Fifty issues of THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT have now appeared and it would seem to be a convenient point at which to pause and take stock of the position of the review. It is quite evident from the four years’ experience of editing Life Of The Spirit that it has definitely to use the hackneyed phrase-filled a need. The regular flow of letters of gratitude and congratulation, and the fact that the review has nearly trebled its circulation since the first issue of July 1946 are sufficient evidence of this fact. The need however is so vast a one, as there is no other review published in England specifically on the lines of La Vie Spirituelle (which has provided a matrix for similar reviews in Spain, Italy, Germany, U.S.A., Ireland and in several other countries), that there has also been evidence of dissatisfaction in certain quarters as to the manner in which we have set about filling this gap in the ranks of religious periodicals. It is inevitable that the various types of interested readers should not find all that they had hoped for in these pages to suit their condition.

Between having the faith and not having it, the difference is assuredly clear-cut; and we rightly divide men into believers and unbelievers. But there still remains to be considered the manner in which believers possess the faith. Is it not true that in certain people. perhaps in a great number, it is poor, lifeless, distorted? And even if in certain cases faith is strong and steady there is always the danger of routine and distortion. Converting people is not everything; it is of primary importance to ensure the rectitude and vitality of the Christian's faith. We should like to offer a few suggestions in this connection. They will be based on theology. For the development of faith among Christians will have all the more chance of being efficacious if it respects the true nature of this virtue: just as a living being grows and becomes stronger by following out the laws inscribed in its organism.

While Christianity was claiming to have found true wisdom, secular philosophy was still seeking it with all its might. Since Plato with his amazing intuitions had constructed a system of philosophy directed towards the Possession or contemplation of the Unchanging, a current of philosophy had been trying to take the realities of metaphysics by storm and enjoy them, if only for a moment, at the risk of neglecting the patient labour and slow deduction championed by Aristotle. After painting his splendid picture of the universe, from the One to the lowest degree of being, matter, Plotinus sets up an ideal for the human soul. “There are as many ways of living possible for the soul as there are levels of reality: at the bottom, life in the world of the senses, whether it be the life of pleasure, in which the soul is entirely passive, or the active life, the rule of which is given by the social virtues. Higher up comes reflection, in which the soul gives itself up to its autonomous activity, judging and reasoning.

After painting his splendid picture of the universe, from the One to the lowest degree of being, matter, Plotinus sets up an ideal for the human soul. ‘There are as many ways of living possible for the soul as there are levels of reality: at the bottom, life in the world of the senses, whether it be the life of pleasure, in which the soul is entirely passive, or the active life, the rule of which is given by the social virtues.’ Higher up comes reflection, in which the soul gives itself up to its autonomous activity, judging and reasoning.

One of the most fundamental ideas in the understanding of the ascent of the Christian towards God is that of transformation into Christ. But it is a difficult idea to grasp. So easily transformation-the taking on of a new form-slips into an identification which would be a type of pantheism. Otherwise it remains as a mere simile, suggesting that the lover of Christ becomes like Christ, simply because he performs the same sort of actions.

Another way of stating the same difficulty is to be found in the discussion concerning the nature of the unity of the Mystical Body. What sort of unity characterises the one Body of Christ on Earth? A formal unity? That would identify all the members with the head and they would lose their own personalities. Or is it simply a final unity arising from the fact that all are aiming at the same final point of beatitude? Such a union would differ in little or nothing from the union of human society.

Many of our Saints have but a limited appeal, even among the ranks of the faithful; few of them indeed. may be said to have a great following outside the Catholic Church. One thinks of St Vincent de Paul, St John of the Cross, more than any other perhaps St Francis of Assisi. But there is one whose position is quite unique, whose chief works belong to the great classics of human literature, whose influence on Christian thought has never been surpassed, not even by the Angelic Doctor. Augustine is truly the bridge between antiquity and the medieval period; not only was he the most prolific writer of the early Fathers, but also his epoch was one of transition, and violent transition, from the dying age of universal Roman sway to a new age, that of the barbarian peoples. As he lay dying on 28th August, 431, there came to his ears the cries of the Vandal armies laying siege to his episcopal town of Hippo.