102 CHURCH AND STATE

ized reIigion is a matter for women and young children," he explains : "The
depth of this feeling can perhaps best be gauged from the fact that clerical
concubinage (which is probably n o t a s frequent as elsewhere in Latin
America) is frowned upon by Catholics, but is one of the few ways in
which Cuban priests can hope to earn a modicum of respect from other
Cuban men." Such quotations should suttice to show that the author is
not disposed to pull punches when dealing with delicate subjects that
many Catholic writers gloss over or choose to ignore completely.

Downloaded from http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of IowaSCL1326I on June 20, 2015

Professor Dewart is critical of the Cuban policy of the United States;
and he declares that the "unconditional anti-communism of the Cuban
Church" was one of the major factors in causing Castro to align himself
with Moscow. In reaching this conclusion the author does not ignore the
early pro-Castro attitude of most Catholic laymen and some of the clergy;
however, he points out that Catholic support was withdrawn following
the overthrow of Batista when many Catholics became alarmed by the
revolutionary regime's sweeping land reform progmm, its policy of "neu-
tralism" in regard to the international power struggle involving the United
States and the Soviet Union, and Castro's refusal to take a public stand
against communism. Professor Dewart feels that the Cuban hierarchy
erred in failing to make greater efforts to come to terms with Castro; and
he charges that the laymen of Cuba, and particularly the Catholic intel-
lectuals of that country, did little of nothing to change the course of
events that have led to the triumph of Marxism and the continued decline
of Christian influence within the country.
Only time, continued research, and future political developments will
reveal the full signficance of this book. For the present it would seem that
the real value of the volume lies in the stimulation which it will provide
for students of the Cuban scene who ate seeking a work that is neither
ah anti-Castro polemic n o r a piece of pro-Castro propaganda. As for the
author's approach to the subject of church-state relations, he has summed
it up in the assertion that "cooperation, even close and intimate, is desirable
and possible between State and Church."

Lyle C. Brown

Political Thou9ht in Sixteenth-Century Spain. By Bernice Hamilton. Ox-

ford: Oxford University Press, 1963. 201 pp.

There are two main ways in which to proceed in exploring political or

other philosophies of a given historical period. The first approach calls
 BOOK REVIEWS 103

for a successive examination of the respective teachings of each of the

leading thinkers of the period. The second approach dwells on the major
ideas representative of the philosophy of the period and shows what each
of the leading thinkers had to say about each of the ideas. The author of
the volume under review has adopted the second approach. Rather than
discussing individually and separately the four outstanding Spanish theo-
logians-philosophers whom she has selected for her study--Francisco
Vitoria, Francisco Suarez, Domingo de Soto, and Luis de Molina--Miss

Downloaded from http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of IowaSCL1326I on June 20, 2015

Hamilton has organized the entire volume around the several major
philosophical concepts with which all four had been concerned.
Since she considers the Thomist hierarchy of laws, and in particular the
Thomist concept of natural law, as forming the framework for the four
theologians' discussion of politics, she devotes the first chapter to an ex-
position of their naturaMaw theories. In the following two chapters she
examines the implications which such theories had for their views of the
political community, its laws, and the position of the ruler. She analyses,
in particular, their "theory of kingship" and shows how the Spanish theolog-
ians sought to avoid the two extremes of absolute divine right of the king
and popular sovereignty by ho!ding that, when selecting its ruler, the com-
munity transfers its own God-given authority to him, so that the king's
power does come from God, but only "mediately" through the people.
The author then proceeds in Chapter Four to the teaching of the four
theologians, mainly Vitoria and Suarez, on church-state relations. While
adhering to the concept of the superiority of spiritual power over the
temporal and supporting the papal right of intervention in secular affairs
ir and when it becomes essential for spi¡ purposes, they argued never-
theless against the view that temporal power was derived from the spiritual
power, conceded that an unjust papal excommunication or dispensation
was not binding, and denied the papal right to replace a monarch who
had lost his throne for schism.
The remaining three chapters deal with the attitudes on certain inter-
national aspects of politics, namely, the law of nations, war and its laws,
and the Spanish colonization of the New World. While rejecting the
recent attempts to portray the Spanish theologians as founders of inter-
national law, Miss Hamilton gives them due credit for their substantial
interest in legal relations among nations, their beliefs in the existence and
binding character of international law, their elaboration of the concept of
self-defense as a natural and necessary right, their differentiation between
just and unjust wars and their insistence on the duty to seek peaeeful
settlement of disputes before resorting to the force of arms. The chapter
on the colonization of the New World throws an interesting light on the
dilemma dropped into the lap of the four theologians by their country's
104 CHURCH AND STATE

colonial conquests. In substance, they approved the right to use coercion

to convert the natives to the Christian faith, but questioned it on the
ground of expediency.
Appended to the volume are short biographies of the four theologians,
a bibliography of works by them and about them, and an index.
It is a solidly documented and well-written book, although its readability
is somewhat impaired by the author's penchant for interspersing the text
with lar too many quotations.

Downloaded from http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of IowaSCL1326I on June 20, 2015

Edward Taborsky

A Nation So Conceived: Reflections on the History o] America from Its

Early Visions to Its Present Power. By Reinhold Niebuhr and Alan
Heimert. 155 pp. $3.50.

Reinhold Niebuhr and Alan Heimert, combining their talents for the
first time, conducta brief but dynamic exploration into the uniqueness
of America history in the light of the messianic conceptions o~ our
Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary forefathers. The authors affirm that
the American character, shaped by the original endowment of a virgin
continent and an essentially Anglo-Saxon cultttre and race, forged the
unique national trait of expressing a vital impulse in the name of an ideal.
Niebuhr and Heimert, displaying a thorough grasp of historical patterns
and giving a wealth of examples, analyze the American character by tracing
the forces which either transmuted these original endowments of created a
tnsion with the original vision.
The authors do this under three categories of nationaI experience. First,
they trace the quest for national unity and idenfity--a quest beset by
con¡ due to ethnic pluralism, the centripetal forces of sectionalism and
regionalism, the encounter with the religio-cultural diversity of European
immigrants, and the expansion on a virgin continent. Second, they review
the development of a highly industrialized nation from its early agrarianism.
They indicate that this rapid rise created a unique tension between Amer-
ica's original self-image and the force of historical destiny. AmerŸ as a
modern industrial power still retains longings for its original agrarian
simplicity. Third, the authors note the contrast between the nation's dreams
of youth and the reality of its present power and responsibility. The re-
sponsibility of present power sharply contrasts with America's original
sense of mission--"its messianic or quasi-messianic consciousness of being
the initiator and bearer of the principle of constitutional democracy." This