Everything is Sacred is an excellent introduction to the polemical and influential writings of Henri de Lubac. Between WWI and the Second Vatican Council, de Lubac worked tirelessly through his writings to direct theology to recover patristic truths that got lost in the eleventh and twelfth centuries which were barely rescued by the neo-scholastics of the nineteenth century. De Lubac proposed that these truths and other pre-critical practices of the Fathers would return the Church’s pastoral care and importance for the faithful. De Lubac, along with his colleagues of the Nouvelle théologie, such as Teilhard, von Balthasar, Congar, Rahner, Küng, Schillebeeckx, Chenu, Bouyer, and Ratzinger sought to re-educate, free and re-engage the isolated Church with the modern world. Opponents to this revival included the neo-scholastics, Action Française, the Vichy Regime, and some Vatican leaders influenced by philosophies of the French Revolution and other contemporary philosophies.

Hollon’s purpose is to clarify and defend de Lubac’s ideas from his detractors and offer for readers a fresh look into de Lubac’s reasons for following patristic principles. Hollon sets the stage by describing the state of turmoil in philosophy in the early twentieth century. He provides an in-depth background analysis of de Lubac’s life as a soldier for the French Army and theologian for the Church. He then enters into an exposition of de Lubac’s important writings: Catholicism, Corpus Mysticum, Surnaturel, and Brief Catechesis on Nature and Grace. He reveals de Lubac’s keen interest in the four traditional senses of scripture: literal, allegorical, tropological and anagogical. And these senses, in turn, influence the worship of the faithful which falls in the Church’s political arena. Hollon finishes by summarizing de Lubac’s work, describing his theological impact in the Church, and arguing for the preeminence of his work over that of other theologians.

De Lubac was gravely concerned with the Church’s inability to properly relate and pastor to the faithful, deal with the infiltration of atheistic theology, and address contemporary problems. To de Lubac, the answers were in rediscovering scripture study using the four traditional senses of scripture, giving new interpretation to Thomism, and ending the Church’s isolation from the secular world. De Lubac proposed that as the faithful deepened their relationship with scripture, their mystical union with Jesus would also deepen and result in better worship in the Eucharist.

The book may be hard to follow for those not versed in the thought of such figures as Aquinas, Augustine, Milbank, Blondel, Chenu, Garrigou-Lagrange and Labourdette, since Hollon continually compares and contrasts de Lubac’s works with theirs. Though one might at times get lost in the density and language of the book, its argument is an important one, building a defense of the proper relationship of nature and grace in humanity, how humanity approaches revelation and ultimately worship in Jesus.

This book will be useful to scholars in hermeneutics, philosophy, systematic and historical theology. Hollon, like de Lubac, footnotes extensively, and he provides an index to key authors, themes and concepts.