Frederick J. Adelmann - Böcker

Hegel once said that philosophy is the "world stood on its head" and Karl Marx credited his own philosophic genius with setting the Hegel­ ian world right side up again. But both of these intellectual Atlases of the philosophical sphere that hid before our mind's eye a symbol bears further reflection. Philosophy down the ages has always involved at least two elements, first, the universe of being as its objective pole and second, man gazing into this crystallic sphere as the subjective pole. The "world" of Hegel and Marx and of most philosophers can be interpreted to mean the world we know and live in and about which all philosophers wonder. Thus for the philosopher - whoever he be - the concern of his interest is not limited to any particular segment of reality and no thing is off-limits to the beams of his mental radar. Yet this scope seems to many too vast and proud an enterprise. The philosopher seems to leap upon his horse and ride off in all directions at once. He is the day dreamer who indulges in fantasy and escapes from the world of practical concern and anxiety. On the other hand the reflective person must concede that it is the ideas ofthe philosophers more than the strategems of the generals that have shaped history and destinies.

This is an authentic book. Its style fits its situation. The encounter between Marxism and Catholicism was yesterday diatribe, is today dialogue, and tomorrow will be epilogue. The virtue of Father Adelmann's writing is to make us aware that we are in via. Happenings are everywhere, not just in hippieland. In Salzburg and South Bend, in Chiem see and Cambridge conversations are going on - conversations that are no less than con­ fessions. For Catholics and Marxists are listening to each other and are changing their minds. It has been the peculiar good fortune of the author of this book to have been both recorder and participant in these changes. He has experienced the transition from diatribe to dialogue in his own thoughts and feelings, and he has here written not an outsider's account, but an insider's recounting. He is not simply this volume's author, but also one of its case of characters. Hence the style of his writing is apperceptively autobiographical. It fits the situation. He is a character in a play, who is also that drama's author. His essay, then, is not simply a discussion of the relation between Catholicism and Marxism today, but is a contribution to­ ward a new relation between them and tomorrow.