Book Review: Arguing Religion by Robert Barron

Arguing Religion: A Bishop Speaks at Facebook and Google by Robert Barron

In 2017, Bishop Robert Barron was invited to Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley to give a presentation. He decided to talk about one of the great challenges of our time, how to have a civil conversation on a topic people disagree on, in this case, religion. He was then invited to Google where he talked about how religion opens up the intellectual world, not closes it down. These two talks have been combined into this short book.

A lot of fruitless encounters happen on-line, with people virtually shouting at each other. Barron has experienced this first hand as he engages the broader culture through social media. He makes a lot of great points about how religion is falsely perceived in our culture (like it isn't rational or it is a private matter not meant for public discourse) and shows ways that can bear a lot of fruit in mutual understanding, a requisite first step in persuading other people about anything. He urges readers to follow the example of Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century theologian and philosopher. Aquinas often quoted others he did not entirely agree with, like the ancient Greek pagan Aristotle, the medieval Jewish thinker Maimonides, and the medieval Muslim philosopher Avicenna. Aquinas found good and salient points in these thinkers and was able to integrate them into his own thought, even if he didn't agree with their conclusions or some of their principles. Thomas is a model of fruitful intellectual dialogue.

In the second part of the book, Barron describes how human nature is aimed at the true and the good because we humans have intellect and will. We want to know the truth because it is good in and of itself. Everyone desires happiness even if they don't all agree on what creates happiness. Barron explores the classical ideas of human fulfillment (wealth, power, prestige/honor, pleasure) and how they are never fully satisfying. They are all finite goods that cannot give full satisfaction. Only an ultimate good will ultimately satisfy our longing for goodness, for happiness. 

The book reads very quickly and is very on-point. Barron's text is persuasive and concise. This is well worth reading.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: This Is My Body by Robert Barron

This Is My Body: A Call to Eucharistic Revival by Bishop Robert Barron

With a 2019 Pew Forum survey revealing that only one-third of American Catholics believe that Jesus is truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist, Bishop Barron and his fellow bishops decided to do something about it. A National Eucharistic Revival has been on-going since 2020 with conferences and pilgrimages. This book is part of the effort. It's short (a little over 100 pages) but has a lot densely packed in on the reality of the Eucharist.

The book covers three aspects of the Eucharist: as a sacred meal, as a sacrifice, and as a fundamental reality. The concept of union through eating a meal is ubiquitous in human culture. People develop a sense of comradeship and conviviality when they eat together. Sacred meals date back at least as far as the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt described in the second book of the Bible. The Passover meal is instituted as part of a sacred, miraculous event that leads the people to a greater intimacy with God. This meal is brought to its highest level at the Last Supper, when Christ instituted the Blessed Sacrament. He explicitly united it with His sacrifice on the cross. The long tradition (both within Judaism and outside of it) of offering animals or other things in sacrifice to the divine reaches its climax with Jesus. His death and resurrection are the events that restore completely the friendship with God that was lost in the Garden of Eden. Finally, Barron discusses the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, looking at the theological history including recent attempts to refine the descriptions offered.

This book is a great primer on Eucharistic theology, giving the reader a lot to think about and appreciate. Barron's arguments are clear and thorough. It's a great resource to deepen faith in the Eucharist.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Vibrant Paradoxes by Robert Barron

Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism by Robert Barron

This collection of short essays (most are three or four pages long) is a good representation of Bishop Robert Barron's spiritual understanding. He is the main voice of Word on Fire, a Catholic organization dedicated to engaging the broader culture. The essays cover a wide range, from current events to literature and art in all its forms (music, painting, movies, etc.). He relates these bits of contemporary (and earlier) culture with the history and theology of the Catholic Church. The essays read like short homilies or brief editorials, explaining or introducing new perspectives on singular topics.

The book is divided into sets which focused on two items that do not immediately seem to go together or are historically seen as antithetical, like Sin and Mercy or Freedom and Discipline or the classic Reason and Faith. Barron shows through practical everyday examples how these disparate concepts are united in a faith-filled understanding of the real world and of God. His writing is delightfully straightforward and relatable. A reader can't get lost in technical jargon or arcane, overdrawn arguments. Barron takes complicated situations and makes them easier to understand or, at least, provides some insight into how an inscrutable situation can make sense. 

Recommended.

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.

Book Review: Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Robert Barron

Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Robert Barron

Anyone reading Thomas Aquinas's writings can be forgiven if they find the writings very dry and impenetrable. The academic style of the 1200s has not been in fashion for a long time. Many of the texts are distillations of public academic disputes that were probably more interesting as live discussions than as transcripts. Casual readers are tempted to see his works as "pure theology," a lot of information without any spiritual inspiration or guidance for the typical Christian. Bishop Robert Barron argue that Thomas is a spiritual writer and his works are centered on the key mystery of salvation history--the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity as the man Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is Someone we know almost entirely through Sacred Scriptures. Thomas starts the Summa Theologiae (his most famous work) with a discussion of revelation and human reason. While human reason can discover truths about God, revelation is given as a more sure and easier way to come to know and love the Supreme Being. Barron points out the discussion of God's existence is not called "proofs" by Thomas, but "ways." These are various ways that we come to know God, which is really the point of having the knowledge. It's not that we get there on our own, but that we get there. With God is where we belong. It's what God wants. He wants it so much that He became a man in order to lead us to a more full union with God, not just intellectually but personally. 

And yet, God is beyond our comprehension. Thomas next discusses various attributes of God, which are ultimately negations of limitations or human understandings. God is present to all of the world as its creator. God does not stay in one spot, making it easy for us to avoid him. As its creator, He is present not only in all of three-dimensional space, He is also present at every moment in time, i.e. He is eternal. These ideas lead to the notion that God is truly transcendent. He's not someone to be bargained with (e.g., I'll give you 10 percent of my grain if You guarantee next year's harvest). He's not a co-equal principle with whatever causes evil. He makes everything, everywhere, at all times, without input from others. We can't put God in a box and make Him do what we want. This understanding helps us to avoid lots of errors.

Barron concludes with Thomas's look at human happiness. The human mind has the ability to know anything; the human will can desire anything that it sees as good. Only an infinite good can satisfy these human powers. Wealth is only desirable to get other thing. Fame and power easily slip away from those who seek them. We always want more because we can always imagine more or see the limitations of the finite things we have. The only truly satisfaction is by knowing and loving God.

Barron looks at Thomas's writings as an attempt to draw the reader closer to God, by logic or persuasion. Thomas knows that such union is our ultimate purpose in life. While not autobiographical like Therese of Lisieux or poetic like John of the Cross, Thomas is a spiritual master who can lead his readers closer to their heavenly home. A reader needs to take a bit more care to see the deeper purpose of Thomas.

Recommended.