authorship and origin, defended by men whose pride and glory rest on their unwearied, though not always salutary, labors in the field of Scripture study. In a former volume, M. Renan had declared his opinion that "the author of the third Gospel and the Acts was verily and indeed (bien reelement) Luke, a disciple of St. Paul.” In a later instalment of his work he condemns as untenable the view that the first person plural of the later chapters of Acts is derived from some earlier document inserted by the author, on the ground that these portions are identical in style with the rest of the work.' Though this expression of opinion proceeds from a not too conservative critic, and agrees with the unbroken tradition of the past, it does not find much favor in the eyes of Harnack. The latter's own theory' is briefly this: The Acts of the Apostles was ushered in the West into a position of authority first about A.D. 180, being selected for this position on account of the use that could be made of it in the controversy with the followers of Marcion. Irenæus and the writer of the Muratorian Fragment, says the critic, exaggerated with controversial purpose the claims of the book, calling it the "Acts of All the Apostles," and asserting that St. Luke was present at every incident which he describes. But the earlier standing of Acts, according to Harnack, was still preserved in Egypt after A.D. 180. There we find Clement of 2 Les Évangiles, p. 436.

1 Les Apôtres, p. xviii.

3 Cf. Lightfoot, Essays on Supernatural Religion, p. 200. Das N. T. um das Jahr, 200.

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Alexandria using the Acts only as one of many sources for the history of the apostles. Even Zahn says that Clement quotes the "Preaching of Peter" without making any visible distinction of authority between it and the Acts of the Apostles.

One of the most important contributions to the textual criticism and the interpretation of Acts that have appeared in this century is its new edition by the veteran Greek scholar Dr. F. Blass, of Halle. This writer leads a conservative reaction in Germany; he accepts the Lucan authorship and the unity of Acts unhesitatingly. He, moreover, maintains that St. Luke wrote two copies of Acts, slightly divergent from one another, and that our so-called Eastern text of the book springs from one, the Western from the other, of the two Lucan copies. Both texts then have equal authority, provided that we can recover their original from amid the corruptions which have affected them. On the other hand, Prof. W. M. Ramsay' assures us that after mature consideration he is confirmed in the opinion that the text as settled by Dr. Blass is not Lucan; that it has a fatal superficial smoothness, and that it lacks much of the rather harsh but intensely individual style of Luke, neglecting entirely some of the literary forms created by Luke. According to Ramsay, the Western text is really a second century commentary on Acts, the work of one who had no respect for the words, but much for the facts, who wished to make the book complete and clear, who had spoken with some of the actors in the history, or at least with those who had seen some of the actors. The author ascribes to the Western text a distinct and independent value; first, as preserving of said corruptions an independent second century witness, to aid us where all the great uncials are at fault; secondly, as giving the idea entertained about the meaning of the text during the first half of the second century in the churches that lay along the great line of connection between Antioch and Ephesus; and thirdly, as recording on trustworthy independent evidence certain facts which were omitted by Luke.

In order to appreciate the foregoing opinions and others similar to them at their true value, one must be versed in the difficulties and intricacies implied in the question of the authenticity of Acts. We shall, therefore, review, first, the principal adverse theories on the authorship of the book; in the second place, we shall state and examine the main arguments against the Lucan origin of Acts; finally, we shall explain the main reasons that force us to defend the Lucan authorship of Acts in its full extent and its traditional simplicity.

1 Cf. Acta Apostolorum . . . . edidit Fridericus Blass, Lipsiæ, Teubner, 1896. Expositor, February and March, 1895, pp. 129-142, 212-225.

It was a matter of vital importance for the Tübingen school to bring the Book of Acts down to a late date. For, if the work was written by a companion of St. Paul, the third gospel, which confessedly has the same authorship, must have been written by one in immediate contact with eye-witnesses, and must be regarded as thoroughly historical. Since the Tübingen theories regard every Christian book of the New Testament, however innocently it may appear to give straightforward history, as really written with a secret design to inculcate certain dogmatic views, just as, of Mr. Dickens's novels, one is intended to expose the abuses of the Poor Law system, another of the Court of Chancery, another of Ecclesiastical Courts, it evidently follows that the historical credibility of any canonical book of the New Testament once established, the foundation of the Tübingen school is demolished. This appears at least to be the logical result; in point of fact, the theories of our opponents resemble certain low organisms, that do not suffer at all by losing half of their body, since the remaining half walks away with apparently increased vital powers. The dogmatic views inculcated by the New Testament are, according to the adherents of the Tübingen movement, partly the Judaizing tendencies of Peter, partly the universalistic doctrine of Paul, partly the conciliatory efforts striving to unite the Petrine and Pauline parties into one church of Christ. For, starting from the figments of the Homilies and the Recognitions attributed to Clement of Rome as true historical works, the foregoing writers contend that, according to Peter's doctrine, our Lord did not found a new church, but only reformed Judaism, intending to spread it everywhere, and make it the universal means of salvation; while, according to the doctrine of Paul, our Lord instituted a new church, wholly distinct from the Mosaic dispensation, and intended to supplant the latter, even among the Jewish people, so that Christ and his church became the necessary means of grace and life. The incipient period of this party strife is represented by the Apocalypse on the side of Peter, and by the epistles to the Galatians, the Romans and the Corinthians on the side of Paul. During the second period Peter's doctrine is set forth in the first gospel and the Epistle of James, while Paul's views are defended in the third gospel and the Epistles to the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians, the Hebrews, and to Philemon. The attempts to reconcile the two parties made in the third period may be traced in the second and fourth gospel, in Acts, the Epistles of Peter, John and Jude, and also in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus.

After stating the general outlines of the Tübingen tenets, we are enabled to understand the allied views held concerning the Book