John Paul II, Richard Dawkins, Springsteen, Father Andrew Greeley, Donald Trump and various movies and movie characters. The reader will find references to Pope Francis, St. There was a rupture with the spiritual experience of ordinary people, which is an important point because it has crucial evangelical consequences.”īishop Barron provides the biblical worldview throughout the book from which the faithful Catholic can stand on a firm foundation and propose Christ and the teaching of the Catholic Church and its life-changing power.
He states, “Part of the problem was that the intelligentsia became so dominated by the historical-critical approach, they didn’t preach.
“To Light a Fire on the Earth” is an excellent resource for understanding the gap between the thinking of Catholics in era before the Second Vatican Council with regard to the Bible and Scripture study. As a man who was ordained in the mid-1980s, he knows that in a postmodern, secular world, new methods and means are necessary to engage a culture that has dismissed Christianity as irrelevant.īishop Barron models through his writing not only the way Catholics can engage others with intellectual arguments but more importantly by deploying the basics of our Christian faith, which seeks the good of the other through serving our neighbor as we would serve Christ himself.
Thomas Aquinas with the same ease and spontaneity that he quotes the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan.īishop Barron is adamant that the teachings of Catholicism are true, and that those who practice them will live joyful and more fulfilled lives. He has the ability to stand toe to toe with intellectuals and can quote the “angelic doctor” St. Focusing on the essentials is what drives his evangelization efforts as he desires to enter into conversation with those who are away from the church.īishop Barron is one of the prophetic voices in the Catholic Church today who creatively uses the tools of social media to engage his audience in a way not seen since Archbishop Fulton J. Furthermore, we won’t get the sexual stuff right until we get that right.”īishop Barron understands that many outside the church and even those who have been poorly catechized within the church don’t know the basics of what the church teaches. I want them to feel Catholicism, to know the essential stuff. In responding to a question about the church’s teaching on sexual ethics and people’s obsession, at times, with sexual morality Bishop Barron takes a step back and uses a baseball analogy to get his point across: “I want people to see the infield again I want them to smell the ballpark.
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