Book Reviews – January 2025

Christ Brings All Newness: Essays, Reviews and Reflections. By Robert P. Imbelli. Reviewed by Rev. Bradley D. Easterbrooks. (skip to review)

What Would Socrates Say? An Introduction to Philosophy by the Socratic Method. By Peter Kreeft. Reviewed by Loyce Pinto. (skip to review)

Four Catholic Philosophers: Rejoicing in the Truth. By Richard A. Spinello. Reviewed by Clara Sarrocco. (skip to review)

Rebuilt Faith: A Handbook for Skeptical Catholics. By Michael White and Tom Corcoran. Reviewed by Ted Hirt. (skip to review)

Beyond the Devil’s Road: Francisco Garcés and the Spanish Encounter with the American Southwest. By Jeremy Beer. Reviewed by Aaron Martin. (skip to review)

Christ Brings All Newness – Robert P. Imbelli

Imbelli, Robert P. Christ Brings All Newness: Essays, Reviews and Reflections. Elk Grove Village, IL: Word on Fire Academic, 2023. 337 pages.

Reviewed by Rev. Bradley D. Easterbrooks.

I remember when I first stumbled upon Augustine’s discourse on totus Christus in the Latin primary source text. I was in the library of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, exploring Augustine’s writings on another topic. Totus Christus, a Pauline insight integrated by the Fathers, signifies that the Christ who saves is inseparably the whole Christ, head and members. Although I was familiar with this doctrine in a notional sense, reading Augustine’s application of it in the context of my research helped me to understand it in a profoundly new way. Christ saves us as members of his body, his toto corpore that suffers, dies, rises, and ascends in a whole totality. All of theology, I realized, was illuminated by this principle.

In Christ Brings All Newness, Robert P. Imbelli identifies totus Christus as a “key to the distinctive patristic scriptural interpretation and pastoral practice and its continued relevance today.” (164) The insight informs the path by which individual Christians become a new creation in Christ, precisely pinpointing how Christ makes all things new in the Paschal Mystery. One instance of this, Imbelli observes, is where Augustine perceives totus Christus in the vox Christi of the Psalms (cf., 231). The lyrics of the Psalms often reflect Christ’s words and those of his members in different degrees, chanted throughout time by Christ in his person and individual Christians as though one voice. The divine word in the psalms thrusts Christians into a “whole chorus singing, with Christ the Chorus Master, who guarantees proper rhythm and harmony.” (232)

Imbelli proposes that the incarnational union between Christ and his members in totus Christus expresses an aspect of the “Christic Novum” sourced in Irenaeus’ statement that “Christ brought all newness in bringing himself.” (230) This originally Irenaean phrase is at the center of Imbelli’s theological synthesis. Christ the New Adam transforms Christians into incorporated members of his body, a body which is at once ascended and yet actively divinizing its members. An effect of this corporal wholeness is that those who share in it are transfigured in Christ “from glory to glory” (cf., 232–33, citing 2 Cor. 3:18), ascending to the heavenly realm as members of the one body of Lord.

Imbelli’s work contains a compilation of his previously published essays, book reviews, and reflections which are threaded together by an emphatic focus on the novum of Christ in his Ascension, the Eucharist, and Transfiguration. These three dimensions are considered interpenetrative, revealing meaning in each other. “The Ascension is the very telos of the Incarnation,” Imbelli proposes (12), precisely because the “destiny of the pilgrim/poet’s transfiguring journey is divinization.” (14) And the Ascension is the very condition of this divinization, he writes, because — with John Henry Newman — it is observed that “deification is Christification.” (51) Christ repeats in each of us all that was accomplished in his own person that “he might create in himself one new man . . . and might reconcile us both to God in one body” (Eph. 2:15–16).

