Book Review: You Shall Not Condemn: A Story of Faith and Advocacy on Death Row

Chapter Nine is on communion, both sacramental and ecclesial. Addressing ecumenical issues after the eucharist is most fitting. But while Boland rightly affirms that Dominus Iesus was essentially affirming conciliar teaching, he eludes the difficult and sensitive topic of what distinguishes an ‘ecclesial community’ from a ‘church.’ (Here, the immediately preceding section on the Eucharist was waiting to be brought into the discussion.) Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are devoted to a variety of topics through a Trinitarian structure. In Chapter Ten, the discussion on salvation extra ecclesiam is fittingly preceded by an exposition of Christ’s capital grace (STh III, 7–8), a set of texts which are crucial for understanding Lumen Gentium 13–16. Chapter 11 gives the reader a theology of dialogue rooted in the prior dialogue initiated by God whose Love is breathed with his spoken Word. Chapter 12 considers the Church’s journey home to the Father with reference to the Israelites’ own journey, not only through the desert and settling the promised land, but also into exile and their ultimate homecoming. Some readers will thank Boland for not overburdening the text with notes; the presentation is clean and the argument moves. But there’s a lot more knowledge and reading that went into this book than what the notes indicate. Many readers would desire to follow more closely the intellectual path trod by an author as mature and experienced as Boland. There are also simple points of detail that many a reader would want to follow up on: e.g., where does Aquinas interpret Jn 19:26 as referring to Christ himself? Presentations of the Catholic faith vary. This reader, sensitive to the Christological deficit in so much theological writing, would have followed a number of theologians in prioritizing revelation (Dei Verbum) over the Church (Lumen Gentium), and therefore, would have started with a chapter on Christ. That said, Boland maintains a clear Christocentric focus throughout. The Spirit of Catholicism presents holistically the faith that is Catholicism: a range of topics are treated with a range of sources (though Aquinas is obviously privileged) so as to embrace the whole. Though not an apology, the writer clearly senses a need to respond to contemporary distortions of Catholicism. The writing is accessible, and both the scholar and the beginner will learn something from it. In addition to its being imbued with Scripture from start to finish, the power of the book is that, while it acknowledges with sensitivity all of the issues and difficulties people might have with Catholic Christianity today, it does not concede what cannot be conceded. The tone is honest, but not defeatist.