Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2021): 269–295

Book Reviews

Integralism: A Manual of Political Philosophy. By Thomas Crean and Alan Fimister. Seelscheid, Germany: Editiones Scholasticae, 2020. 290 pages. $31.

2011 saw the birth of Editiones Scholasticae, part of a fruitful ef- fort to renew the study of scholastic philosophy in the German and English-speaking contexts. Editiones publishes reprints of eighteenth and nineteenth century books, translations, and new publications in scholastic philosophy. Integralism falls in the third category. Crean and Fimister are Thomists with the flavor of Garrigou-Lagrange rather than Rahner, Murray, and Lonergan. Not surprisingly, Crean and Fimister rely almost entirely on Aquinas’s primary texts and magiste- rial documents from before the Second Vatican Council, which also present a more thoroughly Thomistic perspective. One might be sur- prised to find that C.S. Lewis receives more citations than the popes after 1960, but the near silence of the modern magisterium makes sense given the authors’ goal. Those steeped in the scholastic approach will find the work a concise presentation of Catholic political philos- ophy as they already know it; those from other perspectives will find Crean and Fimister’s treatment capable, nuanced, and confident. As a manual, this text is aimed at students. The authors admirably achieve in this genre, with ample footnotes to primary sources, a logical struc- ture throughout, and a list of theses closing each chapter. Integralism will impress and inform if taken on its own terms. If, however, the reader hopes for something like Olsen’s On the Road to Emmaus: The Catholic Dialogue with America and Modernity, or an approach like the Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, she is likely to be disappointed. The political philosophy described takes one important lane on the highway of today’s Catholic political thought. William Cavanaugh’s approach, going all the way back to his Theo- political Imagination, for example, would be an excellent dialogue partner for this work, but the authors do not directly dialogue with his or scarcely any other current scholarship. Crean and Fimister’s disci- plined approach should be considered a strength of the text. Finding a clear, readable, concise presentation of the long-standing Thomistic political philosophy as endorsed by the historical magisterium is not easy. In light of the title, a wider Catholic readership might be prepared to be critical of sections on religious liberty, servitude and slavery, and 270 Book Reviews the separation of Church and state, but Crean and Fimister take meas- ured, reasonable approaches on each topic that communicate the long- held tradition of the Church while remaining consonant with the mag- isterial teaching from the second half of the twentieth century. Some might find callous their Thomistic, Aristotelian approaches to slavery as “ownership of one person’s labor by another” (63), when they say it is not contrary to natural law in the strict sense, but the chapter on the topic carries the required nuance and force. Citing Pope St. Greg- ory the Great (Epistles), Pope Paul III (Sublimis Deus, 1537), Pope Leo XIII (In Plurimis), and Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes, Crean and Fimister write, “Involuntary non-penal enslavement is contrary to nat- ural law and is null and void” (69). A chapter on slavery from a more common twenty-first century approach might be expected to lead with Gaudium et Spes 27, but Crean and Fimister make a passing reference to the text at the end of a footnote. Again, given their scholastic ap- proach, beginning with Gaudium et Spes 27 would be a poor fit. On the other hand, while the section on the common good is nuanced and detailed, it suffers for ignoring the difficulties in the twentieth-century magisterial treatment of the term. There is no meaningful reference to Mater et Magistra, Pacem in Terris, etc. On this score J. Brian Ben- estad’s Church, State, and Society is a superior treatment of the topic. One also feels the absence of Benedict XVI’s social encyclicals throughout. Admittedly, Deus Caritas Est is more Augustinian than scholastic, but love does inform even a scholastic Catholic political philosophy and reference to that corpus would have been helpful. Of special interest are chapters on the distinction between temporal and spiritual powers. The authors hold fast to and rationally explicate the historic doctrine of the Church, even as expressed in Unam Sanc- tam while understanding the current context of post-secularization where social contract theory and separation of powers have (even among Catholics) won the day. Chapter 11, for example, “The Two Swords,” makes distinctions and nuanced explanations of the relation- ship between the spiritual and temporal swords in the context of Chris- tendom and in the context of today’s ubiquitous non-confessional states. The chapter includes helpful sections answering objections from both Catholic and non-Catholic thinkers. Unfortunately, these sections mention only a few thinkers by name, leaving the other ob- jections abstract rather than as belonging to a particular author or camp. The authors take on and defend a traditional position baffling to almost all students and many scholars: the Church, being the only true perfect society, possesses both spiritual and temporal authority and can render both spiritual and temporal punishments to the faithful (249–255). The chapter even includes considerations of when it might be necessary to disobey a Pope who attempts to wield temporal power apart from his spiritual competence, e.g., if a Pope proclaims or de- Book Reviews 271 mands certain legislation ought to take place regarding a subject re- quiring specialized knowledge (e.g., climate change or the medical ne- cessity or efficacy of a vaccine) (244–245). Finally, Crean and Fimister’s treatment of religious liberty (e.g., 105–108) from the integralist position was, again, measured and con- sonant with current magisterium yet doggedly faithful to the classical expression of the tradition as expressed in Immortale Dei and Libertas Praestantissimum. Since much of the magisterial sources after the Second Vatican Council are ignored or sidelined, I imagined Dignita- tis Humanae would not have a voice. The authors, however, give proper place to the document while offering long, discursive footnotes explaining the continuity of doctrine, especially involving the ex- change between Martin Rhonheimer and Thomas Pink. Integralism is a refreshing and successful attempt to confidently explicate the historic, scholastic political philosophy of the Catholic Church that remains consonant with the content of the modern magis- terium without seeming reactionary against or critical of more recent magisterial expressions. Such an accomplishment really is a feat. KENT J. LASNOSKI Wyoming Catholic College

Choosing Peace. The Catholic Church Returns to Gospel Nonvio- lence. Edited by Marie Dennis. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2018. viii + 256 pages. $25.00.

In April 2016, the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International, held an important meeting in Rome, engaging with Vatican officials around the topic of Gospel nonviolence. Gath- ering some of the conceptual threads of that event, this text conveys the feel of a two-day conference, interspersing particular contributions and responses with more formal statements like Pope Francis’s mes- sage of welcome and a reprint of his 2017 World Day of Peace Mes- sage, “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace,” which bookend the volume. At the end of their deliberations, the conference participants issued an “Appeal to the Catholic Church to Re-commit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence,” the first chapter here. The rest of the volume fleshes out some of the tensions addressed in that appeal, not least the challenge of moving beyond just war traditions to emphasize nonvio- lence and just peace (203). The same task surfaced again in November of 2017 at another related gathering at the Vatican, “Perspectives for a World Free from Nuclear Weapons and for Integral Disarmament,” when Pope Francis condemned not only the use but also the possession of nuclear weapons. US participants immediately thought of Catholic members of the military with responsibility for the maintenance and