The privileged place of encounter between the ascended Christ and his members, contends Imbelli, is in the admirabile commercium in the Eucharistic liturgy, the wondrous exchange where “Real Presence is at its highest pitch.” (165) Imbelli quotes Leo the Great’s exposition of this Eucharistic mystery as a type of outline to his own elaboration. Leo writes that consuming “the body and blood of Christ” is what “makes us become what we receive” (164). Therefore, says Leo, the “Son of God assumed human nature so intimately that there is one single Christ,” whose “head cannot be separated from the members” (164, citing Leo the Great, Sermo 12 de Passione, 3.6-7). Understanding Real Presence to be at the center of this mystery, Imbelli concludes that the Eucharistic liturgy constitutes a normative substantiation in Christ and even the place of our own transubstantiation (165).

A theologian formed by his time in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, Imbelli grounds his theological synthesis in a hermeneutic of the Council that perceives a primacy in the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum. He reasons that it is only in the revelation of God in Christ that the basis for the Church and her liturgy find true meaning. The Church would otherwise become a “merely human gathering, bereft of transcendent reference.” (3) Authentic aggiornamento (updating), then, must be rightly understood as a consequence of a ressourcement of the revelation of Christ. For Imbelli, the Council’s fundamental proposal is an invitatio in mysterium Christi, or an invitation to participate in the whole mystery of Christ. As such, the Council can be read as a “summons to transformation of life according to the image of Christ: being clothed with Christ, taking on the mind of Christ, living life in Christ.” (cf., 6–7)

Anticipating a possible critique that a so-called “Christomonism” is present in his writings, Imbelli responds convincingly with his summary of the Epistle to the Colossians. The “Christo-logic” of Colossians, he contends, is grounded in its portrait of Christ as Head who knits together the whole body of Christ together: “Christ in you, hope of glory” (141, citing Col. 1:27). The letter’s counsel that you “have died, and your life is hid with God in Christ” (Col. 3:3) gives a “grammar” to the Christic novum which then calls to transformation (cf., 142–43). Here we find not so much a Christomonism but an essential Christocentric key to the whole of revelation.

Christ Brings All Newness is a delightful theological voyage. Because it is a compilation of prior writings, the work at times offers some organizational variance, though this does not seem to obscure its content. It is theologically precise but poetic, and its presentation is so artful that it often sings from the page as it pairs its theology with descriptions of sacred motets. Imbelli’s talent is his ability to engage with so many theological lights while offering a perspective that is simultaneously resourced and new. It is both learned and a joy to read. I recommend it especially for pastors and catechists, and I will certainly use it in my own homily preparation.

Rev. Bradley D. Easterbrooks, J.D., S.T.L., serves as Secretary of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Diocese of San Diego and as Parochial Vicar of St. Mark’s Catholic Church in San Marcos, California.

What Would Socrates Say? – Peter Kreeft

Kreeft, Peter. What Would Socrates Say? An Introduction to Philosophy by the Socratic Method. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2024. 351 pages.

Reviewed by Loyce Pinto.

“How does one spark a desire in someone to think deeply about life and the world?” This is a question that troubles most people involved in the formation of youth or young adults. Dr. Peter Kreeft provides a perfect guide to answering this question in What Would Socrates Say? Kreeft is a renowned Catholic academic and philosophy professor at Boston College and Kings College. He has written over eighty books on Christian philosophy and theology. While there is a plethora of introduction to philosophy books in the market, what makes this work stand out is that it is written in the form of Socratic Dialogues. The book avoids prejudice to any philosophy and presents them respectfully because “every error has a grain of truth in it.” (21)

While Kreeft has written various introductory philosophy books of different styles, he considers the Socratic dialogue most effective. This is because philosophy is not just about memorizing a set of doctrines of various philosophers but about looking at the world in wonder and lovingly seeking after wisdom. While being easy to read, the book truly prompts the reader to start philosophizing and question the arguments presented in the book as well as their own. This book is written for “a one-semester upper-level high school course or as the beginning of an introductory college course, where it should be supplemented by some readings from great philosophers.” (9) In a time when philosophy is often undervalued, especially in universities, this book aims at proving that philosophy, though not necessary, is very important for our lives. (12)

