Tag: Fr. Robert Barron

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Fr. Robert Barron

Yves Congar and Vatican II

One of the most theologically fascinating and entertaining books I’ve read in a long time is Yves Congar’s My Journal of the Council.

Most Catholics under age 50 might be unaware of the massive contribution made by Congar, a Dominican priest and one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century.

After a tumultuous intellectual career, Congar found himself, at age 58, a peritus or theological expert at the Second Vatican Council. By most accounts, he proved the most influential theologian at that epic gathering, contributing to the documents on the Church, on ecumenism, on revelation, and on the Church’s relation to the modern world.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Why I love my invisible friend

One of the favorite taunts of the New Atheists is that religious people believe in an “invisible friend.”

They are implying, of course, that religion is little more than a pathetic exercise in wishful thinking, a reversion to childish patterns of projection and self-protection. It is well past time, they say, for believers to grow up, leave their cherished fantasies behind, and face the real world.

In offering this characterization, the New Atheists are showing themselves to be disciples of the old atheists such as Feuerbach, Marx, Comte, and Freud, all of whom made more or less similar observations.

I’m writing here to let atheists know that I think they’re right, at least about God being an invisible friend. Where they’re wrong is in supposing that surrendering to this unseen reality is de-humanizing or infantilizing.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Finding meaning in life and death

John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars has proven to be wildly popular among young adults in the English speaking world, and the recently released film adaptation of the book has garnered both impressive reviews and a massive audience.

A one-time divinity school student and Christian minister, Green is not reluctant to explore the “big” questions, though he doesn’t claim to provide definitive answers. He both reflects and helps to shape the inchoate, eclectic spirituality that holds sway in the teen and 20-something set today.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Film looks at sin and salvation

There were a number of reasons why I liked World War Z, the film based on Max Brooks’ book of the same name.

First, it was a competently made thriller and not simply a stringing together of whiz-bang CGI effects. Secondly, it presented a positive image of a father.

In a time when Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin are the norm for fatherhood in the popular culture, Brad Pitt’s character, Gerry Lane, is actually a man of intelligence, deep compassion, and self-sacrificing courage.

About sin and salvation

But what intrigued me the most about World War Z is how it provides a template for thinking seriously about sin and salvation.

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Fr. Robert Barron

Your life is not about you

Time Magazine’s cover story “The Childfree Life” has generated a good deal of controversy and commentary.

The photo that graced the cover of the edition sums up the argument: a young, fit couple lounge languidly on a beach and gaze up at the camera with blissful smiles — and no child anywhere in sight.

What the editors want us to accept is that this scenario is not just increasingly a fact in our country, but that it is morally acceptable as well, a lifestyle choice that some people legitimately make.

Whereas in one phase of the feminist movement, “having it all” meant that a woman should be able to both pursue a career and raise a family, now it apparently means a relationship and a career without the crushing encumbrance of annoying, expensive, and demanding children.

Childlessness on the rise

Childlessness is on the rise in the United States. Our birthrate is the lowest in recorded history, surpassing even the crash in reproduction that followed the economic crash of the 1930s.

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Fr. Robert Barron

The danger of soft atheism

A very instructive exchange between Gary Gutting, a philosophy professor at Notre Dame, and Philip Kitcher, a philosophy professor at Columbia, just appeared in The New York Times.

Kitcher describes himself as a proponent of “soft atheism,” an atheism distinct from the polemical variety espoused by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Unlike his harsher colleagues, Kitcher is willing to admit that religion can play an ethically useful role in a predominantly secular society.

I would like to draw attention to one move made in this interview, since it shows one of the fundamental misunderstandings of religion common among atheists.

Plurality of religious doctrines

Prompted by Gutting, Kitcher admits that he finds all religious doctrine incredible. He points to the plurality of religious doctrines: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, animists, etc., hold to radically different accounts of reality, the divine, human purpose, etc.

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Chris Lee

The danger of soft atheism

A very instructive exchange between Gary Gutting, a philosophy professor at Notre Dame, and Philip Kitcher, a philosophy professor at Columbia, just appeared in The New York Times.

Kitcher describes himself as a proponent of “soft atheism,” an atheism distinct from the polemical variety espoused by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Unlike his harsher colleagues, Kitcher is willing to admit that religion can play an ethically useful role in a predominantly secular society.

I would like to draw attention to one move made in this interview, since it shows one of the fundamental misunderstandings of religion common among atheists.

Plurality of religious doctrines

Prompted by Gutting, Kitcher admits that he finds all religious doctrine incredible. He points to the plurality of religious doctrines: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, animists, etc., hold to radically different accounts of reality, the divine, human purpose, etc.

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Fr. Robert Barron

The field hospital is open

By now everyone in the world knows that Pope Francis offered a lengthy and wide-ranging interview to the editor of Civilta Cattolica, which was subsequently published in 16 Jesuit-sponsored journals from a variety of countries.

To judge by some media coverage, the Church is in the midst of a moral and doctrinal revolution, led by a pope bent on dragging the old institution into the modern world.

Read what pope actually said

I might recommend that everyone read what Pope Francis actually said. For what he said is beautiful, lyrical, spirit-filled, and in its own distinctive way, revolutionary.

The first question to which the pope responded in this interview is simple: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio (his given name)?” After a substantial pause, he said, “a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”

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Fr. Robert Barron

What Easter means

In first century Judaism, there were many views concerning what happened to people after they died.

Following a very venerable tradition, some said that death was the end, that the dead simply returned to the dust of the earth from which they came.

Others maintained that the righteous dead would rise at the close of the age. Still others thought that the souls of the just went to live with God after the demise of their bodies. There were even some who believed in a kind of reincarnation.

Accounts of Jesus’ resurrection

What is particularly fascinating about the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection is that none of these familiar frameworks of understanding is invoked.

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