Easy-to-follow theology that can give hope

HOPE IN AN AGE OF DESPAIR, by Albert Nolan. Orbis Books, Maryknoll. 2009. 192 pp.

Reviewed by Gerald Shaw

Albert Nolan OP is a South African theologian with a world-wide reputation as the author of three influential books. The best-selling Jesus Before Christianity (1976) was followed by God in South Africa: The Challenge of the Gospel (1988) and Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom (2006).
These three books, appearing at long intervals in time, were the product of many years of reflection and prayerful contemplation. The second and third volumes are exercises in contextual theology. The context of the second is South Africa in the apartheid era and that of the third is today’s world, and not just South Africa. His writings have become widely-read, not only in the Catholic Church and in Fr Nolan’s own Dominican family, but well beyond.

If theology, by definition, makes demands on the reader, who is often asked to unravel much tortuous abstraction to get at the writer’s meaning, Fr Nolan’s theology is refreshingly lucid, accessible, practical and related to life, conveying complex ideas in straight-forward and often lively language. His fine prose style helps to explain why his books do so well.

Now Hope in an Age of Despair promises to be equally successful. It is a selection of his talks, shorter writings, essays and academic articles and one sermon delivered in circumstances varying from the harrowing days at the height of the apartheid era to present-day South Africa. It is edited and introduced by Stan Myembe OP.

As the editor tells us, the lecture which supplies the title of this book also supplies its underlying themes: God as the basis of our hope, the common good as the object of our hope, the value of adopting an attitude of hopefulness, and the value of acting hopefully.

For this reviewer among the many insights which struck home was Nolan’s suggestion that different people at different times ask different questions about their faith. A burning question in the Middle Ages might turn out to be a question of no consequence today. He notes that if he raised the medieval question of transubstantiation today very few people would know what he was talking about,

In a chapter on the teaching of theology, Nolan notes that as a young Dominican he discovered that the theology of Thomas Aquinas was time-bound and contextual. But this did not lead him to reject Thomism. On the contrary, Thomas tackled the new problems and questions of his day and answered them brilliantly. Eventually Nolan concluded that the real value of studying the great theologians of the past was to learn how to go about answering our own faith questions and the questions of our contemporaries. What we learn from Thomas is how to be fearless in raising new questions and thorough in searching for answers.

Nolan observes regretfully that in many parts of the Church today Catholics are not encouraged to ask questions about the meaning of their faith. People are even given the impression that if they ask questions it must be because their faith is weak. “If we do have doubts it is better to air than to hide and suppress them. Questions and doubts can spur us on to search and to keep searching until we find answers, to knock and keep knocking until the door is opened,” Nolan writes.

In teaching theology he has found that it can take many hours and even days of explanation before some Catholics will take the risk of expressing a doubt or asking a serious question. However, once they feel sufficiently free to do so the questions pour out like an unstoppable flood.

In answering such questions, he suggests, we should resist the temptation to offer quick and easy answers. Answering questions of faith should be a community exercise. We should listen to what others who share our faith have to say, to well-informed theologians and to those who have authority in the Church (the magisterium). Above all we need to listen to Jesus himself, whom we believe to be the Word or revelation of God.

In a thought-provoking chapter on preaching and contemplation. Nolan says that people today are looking for authenticity rather than authority. They want to hear an honest and sincere witness rather than a certified authority.

And contemplation today is thought of as a calling available for all Christians, not just the special vocation of a few, with the practice of centering prayer becoming widespread. And, says Nolan, the fruits of contemplation include qualities such as inner peace, freedom and fearlessness, a love for people, genuine humility, a spirit of hopefulness and gratitude, hopefulness and joy, and a profound sense of mystery.

There are instructive chapters on The service of the poor and spiritual growth and The option for the poor in South Africa. Fr Nolan seeks to ground this controversial theological theme in the Bible and makes some suggestions about what it may mean in the struggle for liberation in South Africa today.

As Nolan sees it, the poor are the victims of the social sin of injustice. And the option for the poor is concerned with the sin of oppression and what Christians should be doing about it. In a carefully argued passage, he suggests that the option for the poor is a matter of taking up the cause of the poor as opposed to the cause of the rich.

As he says: “The Gospel that we preach will not be a Gospel of Jesus Christ unless it takes sides with those who are sinned against the poor and the oppressed.”

There is an exciting chapter on prophetic theology, noting that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been hailed throughout the world as a modern prophet, and observing that any new spirituality today would have to include a very serious attempt to read the signs of the times. A life in the Spirit, Nolan says, is a life of speaking out about what is wrong with our world, our society, our Church and our community.

Although this is not a long book, its content is very rich and a brief review cannot begin to do it justice. Although some white South African Catholics and Christians might find it uncomfortably radical, I found it a refreshing antidote to doom and gloom and an inspiring spiritual guide in an international and national situation torn by conflict, poverty and suffering and, too often, wracked by despair.

There are fine chapters under the heading of Hoping for a Better World  including Gospel Values, Who is my Neighbour, Justice in the Bible and Personal Liberation.

The most valuable contribution a Christian can make in a age of despair, he concludes, is to continue to act hopefully, because of our faith  and in that way to be an encouragement to those who have lost all hope.