The book has sixteen chapters, each exploring a key philosophical question with discussion prompts at the end of each. The chapters are arranged according to the questions that resonate most with the readers. This approach, while not standard, makes the book surprisingly easy and natural to follow. The introductory chapters deal with philosophy, logic, and the Socratic method in general. Kreeft notes that the aim of philosophy is not to change the world but to interpret it. (15) The chapter on classical logic equips the readers with the necessary tools and verbiage for philosophical inquiry. These tools will be used throughout the book and recalled frequently to demonstrate how logic is foundational to clear thinking. Kreeft also contrasts classical logic with modern or symbolic logic. The Socratic method chapter provides a list of logical and psychological principles that it uses, emphasizing that one ought to have a “will to truth.” (34)

In Epistemology, Kreeft begins by making a distinction between opinions, which can be false, and truth, which cannot. His definition of truth as “telling it like it is” (42) clearly reveals skepticism’s inherent contradictory nature. Kreeft also points out the limits of the scientific method and universal doubt. Further, he discusses the idea of certainty, empiricism, rationalism, idealism, and whether universal truths are attainable. In philosophical anthropology, Kreeft discusses the mind-body and life-after-death problems. He provides the basic different positions on these issues as well as some of the arguments for each of them. Kreeft points out that there is no perfect argument for any of these issues but it’s the sum of the arguments (weaker and stronger) that leads a person to greater certitude. In the philosophy of nature, he discusses Aristotle’s four causes and Hume’s and Kant’s critiques.

In Metaphysics, Kreeft asks what does “real” mean? And how is it different from imaginary? His ability to explain metaphysics in a simple way is quite a major feat. Kreeft presents various metaphysical views such as Platonism, Aristotelianism, materialism, and nominalism. The Heideggerian question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” (188) discussed in the chapter ties into the question of God’s existence. Kreeft provides classical arguments such as Anselm’s ontological argument (along with Kant’s critique), Aquinas’s five proofs, Augustine’s argument from truth, Newman’s and Dostoyevsky’s argument from goodness, and C.S. Lewis’s argument from beauty. He also deals with the theodicy argument and the creation versus evolution problem.

Kreeft spends the next five chapters on ethics. He begins by discussing the metaphysical status of moral truths. He compares and clarifies the positions of moral absolutism, i.e., objective and universal moral laws, and moral relativism, i.e., morals as relative and changeable. While absolutism is more reasonable, it also provides a firm foundation for the notions of conscience and tolerance. Next, Kreeft uses the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic method to discover the Greatest Good. Then, he takes up three concrete ethical issues namely just war theory versus pacifism, sexual morality, and abortion. Each issue is examined through clear distinctions and the application of the threefold criteria of the act itself, motive, and circumstances. In the next chapter, Kreeft contrasts traditionalism (values preservation) with progressivism (seeks new developments), which is a constant source of tension in families and societies. He points out that the risk is always in oversimplifying these issues. “The older generation was better at some virtues and moderns . . . at others.” (306) Further, Kreeft discusses Hegel’s and Marx’s views of history having an intrinsic purpose and critiques them by siding with C.S. Lewis’ view, which is skeptical since “no one stands outside the historical process” to judge. (308)

The political philosophy chapter explores the state-citizen relationship and the impact of metaphysics, ethics, and anthropology on it. For example, disbelief in the immortality of the soul results in the conclusion that the state is more important than the individual, as the “many is greater than the one.” (315) Then, Kreeft moves on to discuss the end of education and critiques the idea that education is for the sake of earning money as entailing circular reasoning. The final chapter deals with the question of the role of technology in one’s life. Kreeft warns against the tendency to idolize technology and see it as an end rather than a means. It points out that the only way to resist this temptation is by growing in moral virtues.

