Book Review: To Light a Fire on the Earth by Robert Barron

To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age by Robert Barron with John L. Allen, Jr.

This book is based on a series of interviews conducted by journalist John Allen in 2016 right after Robert Barron, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, became an auxiliary bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese (he has subsequently been moved to be bishop of Winona-Rochester). After a chapter describing Barron's life, the book delves into his views about the Catholic faith and how best to communicate that faith to others. He explains the three transcendentals, the attributes that every thing has--truth, goodness, and beauty. For contemporary evangelization, our culture is put off by people claiming to have the truth or to put forth a moral code, so Barron advises starting with beauty. No one has ever been converted by arguments from canon law or by being told what to do. Beauty has a natural appeal that can open hearts and minds to further questions. While works of art like a Chartes Cathedral or Michelangelo's Pieta come first to mind, the heroic lives of contemporary saints like Oscar Romero or Mother Teresa have an appeal that begs for further investigation. The intellectual and moral imaginations are engaged, leading into a discussion of the true and the good. It's a foot in the door letting all the rest make it in.

Barron provides a lot of other insights to understand and proclaim the gospel, especially using new technology and the amazing variety of media available these days (YouTube, podcasts, etc.). Engaging the culture happens best where it is readily found. Using these tools goes hand-in-glove with his target audiences--lapsed Catholics, people with no religious affiliation (the "nones"), and the New Atheists (who have done quite a bit of their own evangelizing). He has gathered a small but growing group of clergy and lay people under the aegis of the Word on Fire. His goal is to bring more people to Christ and his method is to develop this cadre to engage the culture, maybe having centers in various big cities that draw like-minded people to pray together and work to present the faith to others.

The book is a fascinating look at Barron's ideas for the evangelization and for growing in faith.

Recommended.