Wise, Carroll A. Religion in Illness and Health. [New York:  Harper & Brothers. $2.50.]

The experience of being chaplain in a hospital for the mentally ill created such a disturbance in the mind of Dr. Wise that he had to write this book. To a minister trained to accept the subjective conviction as proof of religious truth, and must perforce lean on such subjective evidence for want of any other, it must indeed give rise to soul searchings to face day after day religious aberrations which take a religious direction. The subjective certainty is intense, the visions, angels or devils are as real to the patient as any material object, and yet it is all obviously of the stuff that dreams are made on. Where then to look for evidence that faith is true? What is the sanction of faith?

Dr. Wise faced this problem by attempting to synthesize the findings of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and analytical psychology, and then by further attempting to synthesize this composite with the Christian religion. The task was a formidable one, and if he has fallen short of the mark it is little to be wondered at.

The first section of the book consists of a resumé of psychiatric findings as to the various types of mental disease and the interrelation between physical and emotional health, emphasizing the importance of emotional factors in both physical and mental illness. Here Dr. Wise quotes some exceedingly interesting material on the correlation of personality and types of disease. Dr. Wise is convinced of the importance of study in this field for the ministry, and urges actual clinical observation if possible. In the second part of the book he treats of religion. He apparently puts the weight of importance on religion as a function, as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself. The emphasis falls on man rather than on God. Religion is to help man to become integrated, to be a working method of living, to serve man's needs. From passages such as the following it would appear that Dr. Wise has come to think of God as a