The book is balanced, and up-to-date (discusses topics like AI). It introduces the reader to a variety of philosophical branches. It draws not just from the Western tradition but also from the East such as the Advaita School, Vedas, and Buddhism. While the arguments are presented in a simple format, they are far from being simplistic. The book is engaging as the logical arguments are coupled with Kreeft’s unique humor (which includes breaking the fourth wall), puns, analogies, and images. This appeals to the reader’s imagination as well as his reason.

The main issue that I have is that the book’s length may discourage some of the potential readers.¹ Given Kreeft’s desire to imitate how an authentic dialogue would take place, the book in some passages goes through tangents and at times leaves the main question unanswered. For example, in the chapters concerning sexual morality and political philosophy, only the basic premises are unearthed. This, while being similar to a Socratic dialogue that encourages the reader to continue the dialogue beyond the limits of the book, might be discouraging for some. This book is well-suited for its intended audience as well as teachers, parents, and youth ministers.

Loyce Pinto is a consecrated religious brother of the Institute Id of Christ the Redeemer, Idente Missionaries. He is currently the youth minister at St. Luke’s Church in Brentwood, New York.

Four Catholic Philosophers – Richard A. Spinello

Spinello, Richard A. Four Catholic Philosophers: Rejoicing in the Truth. St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media, 2023. 363 pages.

Reviewed by Clara Sarrocco.

Four Catholic philosophers of the twentieth century from different countries had their lives intersected by their search for the truth. Jaques Maritain from France, Edith Stein from Germany, Karol Wojtyla from Poland, and Dietrich von Hildebrand from Italy and Germany all lived through the terror of the Third Reich and the oppression of Communism. Professor Spinello has interspersed their biographies with their philosophical ideas, thus creating a very fascinating read for both the layman and the professional.

Before beginning the exploration of the individual philosophers, Spinello starts his narrative with the definition of “Catholic philosophy.” He explains that it does not begin with a specific metaphysical system but must not “deconstruct the ultimate truths of the faith.” (1) Spinello explains his thesis: “. . . our intention will concentrate on four prominent and representative thinkers . . . who were more or less contemporaries . . . who make a significant contribution to our Catholic patrimony.” (18) Of the four, three are converts, two are saints, and one became a philosopher-pope. All four exhibited a deep love of God and the truth.

Jacques Maritain began his life in 1882 France. His parent divorced shortly after his birth and his religious education stopped shortly after his baptism. He eventually became a student at the Sorbonne, where he met his future wife, Raïssa Oumasov, born in 1881 in Russia in an observant Jewish family. After the family’s move to France their religious practices ceased. Both Jacques and Raïssa fell into despair after their encounter with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. It was through their discovery of Henri Bergson and his ideas about universal truth and spiritual realities that the young couple eventually married and began to accept what they had believed was an elusive truth. Under the influence of Leon Bloy, they entered the Catholic Church. Both Raïssa and Jacques began reading St. Thomas’s Summa Theologiae. By 1912 Jacques began his long career as a philosophy professor. By 1929, to escape the Nazi death machine, they realized that it would be necessary for them to seek refuge in America. Maritain eventually became a professor at Princeton teaching natural law theory. As Spinello noted: “. . .many of Maritain’s concerns about the nature of the human person and a social philosophy that does justice to the dignity of the person are mirrored in the writings of both Edith Stein and Karol Wojtyla.” (91)

In Chapter Three, “Edith Stein – An Interrupted Life,” Spinello recounts the odyssey of Sister Benedicta of the Cross from Judaism, to Philosophy, to Catholicism, to a Carmelite convent and to death at Auschwitz. Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Lublintz, the youngest of seven children in a religious Jewish family. Her father died suddenly when she was two years old and, like Maritain, she also was raised in a single-parent home. By her teen years Edith abandoned religion and an interest in Judaism. With the assistance of her cousin, Richard Courant, a mathematician and founder of the Courant Institute at New York University, Edith began her illustrious career as a university student studying literature and philosophy. Upon hearing about the writings of Edmund Husserl, Edith decided to go to the University of Göttingen, where she became Husserl’s student and eventually his assistant.

