Book Reviews

Theodosius needed to secure the legitimacy of their reigns by cultivating the bish-
ops, just as their predecessors had once had to cultivate senators.
Drake devotes most of the book to making his case for Constantine's religio-
political policy of inclusion and then turns less fully to its breakdown in the fol-
lowing decades. His overarching thesis provides a persuasive new paradigm
through which to examine the vicissitudes of the fourth century. Historians
should heed his pleas not to separate religion from politics in this era, but schol-
ars of religion may be more reluctant to separate as readily as he does "theology"
from "organization" in understanding religious intolerance. Drake correctly em-
phasizes that heretics preceded pagans as objects of imperial and ecclesiastical
persecution in the Constantinian era, but can "heresy" and "heretics" (or even
"schism") be understood fully in terms of organization rather than theology?
Drake adduces the apologists as representatives of a tolerant, love-thy-enemy po-
sition within Christianity in contrast to a fight-the-demons position represented
by the martyrs (pp. 96-79, 102), but even Justin (Martyr!) characterized non-
Christian myth and ritual as the work of demons, who he claimed also inspired
his Christian rivals (Apology 1.54-58). Already in John 2:10-11, a Christian
leader urged his followers to withdraw hospitality from Christians with different
beliefs as a means of coercing them into conformity. In recent years numerous
scholars of early Christianity have examined how the ideas of "heresy" and "or-
thodoxy" were constructed in Christian discourse of the second through fourth
centuries and how diverse theological positions correlated with social and com-
munal formations. Drake's rejection of the model of a single monolithic "Chris-
tianity," his coherent narrative of political change in the fourth century, and his
rich and persuasive portrait of Constantine's religious polity will provide a good
basis for other scholars who may wish to explore more fully the theological di-
mensions of ancient Christian intolerance.
DAVID BRAKKE,Indiana University.

NICHOLS,AIDAN,O.P.No BloodlessMyth:A GuidethroughBalthasar'sDramatics.Wash-

ington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2000. ix+268 pp. $23.95
(paper).
The sheer bulk of Hans Urs von Balthasars theological texts presents a distinct
impediment for contemporary theologians, since many of us have become accus-
tomed to reading and writing considerably shorter books. Perhaps editors are
right to restrict excessive length; most of us probably should not write "big"
books. As his own publisher though, Balthasar could be as prolix as he wanted.
He could indulge both his catholic style, that is, his inclusive treatment of all
reality in glorious, unabridged detail, as well as his theological method, which
sought to display the interconnections among the details so that all can be seen
to fit together beautifully yet dramatically. The more catholic and detailed the
display, the more convincing, hence, the length.
Some knowledge of Balthasar's great trilogy is now required of any self-
respecting Christian theologian. So we are much indebted to Aidan Nichols for
the three books that summarize, respectively, its three multivolume parts, on aes-
thetics (Beauty), theodramatics (Goodness), and theologic (Truth). The second
part, the Theo-Drama,sweeps up the Christoform aesthetics of TheGloryof theLord
into a dramatic reconfiguration of the relation between God and humanity. After

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The Journal of Religion
an initial volume arguing for the fittingness of the analogy and setting the theo-
dramatics at some distance from Hegel, the remaining four volumes describe the
actors and the action to show that human finite freedom is grounded in, pre-
served, and redeemed by being drawn up into the dramatic relationships within
the Trinity. Our action participates in the divine Play in which God is Author,
Director and, in the Son, the primary Actor.
The length of the Theo-Dramaprevents Nichols's book from being a commen-
tary in the sense of an exposition that clarifies by expanding on the primary text.
It is, instead, a rich summary that illuminates the work beautifully, with occa-
sional critical comments, humorous asides, and references to the tradition. Nich-
ols follows Balthasar's order without any particular emphases of his own. The
result is often exciting, even when the summary must become dense. Besides its
evident usefulness for those who have not read the Theo-Drama,it enables those
who have to get a clearer view of Balthasar's project as a whole, and it prompts
some questions. I will note just one. The theodramatic analogy fosters an in via
perspective that undermines any attempt to find systematic principles by which
to capture in advance the working out of the drama prior to the eschaton. At the
same time, Balthasar's catholicity and speculative method leaves nothing of any
significance untreated, for it is the view of the whole. (For both of these tenden-
cies, see pp. 52-60.) Everything is to be elucidated theodramatically, and in both
directions, from the Trinity to that which it grounds, and vice versa.
The fruitfulness of this is evident throughout the work, as Nichols shows. But
one might ask whether Balthasar does not go a bit too far beyond other writers
of "big" theological books, such as Thomas Aquinas or Karl Barth. They, one
might argue, more carefully maintain the scriptural focus on what is central and
of primary significance. Against his evident christocentric intention, Balthasar
seems to expand his view too broadly, and yet with too much detail. It, then,
seems as though the scriptural story is absorbed too far into the Balthasarian
depiction of reality. Rather like the way Richard Wagner (especially in the Ring)
so overwhelms that he rules out any distance or any emotional response except
those he enforces, Balthasar's Grand Theological Tour of Everything may over-
whelm us. It leaves no room for alternative explorations and configurations; he
has worked out everything for us already. Our reaction may then be to reject the
whole tour because of the inadequacies of some of its excursions, such as the (for
me) extraordinarily naive gender views and the excessive stress on Marian ecclesi-
ology.
The way to avoid such a reaction is to follow the example of Nichols himself.
His approach to Balthasar is not, I think, to take the tour as a package but rather
to appreciate at some critical distance the originality and appropriateness of the
theory and those brilliant insights it makes possible. To sort out the felicitous
from the unfortunate will require one to plunge forthwith into the Theo-Drama
itself, something for which Nichols's introduction will prove a splendid guide.
NICHOLAS M. HEALY, St.John'sUniversity.

GEBARA,IVONE.Longingfor Running Water:Ecofeminismand Liberation.Minneapolis:

Fortress Press, 1999. ix+230 pp. $22.00 (paper).

With a few exceptions, Latin American liberation theologians have been slow to
reflect theologically on the systematic destruction of their natural environment.
This may seem surprising when one considers that the plight of Latin America's

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