Abstract
Aidan Nichols,
Lessons in a Rose Garden: Reviving the Doctrinal Rosary
, Gracewing: Leominster, Hereford, UK, 2012; 344 pp.: 9780852447901, £20.00 (hbk)
For most readers of Theology I suspect the rosary belongs in the realm of catholic devotion not that of theological reflection. The English Dominican Aidan Nichols seeks to revive a tradition of his Order of Preachers, long associated with both teaching and the rosary, of using the mysteries of the rosary as a framework for doctrine as well as prayer.
Nichols has a prodigious output behind him, with studies of a wide range of theologians, Eastern as well as Western, as well as cultural and literary themes. The fruit of all this can be seen in his treatment of the traditional mysteries of the rosary, ‘Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious’ and the ‘Luminous’ ones added to the devotion by Pope John Paul II. Each chapter is illustrated by a colour plate of an appropriate painting.
Much of the material has its origins in retreat addresses or other writings, some of which seem rather loosely attached to the mystery being discussed. It would have been interesting to know the contexts in which they were first delivered. It is not hard to guess that a passage which speaks of monasticism as ‘the basic Christian life, before its complication by marriage or mission or possessions’, was addressed to traditionally minded monks. A priest who has been married for more than forty years could not help noticing that the chapter on the Wedding at Cana and Marriage is very short.
Nichols cites Newman on the role of the theologian in providing a critical evaluation of spiritual experience and devotional practice. Will I be the only reader who asks if this critical faculty has been suspended when the author writes of Mary's vow of dedicated virginity made before the Annunciation, as if this was ‘a truth universally acknowledged’?
While there is much from ecumenical sources, the theological stance reflects Pope Benedict's ‘hermeneutic of continuity’ in relation to Vatican II, the so-called ‘Reform of the Reform’ in liturgy, Balthasar's Marian model of the Church. Indulgences even get a favourable mention. The book represents what had been an increasingly powerful voice in Roman Catholicism during the last two pontificates. It was published before the resignation of Pope Benedict and the election of a Jesuit pope with a very different liturgical and personal style, so it will be interesting to see how it fares in a new context.