At the outset of World War I Edith trained with the Red Cross to become a nurse, and worked with sick and wounded soldiers. Unknown to her, this was the beginning of the experiences which would influence her future life decisions, including her dissertation under Husserl on empathy. Another life-changing experience for her was the battle death of her close friend Rudolph Reinach in Flanders. Reinach had been baptized a Christian, and when Edith visited Reinach’s widow, Anna, she was amazed to see someone with such inner peace. Edith wrote: “This was the moment my unbelief collapsed.” (125)

A chance reading of The Life of St. Teresa of Avila led to Edith’s acceptance of the Catholic Church and her eventual entrance to the Carmelite Convent at Cologne. When the political situation under the Third Reich became desperate for Jews, she was transferred to the Carmelite convent at Echt in Holland. It was from there that she was arrested by the Gestapo. On 9 August 1942, Edith Stein was killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

One of the organizations Edith Stein belonged to in Göttingen was the Philosophical Society. It was here that she first became acquainted with Max Scheler, another phenomenologist. Dietrich von Hildebrand was also part of that group.

Dietrich von Hildebrand was born in Italy in 1889, the sixth child and only son of the famous sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand. It was an intellectual and talented family life but devoid of religion. At the age of seventeen, von Hildebrand enrolled in the University of Munich to study philosophy. The writings of Edmund Husserl began to influence him. He eventually attended the University of Göttingen, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation under Husserl. In the course of his studies, he met both Adolf Reinach and Max Scheler. In his own words: “The face of the Catholic Church began to shine more and more clearly.” (180) In 1914 he entered the Catholic Church. During the years of World War, I he, too, like Edith Stein, worked with the Red Cross to care for wounded soldiers. After the war he began his teaching career at the University of Munich, where he lectured on phenomenology and the history of philosophy.

Von Hildebrand became a staunch critic of National Socialism, which led to his close scrutiny by the Nazi Party. When Hitler seized control of the German government, von Hildebrand and his family were forced to flee. Because of his strong stand and writings against the Hitler regime, he was a marked man. Through the efforts of friends, Von Hildebrand, his wife and son made their way to the America. He became a philosophy professor at Fordham University in New York City.

One year after the death of Dietrich von Hildebrand, Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope — Pope John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920. He was the youngest child of his devout Catholic parents, having been preceded by a brother, Edmund, and a sister, Olga, who died before he was born. His mother died when he was eight, and thus he was also raised in a single-parent home. After ministering to a sick patient, Edmund Wojtyla, a medical doctor, died during a scarlet fever epidemic. By the age of nineteen, when his father died suddenly, Karol Wojtyla had lost his entire immediate family.

Wojtyla enrolled in the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. While he was there, the atrocities of the Third Reich began and German soldiers demolished parts of the university. Through the influence of a friend, he began to read the Carmelite saints such as St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. He began to discern a calling to the priesthood and entered the underground seminary. Like von Hildebrand, he barely escaped the clutches of the Gestapo. He was ordained a priest in 1946, and was sent to Rome to pursue a doctorate in theology at the Angelicum. His thesis was on the mystical theology of St. John of the Cross. He returned to Poland, then under the iron fist of Communism, to begin parish work. He once again returned to the Jagiellonian University to pursue a second doctorate. It was here that he discovered phenomenology and the writings of Max Scheler. His second thesis, on Max Scheler, was later published as a book. Father Wojtyla then began teaching at Lublin University, giving courses on prominent philosophers including Augustine, Aquinas and Scheler. In 1958 he was chosen by Pius XII as auxiliary bishop of Kraków. When Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Wojtyla played a significant part which led to the cardinalate. On the sudden death of Pope John I, the conclave chose Cardinal Wojtyla to take on the papacy as Pope John II. His philosophy of personalism is evident in many of his writings. He became the longest-serving pope of the twentieth century.

