Robert E. Barron

Full disclaimer: I’m a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada minister (to my US friends, think Assemblies of God) reviewing a book on Catholicism. Still, I read this book with an eager and generous heart. Using the boundary markers of your denomination to define your Christian faith (let alone status!) seems absurd to me. On the other hand, I take doctrine seriously and love to study. Here are my thoughts.

I was struck by the number of times, especially near the beginning of the book, that I show more wanted to jump out of my seat and high five Father Barron. His scholarship and passion regarding the centrality of Jesus in the life of the church was breathtaking. I also noted that he used a fair bit of the conceptual world of N. T. Wright (duly footnoted). In the end, I was delighted to share much more in common with Father Barron than I had anticipated.

Of course, there were areas that frustrated me. The role and status of Mary for one. The doctrine of Immaculate conception seems to be so far removed from scripture it’s absurd. On the other hand, I freely acknowledge that most Protestants underemphasize Mary because we like to keep the boundary markers between us and them nice and neat. (Side note: Martin Luther would have rolled over in his grave to read the title of that chapter: “Our Tainted Nature’s Solitary Boast”. Boast! Seriously?)

Father Barron takes a hard line on other denominations:

"From the Roman Catholic point of view, all of the non-Catholic Christian churches have sacrificed one or more of these qualities and therefore fall short of completeness or catholicity." (164)

(It’s interesting how, instead of stating his personal view, he prefaced it with, “From the Roman Catholic point of view …”.) Father Barron goes on to suggest that apostolic succession—the idea that the current Pope is the descendant of Saint Peter—is a “guarantee” (168) that they are preserving the faith. It seems to me like Jesus’ treatment of the Pharisees rules out this sort of naïve comfort. If the Jewish religious leaders couldn’t be trusted to faithfully preserve the faith, what makes us think that we can pull of the same feat?

I could argue theology all day, but I’ll leave with one last particularly irritating argument. In discussing the afterlife, Father Barron states clearly that Protestants object that “purgatory is an unbiblical doctrine, a medieval innovation” (262). In response, he mentions misleadingly that “incarnation” and “Trinity” are also absent from scripture. I don’t know of a single person who argues that since the term “purgatory” cannot be looked up in a concordance, the doctrine is false. It’s the concept that matters. He then goes on to quote 2 Maccabees for a convoluted hint that purgatory may exist. In the first place, the reference to 2 Maccabees 12:44-46 isn’t a direct statement about purgatory. In the second place, Father Brown knows full well that the vast majority of Protestant churches view the books of Macabees as extra-canonical (or, at least, deuterocanonical).

Now that my cathartic moment has passed, I still have to say: an objective Protestant reading of Catholicism will discover far more common elements of the faith than discord. You may even, like this Protestant, be inspired.

Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided at no cost through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer’s program. show less

Summary: An interview between Barron and Allen that is part biography and part outline of Barron's approach to the "new evangelization" of which his Word on Fire ministry is a leading exemplar.

Robert Barron is one of five Auxiliary Bishops in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. and through his YouTube postings, his Word on Fire website, and other media is probably one of the most followed Catholics on social media. He is the host of CATHOLICISM, a series of PBS documentaries on the Catholic show more Church. He is one of the most visible leaders of the "new evangelization" within the church. In this book, he engages with Catholic writer, John Allen in a wide-ranging discussion that is part biography and part survey of his key ideas and convictions that shape his ministry.

The Introduction and Chapter One focus on "The Barron Story." We find out that Barron was an ordinary Catholic kid (and avid baseball player and fan) growing up in the era of Vatican II whose religious imagination was captured while in high school (!) he was exposed to Thomas Merton and St. Thomas Aquinas. A year at Notre Dame resulted in a calling to the priesthood, studies at Catholic University, ordination in Chicago and further studies under von Balthasar in France, where he came to a "post-liberal" perspective centered in Christ and scripture. A move back to Chicago to teach at Mundelein Seminary led to mentoring from Father Andrew Greeley and Cardinal Francis George and encouragement to break into the media world that led to the YouTube videos, the CATHOLICISM series and Word on Fire.

With that the discussion moves to the"three pillars" of Barron's message--beauty, goodness, and truth. Barron believes in this generation, the evangelist leads with beauty and goodness, which point toward, but don't elucidate the truth of the gospel. In his approach to "Catholic beauty," he focuses on great literature, great cathedrals, great music, and great movies. Much of his focus on goodness centers around the saints and martyrs. He makes a fascinating statement about the latter:

"I thought, the only way Europe's going to be reevangelized is through the martyrs. In some ways, it's a terrible thing to say, but it's true. Argument will be part of it, but it's the martyrs. Martyrs will reevangelize Europe, and maybe it's missionary martyrs as in the early centuries of the Church's life."

