Stephen A. WERNER. The Restless Flame, Daniel Lord, S.J.: Thinking Big in a Parochial World. Saint Louis: Press, Press, Pull, 2021. pp. 360. $17.00 pb. ISBN 979-8476470885. Reviewed by Joseph DOUGHERTY, 1900 West Olney Avenue, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141.

Doctor Werner brings to the spotlight Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), a supercharged and kaleidoscopic enterpriser from the first half of the twentieth century. The immense value of the chronicle is to mitigate the staid institutional histories of that era, be they scholarly or congratulatory (as are commemorations of dioceses’ anniversaries), so that we may pause in amazement at the American Catholic Church’s vitality and audacity that Lord represents.

And pause we must, for the compendious volume suffers from detail. The biography relies on previous works and Lord’s own autobiographies and memoirs, but Werner supplements these deeply and advantageously with archives. The author admits to a passion for this project that lasted for twenty-five years, and rather excuses the length of this volume because of Lord’s astounding productivity. Lord habitually and from his youth wrote for a few hours daily. One intimate observed he worked seventeen hours per day, seven days per week. Another likened him to a tornado.

His output, however, was journalistic, theatrical, popular and ephemeral, and targeted the young and members of the Sodality that Lord popularized. He became director of the national office of the Sodality in 1925, and it published the supportive periodical The Queen’s Work (circulation 150,000) and pamphlets in abundance. A Salute to Men in the Service circulated a million and a half in several editions, from 1942 through the Korean War. The book’s index lists sixty-five plays, pageants and songs; some theatricals deployed casts of thousands and were performed for tens of thousands. Author Lord often was also producer / director.
Photographs of the theater pieces help the reader understand this archaic genre. They vary the text, as do reproductions of the covers of and excerpts from The Queen’s Work. Chapters often begin with quips and fables. Lord’s prose is snappy. “How about giving peace a break? War hasn’t succeeded. It has brought us to this horrible climax of all wars. Maybe Christ did mean what he said. I hope and pray our country wins. I am proud that men love it to death. But I keep thinking. In the past, what good? In the future, what hope from it?” (266)

Chapters conclude with an informal index of yet additional information that can be accessed through a web site, so The Restless Flame is inter-active.

In addition to the Sodality, Lord involved himself with the Knights and Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament, and ran Social Order Mondays, and founded ad hoc Summer Schools of Catholic Action that convened in multiple cities, 1931-1968, and he was also affiliated with the Catholic Students’ Mission Crusade, Gallery of Living Catholic Authors, and A University in Print.  

These initiatives are the tips of the iceberg of Catholic social aggregations in the first half of the twentieth century—consider the Knights of Columbus and CYO and more clerical, the National Catholic War and the National Catholic Rural Life Conferences. Similarly, publications proliferated.

Candidates for religiously most influential Catholic in the first half of the twentieth century could include Charles Coughlin, Frances Xavier Cabrini, Fulton Sheen, George Mundelein, Thomas Merton. Lord wrote the encyclical Vigilanti Cura, on the movies, which achieved international circulation. But still, of the most cultural-historical interest and impact was the production code for keeping movies moral (1930). In Chapter Fourteen, Werner judiciously recounts its origins and composition, and avers that Lord was the author, despite the claims of Martin Quigley, the publisher of the Motion Picture Herald. StephenWerner reminds us that censorship remains an issue, even in an era of internet. The Production Code, on top of Lord’s vast enterprises, compels this reviewer to adjudge Lord both most influential and most interesting. Thank you, Doctor Werner.