Maritain, Stein, von Hildebrand, and Wojtyla each “. . . defied modern culture’s favorite dualism between faith and reason, body and soul, history and metaphysics.” (323)

Professor Spinello wrote a good book and it would have been a very good book if he had not paid unnecessary homage to modern mentality. Throughout the book he changes from the masculine pronoun “he” to the feminine “she” to give each an equal share. It becomes a distraction from the important ideas of these philosophers, none of which would have written in that manner. Whether it was the idea of the author or the editor or both is immaterial to what we all know about grammatical structure.

Clara Sarrocco is the longtime secretary of The New York C.S. Lewis Society. Her doctoral dissertation was on C.S. Lewis and von Hildebrand. 

Rebuilt Faith – Michael White and Tom Corcoran

White, Michael, and Tom Corcoran. Rebuilt Faith: A Handbook for Skeptical Catholics. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2023.

Reviewed by Ted Hirt.

As we all know, maintaining our Roman Catholic identity in today’s secular world is a constant challenge. Parish pews often are not occupied; lapsed Catholics or those struggling to keep their ties to our faith remain outside the walls, to the sorrow of their families and the parish community. What can be done to address this problem?

In Rebuilt Faith: A Handbook for Skeptical Catholics, the authors provide a practical handbook to those who have fallen away from the faith. Father Michael White is a pastor and priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland; Tom Corcoran has been a lay leader in that parish. They previously wrote Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making the Church Matter (Ave Maria Press, 2012), an account on how they helped rebuild their parish. This new book complements that work, but focuses on individuals, who ask, “Is religious faith a thing I really need in my life? Does it really matter? If it does, why am I not more engaged?” The authors address these questions in a practical way.

Structured as a series of daily exercises, the book proceeds in 40 chapters. The authors note that 40 was the number of years that the Israelites wandered in the desert, but pertinent to rebuilding one’s faith in our era, forty days is a “solid time span” to adopt new religious habits. These exercises are to be done consecutively in that time span, not rushed along. Each daily exercise consists of a daily Biblical reading, three questions for reflection, and a prayer and spiritual verse to conclude the session. Not surprisingly, the first chapters focus on Jesus Christ as Savior and on his promise of eternal life to his followers. Our focus must be on him, not on the “passing” and “temporary” things of our human existence. The authors also caution the reader to recognize that Christ is not a banal or weak figure; he instead showed strength of leadership, and acted with “passion ad purpose to fulfill his Father’s will.

In subsequent chapters, a concrete theme emerges. The authors call it five STEPS — “S” is for “Serve,” “T” is for “Tithe and Give,” “E” is for “Engage in Christian Community,” “P” is for “Practice Prayer and Sacraments,” and “S” is for “Share Your Faith.” As these titles indicate, the steps “build on a different aspect of our Catholic faith,” and can and should be repeated for our entire lives. Accordingly, the texts for weeks two through five focus on developing these important practices, so that we can sustain a more robust faith. Due attention is thus given to our obligation to serve those in need and to apply our unique gifts to that goal, often a matter of gradual discernment. The same guidance applies to our care and disposition of our money or wealth — how do we balance material needs against Gospel teachings to share what God has provided us? See Luke 12:22–31, Matthew 6:19–24.

The book’s exposition on parish community may be its most important feature. Although faith is a personal matter, in order to grow as a follower of Christ, we “need relationships with others who want to follow Christ.” A parish church should be the location for such gatherings (the Latin word ecclesia, translated from the Greek ekalein, refers to an assembly or convocation of people). The STEPS of discipleship “build up both the local community of faith and the individual believer,” which can manifest itself in small group sessions, friends in faith who can strengthen and encourage each other. The authors also note that the small group setting will “provide an environment where we slowly but surely learn new patterns of thinking and form better habits for living.” Small faith communities can form close bonds and support, because we all face life’s challenges.

