THE DOWNSIDE REVIEW

on the Continent after the Reformation. It fs useful, of course, to have so

much information collected in one book but the outstanding merit of this
particular bibliography is the annotation to each entry. Every work is
tersely assessed with indication of its content and conception.
There is a large introductory section suggesting general books on
mysticism, but especially helpful is the listing of studies which examine the
historical background and literary setting. Perhaps not enough attention
has been given to works relating mysticism to the Church's theology; in the
case of the fourteenth-century mystics, their congruence with the teaching
of St Thomas Aquinas. It would have been helpful to see rather more
prominence given to books which place the English mystics within the
whole tradition of Christian spirituality, taking note of the importance of
the apophatic and Eastern influence and relating them to what many regard
as the culmination of that mystical tradition in the doctrine of St John of
the Cross. PAUL BIBBY

Christ our Light: Patristic Readings on Gospel Themes, I: Advent to

Pentecost. Translated and edited by Friends of Henry Ashworth. Pp, xxii
+ 298 (Exordium Books, obtainable from Stanbrook Abbey) £4.75.
A FOREWORD explains that 'this volume is intended to be used with the
three-year cycle of gospel passages for the Sundays from Advent to
Pentecost, and for the solemnities of the Lord from Christmas to the
Sacred Heart'. Two further volumes are planned, one for the ordinary
Sundays of the year, another for solemnities and feasts.
After printing the gospel text for each day in the Jerusalem Bible version,
appropriate patristic commentaries are given with brief introductory notes,
supplementary to the Biographical Sketches at the beginning of the book.
Seventy of the readings may be found also in The Liturgy of the Hours (in
England The Divine Office) but there are fifty-three alternatives; but here
the readings are given with their gospel texts.
This is a valuable introduction to the writings of the Fathers, ranging
from Clement of Alexandria at the end of the second century to St Thomas
More in the sixteenth. A. GREGORY MURRAY

F. R. Leavis by William Walsh. Pp. 189 (Chatto and Windus), £8.95.

'DOWNSIDE has always been loyal to me'. Such was the greeting by Dr
Leavis of one who, in a Pickwickian sense, could claim to be associated
with Downside. It witnessed to a relationship which, in the case of one or
two senior members of the Community, notably Dom Hilary Steuert and
Dom Sebastian Moore, went very much deeper; and it is therefore fitting
that the passing of two such great dissenting spirits as Dr and Mrs Leavis
should be commemorated in the pages of THE DOWNSIDE REVIEW. They
were indeed good friends of Downside.
Their great work began with the foundation of Scrutiny in 1932;and it is
important to recall the background against which Scrutiny made its protest.
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