Radical & Free: Musings on the Religious Life by Brian O’Leary (review)

Abstract

standards of UCD Press. It will be welcomed as an important addition to Joycean scholarship by Irish writers. Moreover, it should find a place in any library devoted to the Irish Literary Revival and the history of modernism in Ireland, as well as to life and culture in Victorian and Edwardian Dublin. Vivien Igoe deserves the gratitude of the many readers and scholars who will be delighted by what she has done. Peter Costello is an author and editor, with specialised interest in the life and work of James Joyce, on whom he has written extensively. Radical & Free: Musings on the Religious Life, Brian O’Leary SJ, (Dublin: Messenger Publications, 2016), 98 pages. Brian O’Leary’s book provides a short but very engaging exploration of religious life, with a focus on the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. Despite its relative brevity, this collection of theological, spiritual, historical, psychological and personal insights gives the book a variegated feel, hinted at in the word ‘Musings’ in the subtitle. Much of the content is taken from a series of talks the author gave to consecrated persons in 2014, during the church’s Year for Consecrated Life. The book serves to inform and renew the reader’s understanding and living of the vows. It does so first by unveiling the original inspiration and biblical wisdom behind each of the evangelical counsels. It also offers an array of positive suggestions as to how religious can authentically live the vows today. These suggestions strive to be faithful to both the foundational impulse of the desert fathers and mothers ‘to renounce’, and contemporary demands on religious life and mission. Radical and Free can therefore be considered as both spiritual reading for anyone who wishes to engage with the question of how they live their vows, and as a source of valuable information for anyone who simply wishes to further their understanding and appreciation of religious life. In chapter one the author reaches back to the time of the nascent Christian church, the age of martyrdom, and the desert fathers and mothers, to offer a critical discussion of the historical origins of religious life. He also traces how the singular decision ‘to renounce’ evolved in time into the triad of evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience that we have come Studies • volume 107 • number 425 132 Spring 2018: Book Reviews to recognise as the hallmarks of religious life. The following six chapters can be read as three two-chapter pairs, unearthing the biblical wisdom and witness which underpins each of the vows and exploring contemporary ways of both understanding and authentically living those vows. In the case of both celibacy and poverty, the author notes how they have been presented in the scriptures as evils as well as goods. Obedience is explored through the biblical portrayal of creation and specific personalities, seen as being and living under the authority of God. As a general observation, the biblical roots of all the evangelical counsels become clearer as the missionary life of the church kicks into gear. In his discussion of the contemporary living of the vows, the author naturally attends to their apostolic value. What this reader appreciated more, however, was how pastorally attuned the author is to how the vowed life can serve the personal and relational needs of consecrated persons themselves: obedience is linked to self-acceptance (Is 45,9-11), chastity is presented as a living of life with God and others in a spirit of intimacy and mutuality, and poverty is shown as a way of allowing oneself to depend on others. The author’s years of experience show in his knowledge of the history and theology of religious life as well as his familiarity with how different religious institutes have adapted the ideals of religious life to their specific context. In that respect this book it is a useful resource for the ongoing processes of ressourcement and of aggiornamento called for by the Second Vatican Council. The introduction left this reader with the impression that the audiences of the original lectures consisted predominantly of older Irish religious people. This book, however, is a timely reminder to younger and older religious people...