Weeks five and six provide reflections on prayer and the sacraments and the admonition that we share our faith. That final Step may be the most challenging for us as Catholics. We will acknowledge that discomfort, but that should not stop us from joining Christ’s example of “looking for the lost sheep who have wandered far from God.” We can identify family or friends or coworkers who we can invite to our local parish.

This book definitely can assist the building up parish life. My only concern is that the authors did not provide guidance as to how to incorporate the reading of this book — either in an individual or small group setting — into that larger project. Nevertheless, this is a valuable contribution to the ongoing process of creating a welcoming and vibrant parish.

Ted Hirt is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, an assistant editor for the James Wilson Institute’s Anchoring Truths, a former career attorney at the U.S. Justice Department, and a Gettysburg, PA Licensed Town Guide. The views he expresses are his own.

Beyond the Devil’s Road – Jeremy Beer

Beer, Jeremy. Beyond the Devil’s Road: Francisco Garcés and the Spanish Encounter with the American Southwest. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2024. 341 pages.

Reviewed by Aaron Martin.

Jeremy Beer claims at the outset of Beyond the Devil’s Road that the book is “limited by space, and even more limited by [his] own lack of expertise.” (14) Whatever Beer supposedly lacks in historical expertise — his doctorate is in psychology and his professional work is in philanthropy — he more than makes up for through his inquisitive mind and insightful analysis. Francisco Garcés is less known than his contemporaries, Eusebio Kino and Junípero Serra. Although others have received more attention, Garcés made important contributions to the southwest United States, both as a missionary and an explorer. Those contributions are still felt today, and this is a welcome biography about an important figure.

When Garcés arrived in Mexico in 1768, the Franciscans had already been in Mexico and the areas of the American Southwest for 150 years. But “[o]nly a few Spanish priests and soldiers had ever traveled [the Devil’s Road]. None had gone much beyond the Gila River to the interior of modern Arizona. . . . For the Spanish, the terminus of El Camino de Diablo marked the end of the known world.” (2) The Devil’s Road ran from “Boundary Camp on the western border of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona” and ends “at the banks of the Gila River near the small town of Wellton. In total, the road covers about 110 desert miles.” (1) The Devil’s Road was uncharted territory, but Garcés took on the challenge of both exploring the area along the Road and evangelizing the native people there.

In fact, Garcés may be more prominent as an explorer than as a missionary. “Were it not for his exploits, San Francisco and Los Angeles might have been established many years later than they actually were (1776 and 1781, respectively), and a Spanish society might have failed to take root before the onslaught of the American gold rush, depriving California of a significant component of its cultural heritage.” (9) As a result of his explorations, Beer concludes that “Garces’s multiple months-long treks into what was, for Spaniards, the unknown and unfathomably dangerous wilderness make him one of the greatest pathfinders in North American history.” (9)

On the missionary side, Garcés was arguably just as prolific. His efforts were hampered, at times, by the Spanish and their vacillations about how much power to give the Jesuit and, later, Franciscan missionaries. In 1767, Spain’s King Charles expelled the Jesuits from Spain and its various territories. The Franciscans “were ready to step into the breach” and, about a month after the Jesuits left, fifteen Franciscan missionaries were sent from the Colegio Santa Cruz in Querétaro, about 125 miles north of Mexico City. Garcés joined them the following year.

The colegio’s “mission, according to the colegio’s constitution, was ‘to preach the Holy Gospel to all creatures, that is: to the faithful by reforming their customs; and to the unfaithful by giving them notice and light of the faith, by baptizing them, and by adding them to the flock of the Roman Holy Church, and enlisting them to its obedience, without which none are saved.’” (33) Santa Cruz’s missionaries were a practical bunch. Garcés, who entered the Order at age fifteen, was not an intellectual. As Beer notes, “although Francisco seems to have taken well to the Franciscan routine of prayer, meditation, discipline, and physical mortification, he was not exactly the second coming of Saint Bonaventure.” (24) Rather, “the friars emphasized the importance of liturgical participation and moral formation — a religion of the senses and of the heart, more stereotypically medieval than modern, that would help generate deeper understanding over time.” (90)

