Book of Selected Works by Fr Albert Nolan Released

A new book of selected articles, essays, talks and sermons by renowned South African theologian, priest and activist Fr Albert Nolan  OP, who died in October 2022, has been released. The book explores the integration of contemplation and social justice.

Titled “Being Compassionate Contemplatives: Dominican Engagement with the World”, the book includes previously unpublished material, some of which has been transcribed from Fr Nolan’s handwritten notes.

A prominent figure in the Church in South Africa and in the struggle against apartheid, Fr Nolan gained international recognition through his 1976 book Jesus Before Christianity, and further theological literary acclaim through his authoring of God in South Africa in 1988 and Jesus Today in 2006.

Known for a public ministry that included political activism, a simple lifestyle, a deep social analysis that strongly influenced the  1985 Kairos Document, a youth ministry that incorporated his chaplaincy of the Young Christian Students, the editorship of ecumenical magazine Challenge,  and the promotion of contextual theology, one chapter in the book also offers a rare autobiographical insight into how Nolan viewed his life as a religious.

Here, Fr Nolan explains the centrality of compassion to his spiritual life, a value that he says was taught to him by his mother. It helped him overcome pride and selfishness as a novice and allowed the prestige of being elected to the position of the order’s master-general to carry no attraction when compared with continuing his work in solidarity with those suffering oppression. Instead, he turned down the honour of leading the world’s male Dominicans.

The chapter also reveals not only the influence of the great  Dominican saint Thomas Aquinas on Fr Nolan, but also that of US Trappist monk Thomas Merton, various Catholic religious and Christians from other denominations, as well as political activists of all faith traditions and of no faith at all, who demonstrated tremendous self-sacrifice.

While not explicitly stated, many of the articles embody Fr Nolan’s understanding of, and his desire to live by, the Dominican motto of “Contemplata aliis trader”, or “to give to others the fruits of contemplation”.

“As Dominicans, it is vital that we, who are preachers, give our lives to contemplation and prayer and thereby live our charism by passing on the fruit of contemplation,” Fr Nolan writes. This involves  prayer and study but also “truly learning to recognise the presence of  God as mystery, in ourselves, in others, in society, in creation and the  universe, but above all in Jesus.”

He adds that the true contemplative is someone who has sufficient inner peace to listen to others. “If I am a contemplative, I am able to  listen to what God has to say to me through other people — almost any  other person and not only the ones we admire.”

The book’s 18 short and accessible chapters deal with broad ranging  themes, from reflections on great Catholic personalities such as St  Dominic, St Catherine and St Albert, to Fr Nolan’s thoughts on preaching, prayer, leadership and the option for the poor.

It includes a thought-provoking sermon titled “The Unforgivable Sin”,  where Fr Nolan explains that the unforgivable sin against the Holy  Spirit is when people describe good as evil, the truth as lies and evil as good. An article on “‘The Great Divorce” between spirituality and social justice looks at how to move beyond such dualism and recognise that spirituality and work for social justice belong together.

In her foreword, Sr Alison Munro OP writes that the book’s essays point to how Fr Nolan grew in understanding of what it means to be human and follow Jesus, to be committed to the poor and marginalised, and to integrate contemplation and preaching in a particular Dominican way. She concludes that Fr Nolan’s spirituality is as relevant today as when he wrote it.

Being Compassionate Contemplatives has been published by ATF Press and is available from the Catholic Bookshop in Cape Town. Email: