Don Bosco: History and Spirit. Vol. 2: Birth and Early Development of Don Bosco’s Oratory (review)

In Arthur J. Lenti’s second volume in the series Don Bosco. History and Spirit, he focuses on the birth and early development of the Oratory, the quintessential Salesian institution. He sets the scene by sketching the history of Italian unification from 1848 to 1861 and in that context he examines Don Bosco’s own definitive vocational choice and the development of what Salesians have come to see as their founder’s most original contribution to working for young people, the Oratory.

Any modern theological work with the subtitle History and Spirit raises for its readers one fundamental debate that has shaped modern theological thinking: namely, the place of the “critical historical approach” in theology. Adolf von Harnack’s great History of Dogma (1894–99) suggested that it was impossible for a critical modern historian to return to the original spirit of Jesus because of the distortions introduced by the Hellenizing Catholic Church. George Tyrell memorably replied: “The Christ that Harnack sees, looking back through 19 centuries of Catholic darkness, is only the reflection of a Liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well.”⁵ Lenti’s careful critical historical study looks back down the well of history to reveal not a conventional saint but a passionate human being, inspired with a vision of bringing the Gospel to poor and abandoned boys that was often misunderstood and sometimes opposed by the great and the good but that he transformed into reality through hard work and perseverance. The Don Bosco who emerges—sometimes uncompromising, undiplomatic, and thus difficult in his working relationships with adults—was, however, always dedicated to the young he felt called to serve.

What emerges from the sources, which are masterfully deployed, is the considerable stature of both opponents and supporters of Don Bosco’s development of the Oratory. His was far from being the only model, nor the earliest, nor even the most successful. Other gifted and dedicated Turinese clergy such as Father Cocchi and the two brothers Murialdo also did extraordinary work for young people in Turin. What makes Don Bosco’s approach unique is that the Oratory became the founding characteristic of the Salesian religious family.

Lenti carefully creates the social and religious context of Risorgimento Turin and his outstanding character sketches of Don Bosco’s supporters and collaborators as well as those who took a different view make this volume an outstanding read. Presented is not a saintly colossus but a human being who grows and develops in the inevitable struggles and conflicts of a world in a rapid process of change. Despite some occasional editing blemishes, this volume offers its readers an outstanding insight into Don Bosco’s work as well as a creative, critical-historical approach in exploring his spirit.