He believes the martyrs focus attention on the end or teleology of morals rather than morality as keeping a bunch of rules. He believes in a church that both maintains high standards without obsessively focusing on them, and stresses the essentials of Catholic life and belief and the greatness of God's mercy. Barron the baseball fan describes it as wanting people to "feel the infield...to smell the ballpark."

He believes that it is through the beauty and goodness to be found in the Catholic heritage that people open up to truth. And here, Barron speaks out against a "beige Catholicism" that is bland and apologetic with no hard edges. He contends for a message centered on the priority of Christ, that contends that not all truth is found through science or personal experience, and that Christianity is not simply one of many ways up the mountain.

This brings us to center in on his ideas about evangelization, which he believes is to bring people into a relationship with a person, with Christ. The evangelist proposes, rather than imposes. He is especially concerned with the spiritual but not religious "nones" as well as those who have departed from the church. He holds up Christopher Hitchens as a model of an evangelist--smart, witty, and willing to argue hard.

The book turns to Barron's views of prayer and the supernatural, which he fully believes in, and the Bible. The influence of von Balthasar is evident here in his argument that priests need to start from scripture and that preaching above all must be biblical rather than starting from experience. It was fascinating that one of his favorite biblical scholars is N.T. Wright, who fuses scholarship and preaching. He describes a good sermon as one that "allows you to see the world with Biblical eyes."

A whole chapter is given over to "obstacles to the faith" ranging from the idea of God to issues of human sexuality to the clergy sexual abuse scandals that rocked the church. Concerning human sexuality, his concern for teleology and not simply rule keeping is evident:

"What the teaching is trying to do is to move people into the stance of more radical and complete self-gift, which in the Catholic view, includes not just unity and friendship but procreation and the gift of life. When that sexual ideal is held up uncompromisingly, you're going to get teachings against anything that would undercut procreation and the gift of life. That will strike some people as extreme. Yet the Church is also extreme in its mercy as it reaches out to, accompanies, walks with and understands gay people. For someone who has a gay orientation, is all that a massively difficult thing to integrate? Yes, absolutely, and we have to be sensitive to that. Do we need shepherds who are willing to walk with and accompany gay people? Yes, as Pope Francis always says. 'How far do we go?' All the way, all the way, but without dialing down the moral demand, the moral ideal. I think that's the thing."

Barron deals candidly with the sexual abuse scandals and also outlines the steps he took as a seminary rector in the screening of candidates for the priesthood.

The concluding two chapters bring us up to the present as we see both Barron the bishop and Barron as he wrestles with how a ministry might become a movement. This last chapter was tantalizing as it considered other Catholic movements, and what it would take for Word on Fire to become another movement. We're left wondering if it will happen.

What was fascinating to me in this account were several things. One is that Barron is unashamed to speak of evangelization and seeking the conversion of people to the faith. Another was the focus on the person and work of Christ as central to the message of the church. I was also intrigued by his arguments against "dumbing down" the church's teaching and that kids who can summarize the plots of Star Wars and remember the strange names of characters, should easily be able to do the same with the Bible. Finally, his appreciation of the role of the goodness and beauty of the life of the church in preparing hearts for truth, that is, the demonstration of truth in life and history, coupled with a vibrantly articulation of that truth that does not lapse into subjectivity or relativism, is a bracing combination that challenges the banal sameness of contemporary "seeker sensitive" evangelicalism.

Barron and other Catholics of the new evangelization seem to be moving toward some of the very things American evangelicals are moving away from that once were hallmarks of their movement. We often seem squeamish about evangelism and conversion, about the Bible, the cross, and a bracing call to high ethical standards that reflect the ends toward which we have been saved. Barron, while thoughtful and engaging and gracious does not seem squeamish about any of this. Might there be something we could learn from the Bishop?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. show less

It is very difficult for me to review a book like Fr. Robert Barron's "Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith." Years in the making and heralded by a healthy dose of promotion across the Catholic corner of the internet, it can be hard to separate the hype from the thing itself. I also have the nagging feeling that I'm not Fr. Barron's primary audience for this work. I say that less as someone who works full-time for the Church, and more as someone who prefers systematic theology to show more philosophy. (Fr. Barron's masters degree is in philosophy and he is an unabashed admirer of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose life and writings are frequently cited in the book.)

With those provisos, what can you expect from "Catholicism?"

