Daniel Horan is a Franciscan friar, and he has offered a book deeply rooted in the creation teaching of Francis of Assisi, specifically his teaching on the kinship of all creatures, nonhuman and human alike. Horan invites humans back to this teaching as a way to reverse the ecological disasters our distancing of ourselves from the rest of creation has caused. He boldly devotes a chapter to the Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus as a needed “alternative foundation for theological anthropology to the nearly hegemonic thought of Thomas Aquinas” (18). Importantly, he pays close attention to the data of the various sciences dealing with the human person and ecology, thus paying attention to the call of Francis of Rome's Laudato Si’ for theology and science to enter into a dialogue that will be fruitful for both.

Horan reconsiders what it means to be human through the lens of the “catholicity” of the title, which, he argues, etymologically suggests wholeness or making whole. What needs to be made whole is our diminished concept of creation in which the human claims to be not an equal part of creation, but its dominating pinnacle. What is needed is a true concept of creation in which every creature is an equal and valued imago Dei. Every creature, the spider, the flower, the rock, in the words of Saint Francis and his Indigenous co-creationists, is sister and brother to the human. To clarify the implications of this perspective, the book is divided into two parts. Part 1 argues that any theological reflection on the human person must start from this Catholic and inclusive concept of creation and, when this is established, part 2 shifts focus from the Catholic whole to the human individual as one part of that whole.

Chapter 1 resituates theological anthropology by establishing that human beings are a part, but not the pinnacle, of a whole creation. Chapter 2, following Darwin, establishes that all creatures “are situated somewhere on the branches and twigs of a Tree of Life” (53), a metaphor that summarizes two key components of both evolution and a theology of a whole creation, namely, common origin and gradual change over time. In chapter 3, Horan introduces the exegetical debates over Genesis’ imago Dei and comes down again on his Franciscan tradition. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures celebrates both the Catholic inclusiveness of all creation and the distinctiveness of each individual creature. Francis's early follower, Saint Bonaventure, calls every creature vestigium Dei, a footprint of God in the world. In this chapter I would have liked to see Horan grapple with imago Dei as imago Trinitatis, but I understand the constrictions of space.

Chapter 4 presents what I found to be the pivotal argument in the book. Horan exposes Scotus’ theory of the haeceitas principle of individuation, which stands the accepted Thomistic theory on its head. Thomas assigns primacy to a common nature that is instantiated in each individual; Scotus assigns primacy to the unique individual being, and common nature is perceived from the commonalities in a genus of individuals like flowers or human beings. Horan employs this unique approach in chapter 5 to argue for the God-created equal dignity and value of women with men, of LGBT individuals with heterosexual individuals, and of individuals of color with white males. As one who has struggled with these issues, I find this a helpful metaphysical and methodological approach going forward. We cannot consider the catholicity/wholeness of human creation without considering the capacity of humans for sin, and in chapter 6 Horan does that under three headings: “Original,” “Personal,” and “Structural Sin.” We are, of course, more than sinners. We are created good and for good by a good God, and in chapter 7 Horan considers how we are created for grace, the gift of God's very self.

This is a bold, groundbreaking, excellent book, a major contribution to a contemporary Catholic theological anthropology. Its arguments are sometimes complex, but Horan's straightforward style ensures they will be read with profit by both academic and general audiences. I recommend it wholeheartedly.