(Return to page 1 / 2) The more than 400 pages of the book converge on one extremely important concept, formulated by the author in this way: « If God is not three Persons, then He is not » (p. 110). I would say the same thing more precisely: The God which some refuse as three persons is not the same God revealed by Christ, that is: he is not the true God. Some of the Catholic readers of the book may object to this: but how many of us have ever denied that the true God is the Trinity? Radaelli’s answer to this is that all those of us who normally say: “We believe in Jesus Christ, therefore the Trinity is a reality, but others believe in other sacred books, and for them only a God that is not three persons is conceivable”, implicitly deny that the true God is the Trinity. In fact, the book brings to the surface faith in the Trinity not as a debatable point but as a cognitive factor, not as a result of human reasoning but as a result of divine Revelation: the Trinity is not a logical entity deriving from human intelligence but something supremely real, something apart from the human mind and the whole of creation, it is the only eternal heavenly reality.

In addition, it must be stated (and Radaelli will develop this ar-gument in a future second edition) that the God of the Hebrews and the Muslims is not the God of natural religion but claims to be the God of a revealed religion: he does not appear as a product of that weak (nearly empty) knowledge of God Creator that natural reason possesses, but rather as a defined divine truth, absolute and irreformable. Therefore, the God of the Hebrews and the God of the Muslims do not place themselves on a different and inferior level to that of the Christian God (this would imply ‘competing’ with an historical expression of natural religion), they do not present themselves as an initial and partial truth, but claim to be on the same level as the Christian God, and hence declare Him error, heresy, blasphemy. Equality of the three monotheistic religions is conceivable only if one disregards that which these three religions consider their essence: the divine revelation, especially the truth about God Himself.

What kind of dialogue between religions is that which places religion intended as adoration of the true God in brackets? If, on the other hand, this ‘placing in brackets’ (Einklammerung) does not take place, then the equality of the notion of God cannot be the meeting point for dialogue. alethic logic, before everything else, does not permit that two or more affirmations in absolute contradiction to each other are true at the same time and according to the same meaning. On this point, therefore, I wholly agree with Radaelli: the axiom that fixes the identity of the subjects adored in all « the three religions of the Book », i.e., the Trinity adored by the Christians would be the same God as that of the Hebrews and Muslims – notwithstanding both the Hebrews and the Muslims exclude the Trinitarian revelation, and even fight against it – is an axiom devoid of truth because without logic: it summarizes a totally pseudotheological thesis which does not meet the requirements of truth but looks to ‘other’ needs (not always noble or spiritual, even if ‘charity’ is often mentioned) and so turns out to be a devious subterfuge aimed at harming the faith of Christians.

Radaelli’s concept « If God is not three persons, then He is not » (p. 110) is substantially identical to St. Thomas’ assertion: « God is Three Persons » (Summa Theologiae, I, q. 39, art. 6). This Thomistic conclusion is not quoted by the author but he uses it in his replies to certain objections raised against the ‘novelty’ of his argumentations and will most probably go back to it in a future edition. Based on this line of thought, the third assertion – today repeated again and again – that the three great religions of the book adore the same God – fades into insignificance, but the noxious effects of doctrinal ambiguity remain in catholic public opinion. Radaelli even mentions (going a bit too far) that « all the theology of the past forty years fades into insignificance with it » (p. 319). I say ‘going a bit too far’ not because I don’t agree with the gravity of the problem, but because I don’t agree with the synthesis that Radaelli makes of catholic theology in these past forty years, a period which has seen many important theologians at work (for example and for the subject under discussion, Card. Charles Journet), all immune from these and other contemporary errors.

I repeat, however, that the problem exists and it is serious. The author, fully aware that catholic public opinion is today impregnated with relativism, naturalism and doctrinal evolutionism of a modern mentality, rather than pretending to be a judge – which he cannot do – brings to our attention a few words mentioned by Pope John Paul II some years ago, calling for ‘the Throne’ to take a final authoritative and universal position on the matter: a papal dogmatic pronunciation that will preserve the Trinity from the « false monotheisms ".
Undoubtedly, a choice of this kind today poses grave, extraordinary problems: lacerating problems, problems of conscience, more and more serious as responsibility grows. Here is where the author’s more notable contribution must be recognized: the lucid clarity of his work, without shirking or avoiding debate, offers detailed and truly exhaustive explanations including the most extreme consequences in exposing the problems. The book, in a way, more than a discussion is a fact: it weighs facts by calculation – syllogisms – which are then as strong as facts. If these facts are real – it seems the author is telling us – then let us accept them as real, let us recognize them as truths which must be taken into account; I believe that they are all true and grave facts. If someone does not believe them to be true, then it is right to think they are not facts, they are nothing, and all those who have read the book and have said nothing would be right: because they are nothing, there is no need to talk.

Finally, a word on the structure of the book. In the five chapters of the book, the argument unfolds according to different intertwined perspectives, because it is in the whole rather than in the single result attained that the author sees the strength of his thesis: logical perspective, gnoseology, metaphysics, exegesis, history and, in the first chapter, also psychology and iconography (it is from mentioning the famous statue of the blindfolded ‘synagogue’ of Strasbourg that the title is taken, and represents the most exhaustive research today on the relationship between the Jewish religion and the Trinity). Mention must be made of the footnotes, often used by the author as a way of introducing priceless rarities, like the one mentioned above (p. 269); or like number two of p. XIV, a rare list of bishops who betrayed the truth: heretics amongst whom we find however also two extraordinary models of conversion to holiness, and for the author models of possible imitators today; or, again, the note on p. 8 on the meaning of the name ‘Simon’ in relation to Peter; footnote 3 on p. 40 on the Hebrew superlatives for the Word. I point all this out to underline how the author tries, in every way, to arouse and focus attention on the goal of his book: complete adoration of the Word, thus giving to the supernatural the due primacy in our hearts and to dogma the due primacy in our minds.

Three important appendixes complete the work: with a truly remarkable work of selection Radaelli offers a rare and precious documentation of secular and inspired thought in the Great Tradition, divided into three sections: who are the true sons of Abraham; if ignorance of Christ by the Jews truly exists; if a ‘doctrine of substitution’ exists. If something has been overlooked by the author in the book, it is mentioned here, in the famous notes collected in his Bible by Bishop Anthony Martini of Florence between 1769 and 1781.
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Antonio Livi