In the introduction Fr. Barron promises to take us on "a guided exploration of the Catholic world... I want to function as a mystagogue, conducting you ever deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation in the hopes that you might be transformed by its power." He intends a celebration of the faith, rather than an academic overview, and he keeps his word.

Fr. Barron covers the major topics of the faith in ten chapters that mirror the ten episodes of his DVD series. These include the person of Jesus Christ, his teachings, the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Eucharist, the saints, and prayer, among others. Each chapter includes highlights from the Church's historical and theological heritage, from Bl. Theresa of Calcutta to St. Augustine, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris to Bl. Pope John Paul II. The book also boasts an impressive amount of photography and artwork, much of it from Europe's great cathedrals and basilicas.

As anyone who has seen his YouTube videos knows, Fr. Barron has a gift for explaining the faith in simple, understandable terms, and this gift is on full display in "Catholicism." Even notoriously complex issues such as theodicy (the problem of evil) are dealt with in clear terms, with non-Christian alternatives laid out in contrast with the person of Christ:

"For the Christian faith, the only adequate "resolution" of this dilemma is the one effected by God himself on the cross of Jesus Christ. On that cross, the darkness of the human condition met the fullness of the divine love and found itself transfigured into life. On that cross, God went to the limits of godforsakenness and made even death itself a place of hope. God, in his love, becomes the answer to the problem of evil."

One thing you should not expect is a systematic walk through the Church's teachings. This is actually one of the little things that bugged me about the book: it's incomplete treatment of certain subjects. For instance, in the chapter on prayer, Fr. Barron spends most of his time on Thomas Merton, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila -- important figures, to be sure, and ones who have much to teach on prayer! But Fr. Barron then offers a few pages on petitionary prayer before wrapping up the chapter -- neglecting the other four forms of prayer laid out in the Catechism. Similarly, his chapter on the "last things" includes very good reflections on heaven, purgatory, and hell -- but no mention of judgement, the traditional first "last thing." Again, Fr. Barron's approach isn't wrong or even unhelpful. But for someone acquainted with the Catechism and the traditions of the Church, the omissions are curious.

Another troubling aspect of the book is it's solid Euro-centrism. Almost no attention is paid to Catholicism as it is lived in the global south, either in the stories Fr. Barron tells or in the artwork used throughout the book. At a time when Christianity is seeing unprecedented growth in Africa and South America, this makes "Catholicism" look rooted in the Church's past, rather than its future.

But those are minor quibbles about an otherwise impressive accomplishment. Fr. Barron has crafted what may prove to be the defining introductory text to the faith for the coming decades; I predict that "Catholicism" will be added to many personal and parish libraries and will become a classic text for inquirers and RCIA candidates. Anyone interested in learning more about the Catholic faith could hardly do better than picking up this book.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. show less

Although Fr. Barron clearly, as the title itself indicates, intended this book to be an introduction to Catholicism, I think that what he has written here is an excellent introduction to Christianity as a whole. And I say that in spite of the two swipes (on pages 3 and 164) he takes at the Orthodox Church, of which I myself am a member. Other than perhaps his understanding of the interrelations of the three divine persons in the Trinity, which seems to be based largely around the filioque, show more and, of course, his discourse on papal infallibility, there was hardly a thing I could find with which I disagreed. In fact, that may be the greatest message that I took away from the book, probably contrary to Fr. Barron's desires: that perhaps East and West aren't so different after all.

Fr. Barron is, in turns, poetic and intellectual throughout the book. His initial descriptions of the Incarnation (pages 9-10) and the liturgy (pages 172-4), for instance, are so beautiful they could easily become verse. And his discussion of God (chapter 3), for example, wonderfully breaks down very difficult and rather heady concepts in language that anyone can understand. Adding to the beauty of the book are the black and white photographs of some of the most beautiful sites in Christendom sprinkled throughout the book and the wonder-evoking set of color photographs in the center.

Also contributing to the excellence of this book are the numerous short quotations, bits of wisdom, and anecdotes sprinkled throughout. For these, Fr. Barron draws especially heavily on modern Christian thinkers like Paul Tillich, Thomas Merton, and Edith Stein, giving us a presentation of a Christianity that has grappled with the great problems of the modern and postmodern world and its thought as encapsulated by such figures as Marx and Freud (whom Fr. Barron references specifically). In course, he demonstrates to the reader that Christianity is not the medieval superstition and antiquated silliness some would like to paint it as, but it continues to be what it has always been: the Truth, the way to Life from the realm of unbecoming.

I recommend this book as an introduction to Christianity for the newcomer and an engaging refresher for the experienced – with a uniquely but not exclusively Catholic flavor. I especially recommend that all Catholics have a read of this book. show less