'On God's Side': A Life of George Tyrrell

The condemnation of Modernism by Pope Pius X in 1907 shook Roman Catholic theology to its foundations, and the reverberations of that shock continue to unsettle Catholicism. Foremost among those implicated was the Jesuit George Tyrrell, who had already been dismissed from his Order and was subsequently excommunicated. When he died, less than two years later, he was refused Catholic burial. Tyrrell's combative brilliance, his ability to touch creatively every major theological issue of the early twentieth century, his compassion as a pastoral counsellor, and his mordant wit made him endlessly fascinating to his contemporaries; admirable and pathetic to his friends; fearful and irresponsible to his enemies. Maude Petre's massive biography has stood for seventy years as the standard account of his life. Now that material drawn from Jesuit archives, diocesan records and previously unpublished correspondence has become available, the story of Tyrrell's life can be told afresh.

Table of Contents:
A Dublin lad; conversion to catholicism; jesuit novitiate; a hidden decade; early thought of a young priest; farm street writer; "external religion" and its dangers; a perverted devotion; the move to Richmond; a l'ecole de Jack; a painful process of necessary readjustment; an apostleship of protest; the "conservative left"; modernism; so utter an ending.

Review :
'admirably researched book' Philip Caraman SJ, Catholic Herald 'Nicholas Sagovsky has written what must be for the foreseeable future a definitive biography ... an authoritative interpretation of Tyrrell's brief, brilliant and troubled life ... With remarkable sureness of touch, he has made Tyrrell's haunting life into a coherent, convincing and deeply moving whole. He has given flesh and blood to a ghost ... this biography is quite equal to the life it tells ... It is written in a style which befits its subject. ' Robert Butterworth, The Month `fine new biography' Journal of Theological Studies 'the reader will close this elegantly written volume with a very clear impression of what Tyrrell was like' Michael Walsh, Church Times `Nicholas Sagovsky's new biography of Tyrrell, On God's Side is a magnificent achivement ... Sagovsky gives us the life of a modern martyr and it is almost unbearably moving.' The Way 'this book should have wide appeal, it will have special interest for historians and theologians concerned with the Modernist phenomenon in Roman Catholicism ... While Sagovsky's book is a significant contribution to Modernist studies, it also makes judgments which are open to scholarly demur ... sensitive and intelligent treatment of Tyrrell is superb.' Lawrence Barmann, Saint Louis University, The Catholic Historical Review