Walking With Fr. Vincent by Andrew McNabb: A Review

 

I am awarding "Walking with Vincent McNabb" full marks because it entirely achieves what it sets out to achieve. If you are interested in Fr. Vincent McNabb, you will lap this up. If you are interested in G.K. Chesterton or Hilaire Belloc, you will be fascinated. If you are simply a Catholic or Christian reader, perhaps one interested in the social teaching of the Church, it will absorb you. If you are a general reader, with none of the above interests, you will still find it stimulating and perhaps even inspiring. It is written by the great-grandnephew of Fr. Vincent, and so gives an unabashedly affectionate and appropriately reverential picture of the great man.

I read this book as a longstanding fan of G.K. Chesterton, one of Fr. Vincent's most famous associates. Both were involved in the movement rather awkwardly called Distributism, which was an attempt to find a "third way" between big business and big government. It was also an attempt to follow the social teaching of the Popes.

I've never really considered myself a Distributist. Its ideals are admirable, but seem unrealistic. The author of this book is clearly aware of this tension himself, and writes a lot about his own efforts to reconcile Distributist ideals to the reality of twenty-first century capitalism. He never really comes to a definite conclusion, which I consider a strength rather than a weakness. The book lives in the tension rather than trying to neatly resolve it. The world is too full of people with easy answers.

What can be said for sure about Fr. McNabb is that he lived his ideals to the fullest. How many people really do this? A believer in a materially simple life, he slept on the wooden floor of his monastic cell with only his arm for a pillow, and only his habit for bedclothes. He walked everywhere, eschewing motorized transport. And he put all his energy into proclaiming his belief in Jesus Christ, and into promoting what he believed was a Christian way of life.

Andrew McNabb is a most companionable author, and the book is written in a warm and anecdotal style, with no fussy formality. Some readers might possibly find the style a little too fluid. McNabb interweaves his own experiences, relationship with the memory of his great-uncle, and family life with his ongoing narrative of Fr. McNabb's life. Personally I enjoyed this, although perhaps others might prefer a more conventional structure.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It's called Walking with Father Vincent, and it frequently returns to the theme of this great priest's dedication to walking, in the simplest and most literal sense of that verb. Appropriately enough, I read a great deal of this book while walking. It was that compelling. I hope Fr. Vincent would approve.

You can buy the book here.