Bp. Robert Barron, as usual, makes a lot of sense to me

Last updated on: October 11, 2018 at 12:07 am by Mark Shea

Bp. Robert Barron, as usual, makes a lot of sense to me 2018-10-05T10:29:45-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

He was in Rome last week, talking about what a new apologetics should look like:

What would a new apologetics look like? First, it would arise from the questions that young people spontaneously ask. It would not be imposed from above but would rather emerge organically from below, a response to the yearning of the mind and the heart. Here it would take a cue from the method of St. Thomas Aquinas. The austere texts of the great theological master in point of fact emerged from the lively give-and-take of the quaestiones disputatae that stood at the heart of the educational process in the medieval university. Thomas was deeply interested in what young people were really asking. So should we.

Secondly, a new apologetics should look deep and long into the question of the relationship between religion and science. For many people today, scientific and rational are simply equivalent or co-extensive terms. And therefore, since religion is obviously not science, it must be irrational. Without for a moment denigrating the sciences, we have to show that there are non-scientific and yet eminently rational paths that conduce toward knowledge of the real. Literature, drama, philosophy, the fine arts—all close cousins of religion—not only entertain and delight; they also bear truths that are unavailable in any other way. A renewed apologetics ought to cultivate these approaches.

Thirdly, our apologetics and catechesis should walk the via pulchritudinis, as Pope Francis characterized it in Evangelii Gaudium. Especially in our postmodern cultural context, commencing with the true and the good—what to believe and how to behave—is often counter-indicated, since the ideology of self-invention is so firmly established. However, the third transcendental, the beautiful, often proves a more winsome, less threatening, path. And part of the genius of Catholicism is that we have so consistently embraced the beautiful—in song, poetry, architecture, painting, sculpture, and liturgy. All of this provides a powerful matrix for evangelization. And as Hans Urs von Balthasar argued, the most compelling beauty of all is that of the saints. I have found a good deal of evangelical traction in presenting the lives of these great friends of God, somewhat in the manner of a baseball coach who draws young adepts into the game by showing them the play of some of its greatest practitioners.

When Jesus explained himself to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, their hearts began to burn within them. The Church must walk with young people, listen to them with attention and love, and then be ready intelligently to give a reason for the hope that is within us. This, I trust, will set the hearts of the young on fire.

This gives me hope and makes me feel wistful all at the same time. Most the apologetics community in the US is now consumed with the right wing culture war against Francis and with making excuses for supporting our grifting Sex Predator in Chief. Discussions of beauty mostly devolve into bitching about liturgy wars. Evangelization in general has been replaced by a search and destroy mission that aims to smoke out the gays, the liberals, the insufficiently Republican and drive them from Church while pouring boiling oil from the parapet on the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame who might pollute our purity with their views uncatechized by FOX News, Raymond Arroyo, or Liesite News. “What do you mean you were attracted to the Church by the witness of Pope Francis? What are you, some kind of liberal? You’re gay and you want Jesus? Infiltrator! Begone! You’re post-abortive? You know, I think women who have abortions deserve the death penalty.” That is the ambient noise of the subculture that regards itself as the Defenders of the Faith.

I am dying to get back to the vision Bp. Barron sees. But every morning I am confronted with a Christianist cultus of malice for the Holy Father, adoration of Trump and (most recently) thigh-slapping mockery of sexual assault victims (or whatever else the Troops are commanded to rationalize in the name of Jesus today) that I spend the day trying to put out the fires of scandal, not light the flame of faith. It grinds my soul down.

How do we create a culture of witness to the Faith that is not bogged down by the culture of Defenders of the Faith? Perhaps the place to start is by rejecting the approach to evangelization which presumes that the conversation is a confrontation between Real Catholics and Enemies. That has always seemed to me to be the core problem with the Apologetics subculture. God knoweth I have been guilty of buying into it. But it has metastasized into a monstrously toxic thing now that even sees the Holy Father as an enemy to be destroyed and labors to make war on much of the Church’s teaching.

I have to think about this more.

Uncategorized

Apologetic stuff

Bishop Robert Barron

Previous Post

October 10, 2018

I got to be an Archetypal Hero this week

Next Post

October 11, 2018 Proud of my State!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz