Vorlage:1955 Rezensionen Die letzten Dinge

• [1955-239] [Englisch] Raphael Appleby: Rezension zu: Guardini, The Last things, in: The Downside Review, 73, 1955, S. 276 f. [neu aufgenommen] - [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=lu_RNbWWy4oC oder https://books.google.de/books?id=YhHAK708V3sC
  • S. 276 f.: „In his foreword Guardini says that this book is 'only an outline', not 'an exhaustive survey'. And if we bear this in mind while reading the book we shall not be disappointed in it but, rather, richly rewarded. For taken as a meditation on death and the Church's teaching thereon the book is really excellent. It is stimulating and, in one sense, original. With the early part the reader may, perhaps, be somewhat disappointed. So often we seem to be moving into a discussion really worthwhile and original only for that particular line of thought to be suddenly abandoned and a new argument begun. But this is only a first impression and a temporary one. As we read further we can see more clearly that Guardini is not trying to say something new on the subject but rather to meditate on all that the Church has already said herself. And realizing this we can fully appreciate what a good job he has made of it. Perhaps because of this the second part of the book on the Resurrection, Judgement and Eternity is more convincing than the first. Here we have genuine spiritual reading at its most stimulating and it also helps to straighten out some rather strange, yet popular, modern views on the subject. There are, however, one or two occasions when some remarks of the author's may need clarifying. On p. 35 he says: '( God's ) justice is not exercised upon principles, but upon the life of human beings'. Most of us immediately realize what he means but he may be misleading to some. The bald statement that God's justice is not exercised upon principles cannot surely be true. The one true Christian principle - and therefore God's principle - is the principle of love. And that should perhaps have been noted. Again when discussing the actual fact of death itself something more might well have been said of the value of a complete acceptance of death as coming from God. A short elaboration of the fact that death being the penalty for sin, a death fully accepted in that spirit must help to pay a great deal of all that we owe for our sins, would have helped. But these are mild criticisms and for all else there is no criticism but praise. 'Redemption', says Guardini, 'is not a work of enthusiasm. It is a work of love, and of love that is truth.' And how especially that needs saying and re-saying today when so much confused thought is poured out upon this subject! We can, too, be particularly grateful to Guardini for the way in which he distinguishes between historical man and natural man. It is as historical beings that we shall be judged. 'To think of the process of life in terms of chemistry ... is plain mental laziness' (p. 58). There again is something that needed saying. We can't discuss life and death, judgement and resurrection simply in biological terms. We can only recognize revealed truth by approaching it on its own terms. But above all what is important to remember on this subject is that it 'is not ideas and laws that matter, but reality'. And that has been Guardini's guiding principle throughout this book. He has put before us historical man faced with the historical fact of death, and has meditated on the Church's teaching thereon in that light the only real light in which to do so. Short though it is, much more could have been said about this book but the above should suffice to give the reader some idea of what to expect. Taken as a meditation on 'the last things' it is a book which makes comforting reading to-day when so many strange things are taught and discussed concerning the future of this world as we know it. For us Christians these things need be no cause of worry. For we have been redeemed and our death and the last judgement are the fulfilment of that redemption.“
• [1955-240] [Englisch] Verlagsanzeige zu: Guardini, The Last Things, in: The Dublin Review, 229, 1955, ohne Seite - https://books.google.de/books?id=JsQhAAAAMAAJ oder https://books.google.de/books?id=zwAUAAAAIAAJ; auch in: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 1955, S. 399 - https://books.google.de/books?id=NMCau_j_6h8C; auch in: The Month, 13, 1955, S. 194 [neu aufgenommen] – [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=bgvSbMP9Ra8C;
  • „Monsignor Guardini, professor of philosophy at the University of Munich and a prominent figure in the Church in Germany, is perhaps the best known abroad of German Catholic authors. Addressing himself to the contemporary mind, he here treats of the gravest of all issues that confront humanity: death and the hereafter.“
• [1955-241] [Englisch] Charles A. Hart: Rezension zu: Guardini, The Last Things, in: Catholic Educational Review, 53, 1955, S. 69 f. [neu aufgenommen] – [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=UsSgAAAAMAAJ
  • S. 69 f.: „Any work by Monsignor Romano Guardini is an event. The Last Things, Concerning Death, Purification after Death, Resurrection, Judgment, and Eternity, is no exception. Again he brings to bear upon this most important theme his rich scholarship in the fields of philosophy, theology, scripture, psychology, and history. As always he addresses himself to the perplexed contemporary mind with which he is so remarkably en rapport. Certainly that mind is much preoccupied with the multitude of threats against the very existence of our modern civilization as we know it, what with the terrifying progress in potentialities for destruction opened up by the parallel advance in all the sciences, social as well as physical and natural. Actually, of course, no man can entirely escape the influence of his "death" on his life as a whole, however much he finds it convenient to thrust that unpleasant reality into the lower depths of his unconscious. As always, Monsignor Guardini brings a remarkable freshness of view to old themes. Particularly, he appeals to the common sense reasonableness of the Church's doctrine. The divine teaching is the only obvious and inevitable position, given the nature of man and the world in which he works out his destiny. Most of all this is a man very much possessed of an earthly body. He is not an angel. A most important aspect of the Resurrection is its guarantee of the immortality of the human body as well as the soul. The whole human person is victor over death. Likewise in the Eucharist the body is not forgotten. „Because in man it is the living whole that matters, not the soul. The point of decision is the physical act of “eating” and “drinking" in contrast to any attempts at the vaporizing of this solid reality. The fruit of this sacred „eating“ and „drinking“ is the resurrection on the last day. Truly a „hard“ saying for it involves the end and purpose of the Christian life. The doctrine of the Eucharist is guaranteed by the doctrine of the resurrection.“ With the current interest in the philosophy of history, occasioned by the completion of Arnold Toynbee's monumental Study of History, the view of Guardini on the meaning of history in relation to the Last Judgment will have particular significance. "History's purport is to make God known. ... Three facts (then) mark the character of history: that it is obscure, that men are free to do wrong, and that evil may at times prevail over good. History can not, therefore, be its own fulfillment." It looks of its very nature to a Last Judgment. All men long for justice even though it means a calling out for what is against himself. It would be difficult to include within the compass of a small volume more profound, penetrating thought on a theme of surpassing importance than is presented by these pages from the pen of one of the Church's ablest apologists writing today. The translation excellently preserves the spirit of the original.“
• [1955-242] [Englisch] Jerome Palmer: Rezension zu: Guardini, Die letzten Dinge, engl., in: The American Benedictine Review, 6, 1955, S. 344 [neu aufgenommen] - [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=k2sWAAAAIAAJ
• [1955-243] [Englisch] Rezension zu Guardini, Last things (zusammen mit Pieper, The end of time), in: Social Order, 1955, S. 142 [neu aufgenommen] – [Rezension] - https://books.google.de/books?id=CkMfAQAAIAAJ:
  • S. 142: „Despite the similarity of title these two books have little in common. Guardini offers the reader a series of short meditations on death, purification after death, resurrection, judgment and eternity. These meditations put Catholic teaching on the last things into a form easily understood by the layman. Their chief value is their clarifying and systematizing the knowledge of these things that the average Catholic already possesses. The only item this reviewer thinks many Catholics do not understand at least in a general way is the resurrection of the whole man rather than just the soul. Guardini's treatment of the resurrection of the body and his handling of the mystery of the individual's union with God in eternity are especially good.“