Although he was not an intellectual, Garcés intuitively knew human nature, and Garcés “is best understood not as a ‘maverick,’ as some writers have maintained, but as a priest trying his best to deal with this complicated [Spanish] legacy on the ground in a creative and faithful way.” (12) Garcés’s approach was to engage the native people simply and, unlike others at the time, without a military escort. He also had other attributes that led to missionary success — patience, the ability to learn the native language, affection, and respect for the people. (42) These attributes allowed Garcés to develop relationships with the natives, which gave him more time to evangelize them. And time was key for missionaries: “What they wanted was time: time to baptize, time to preach, and time to teach.” (43) It took Garcés some time to refine his own missionary style. “By the standards of his era Garcés was kind and patient. . . . Over time he would become kinder, more patient, more separated from his peers in these respects.” (71)

Garcés’s success as a missionary seems only limited by external circumstances. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, the Spanish determined that “Franciscans would be in charge of spiritual matters only.” (54) Having to receive approval for temporal aspects of the missions hindered the Franciscans’ ability to proceed as quickly as they might otherwise, and to put into place the missionary foundations they would prefer. “Temporal authority — complete control of the missions and all their properties, including the labor of neophytes — was restored to the Sonoran missionaries on June 3, 1769.” (88)

By the second half of 1771, Garcés had “explored the lower Colorado River more thoroughly than had any European before him.” He also “successfully crossed the unforgiving sandy desert to the river’s west and spied a route that would have taken him to San Diego, if only he had been given the opportunity.” In that same area, “he sowed the seeds of a history-altering relationship with the Indian leader who greeted him on August 23, a man known among his own people as Olleyquotequiebe — ‘The One Who Wheezes.’” (127) That relationship, however, would prove fatal.

The natives’ frustration with the Spanish government had been quiet for a time. But unfulfilled promises of goods, food, and protection took their toll on the natives’ patience. Some of the natives were pushed over the edge in June 1781 when a Spanish captain showed complete disregard for the locals and drove his animals through their crops, ruining their current food supply and jeopardizing future crops by destroying the plants’ seeds.

Francisco Palma, the name the Spanish gave “The One Who Wheezes,” knew that an uprising was on the horizon. He sent a group of warriors to peacefully bring Garcés back from the frontier. One warrior among them, however, disliked the Spanish and saw Garcés as a symbol of everything wrong with the Spanish. He believed that Garcés must die and reached Garcés before the others.

Garcés and his fellow missionary, Fr. Barreneche, sat drinking hot chocolate in their shelter on the morning of the attack. The warriors entered: “‘Stop drinking that,’ he demanded. ‘We’re going to kill you.’ ‘We’d like to finish our chocolate first,’ Garcés replied, finding within himself a vein of black humor. ‘Just leave it!’ was the warrior’s irritated response.” (327) “As soon as [the priests] stepped outside, they were viciously clubbed to within an inch of their lives.” (327-28) The priests died shortly after and are venerated as martyrs.

In the Collect for the Common for Missionary Martyrs, we pray for the intercession of those whose preaching was the means God used to “pour the knowledge of your Only Begotten Son into the hearts of the peoples.” Although some natives fought against him, Garcés largely won the admiration and even affection of the natives to whom he ministered. History forgot Francisco Garcés for many years, but his legacy exists in the various tribes in Arizona and other places he ministered. In that way, Garcés serves as an example of effective evangelization to anyone who needs to hear the Gospel, whether they are found in the eighteenth-century desert or a twenty-first century city.

Aaron Martin, JD, PhL, and his wife live in Phoenix, AZ with their four children. Aaron owns his own law practice and serves in various ways in the Diocese of Phoenix. He also is a member of the USCCB’s National Review Board. He writes at martinlawandmediation.substack.com.