David CAYLEY, Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey.  University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021, pp. 552. $44.95 hb. ISBN: 978-0-271-08812-9.  Reviewed by Daniel L. SMITH-CHRISTOPHER, Dept. Theology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, 90045.

David Cayley, who knew Illich well and frequently conducted extended interviews with him, seems the ideal writer for this magisterial work.  A Canadian-born writer and broadcaster, this is by no means his first work dealing with Illich’s thought – but it surely is his most comprehensive “appreciation”.  That is to say – this book is as much an engagement with, and frequently an interpretation (if not also, at times, a ‘translation’) of Illich’s often difficult ideas as much as it is also a fascinating biographical survey of his life. 

Anyone under the delusion that Illich is surely such a “dated 1960s-1970s-type” thinker that his work would hardly stir significant controversy today need only read through the shorter 2015 work by Todd Hartch, The Prophet of Cuernavaca : Ivan Illich and the Crisis of the West (Oxford University Press).  Hartch can be quite critical of Illich – occasionally, it must be said, somewhat unfairly – and I noted a number of occasions where Cayley engages Hartch’s work, often taking exception to Hartch’s more severe judgements.  Cayley, however, is certainly not writing hagiography here – he is well aware of the shortcomings of some of Illich’s work – not the least of which being the difficulty of working through dense rhetoric in some of Illich’s writing.  This, however, is part of the value of Cayley’s work, as he aspires to unpack not only many of Illich’s famous works – but place them in a wider context of Illich’s theological motivations throughout.  Cayley seems most helpful when he points out that even after Illich stopped using overtly theological language – he was still deeply informed by, and reacting to, theological concepts throughout his work.  In later comments to Cayley, Illich himself seems to regret not making this clearer. 

The brief chapter titles gives a clear view of the scope of Cayley’s survey of Illich’s life and thought: 1. Exile; 2. Cuernavaca; 3. Church; 4. Deschooling Society; 5. Illich as Revolutionary; 6. Disabling Professions; 7. Certainties; 8. Gender; 9. Embodiment: Disembodiment; 10 “A Bulldozer Lurks in Every Computer”: On Reading, Writing, and Language; 11. To Hell with Life; 12. Corruptio Optimi Pessima; 13. Apocalypse; 14: Illich’s Way of Life.  There is also an Epilogue entitled “The Art of Suffering”, and a Conclusion carrying the subtitle of the book, “An Intellectual Journey”. 

There are some real gems in this work, in addition to its overall quality.  The examination of Illich’s early work in New York with the Puerto Rican communities helpfully lays the groundwork for many of Illich’s later concerns – including Illich’s realization of the importance of disciplined study of cultural contexts for doing any kind of serious or helpful theology.   

It was clearly also in this early experience that the Austrian-born Illich developed some of his most serious criticisms of typical North American attitudes toward missionary work.  Hartch, for example, tries to argue that Illich (especially in his early work in Puerto Rico) seems to have had very little patience for any kind of missionary work at all – and Cayley clarifies that this severe criticism arises from strong personal experience with attempting to work cross-culturally in his early work.   

Cayley states: “Illich [was not] universally ‘anti-missionary’.  In fact, I would say that the problem, for him, was not too much missionary spirit but too little.  He imagined mission as a transformative encounter – a willingness to lose oneself in another culture in order to bring the Gospel to light in a new form with that new context” (61). 

Cayley moves through a discussion of major works such as “Tools for Conviviality”, and “Deschooling Society”, and among his more serious concerns is that fact that Illich was quite often misunderstood.  The blame is not entirely on sloppy reading – but also overly difficult prose.  Cayley acknowledges, for example, that others were making equally serious criticisms of technology and its impact on society (one thinks of Ellul, before the French Protestant theologians’ shocking rightward turn, and Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful” book which had such an impact in its day).  Among the most serious discussions focus on Cayley’s clear belief that Illich was seriously misunderstood on gender issues – but Cayley’s explanations are not always entirely clear.  Cayley acknowledges that the serious reactions to Illich’s confused statements on gender led to his being dismissed (we might today say “cancelled”) by a significant number of feminist scholars.  Cayley helpfully tries to explain – but certainly does not attempt to entirely exonerate, Illich on these issues.  On this, and a few other issues, one cannot help but wonder if at least some of Illich’s work may be interesting historically, but less relevant for the state of some conversations today.  However, on the other hand, as an earlier harbinger of cross-cultural contexts for the doing of modern Christian Theology, Illich can surely still be read (and his life studied) with great benefit.  As a Scripture scholar, I particularly found this aspect of Illich’s thought worthy of serious reconsideration. 

This book is highly recommended, particularly to provide interestingly different perspectives on the rise of Liberation Theology and the debates taking place in Mexico (especially since, it has seemed to me, Mexico is often arguably given less attention in Liberation Theology discussions in favor of the important South American voices).  Not only for those well informed about Illich’s work, this book is especially good for those of us (like me) who were only somewhat familiar with Illich’s significance in the late 20th Century, Cayley’s book is a tremendously informative and fascinating read.