Catholicism

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This is an elegantly written apologia for Catholicism.

Barron's point, I believe, is to restore the sense of Catholicism as a culture in itself. As a culture, Catholicism has a depth and breadth that cannot be reduced to a handful of dogmas, but, rather, must be experienced as a total experience. Barron invites us to see Catholicism as he sees Catholicism, namely rich and beautiful and, ultimately, mysterious.

However, Catholicism is a culture that is a religious faith. Accordingly, Barron approaches the culture through the faith, starting with the distinctive elements of Catholicism, but unfolding them through reflection on history, art, and literature.

Thus, Barron begins with the revelation of Jesus and His mission; explores the theology of God's existence with Anselm and Aquinas; considers Marian doctrines and the missions of Peter and Paul; reflects on the mystery of the church; and discusses the communion of saints, the sacraments and the last things. Barron is an insightful observer; he can invariably take the normal and quotidian and point out something overlooked by most people. His insights are well worth the price of admission.

Consider this example:

“How strange that we believe in the church. In the Nicene Creed, Catholics profess their faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the three divine persons, and that seems reasonable enough. But then they proceed to declare their belief in “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” Does this not amount to the conflation of Creator and creature? Is it not effectively blasphemous to announce one's faith in a human institution? To answer these questions is to come to the heart of the Catholic understanding of the church, for Catholics hold that the church is not merely a human organization, simply a coming together of like-minded people, a community of purely worldly provenance and purpose. Rather, the church is a sacrament of Jesus and, as such, shares in the very being, life, and energy of Christ. According to the inexhaustibly rich metaphor proposed by Saint Paul, the church is the body of Jesus, an organism composed of interdependent cells, molecules, and organs. Christ is the head of a mystical body made up of everyone across space and time who has ever been grafted onto him through baptism.”

All true, all said many times, and, yet, it is interesting. It is strange to think that we believe “in” the Catholic - or, for Protestants, catholic - church in the same way that we believe “in” Jesus. We simply don't tend to believe “in” things these days, perhaps, or, perhaps, we are so nominalist that we can no longer believe that “the church” has a dimension more than its finite members.

Another example:

“We hear that in the wake of this exchange there was a mass defection among Jesus's followers: “Then many of his disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?' ” (Jn 6:60) and “As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him” (Jn 6:66). It is fascinating to note how often in the history of Christianity the teaching concerning Jesus's presence in the Eucharist has been a church-dividing issue, a standing or falling point. Plaintively, Jesus asks his remaining circle of followers, the twelve: “Do you also want to leave?” (Jn 6:67). What follows is John's parallel to Peter's confession of faith at Caesarea-Philippi: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:68–69). Speaking for the others, Peter confesses that what Jesus has said about the Eucharist is true, and he ties that confession to a declaration of Jesus's sacred identity. From a Catholic point of view, this coming together of faith in the Incarnation and faith in the real presence is of great significance, for the Eucharist is nothing other than a sacramental extension of the Incarnation across space and time, the manner in which Christ continues to abide, in an embodied way, with his church. At this crucial moment in Jesus's public ministry, Peter got this, and he spoke his conviction on behalf of the core group of Apostles. It is the Catholic faith that Peter, down through the ages, has continued to get it.”

Compare this insight with Jerry Walls' banal “argument from political correctness” in Roman but Not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation. Walls demands that Catholics acknowledge that they are beastly for not allowing those who think that the Eucharist is merely bread from “sharing the Lord's table,” all while acknowledging that those who view the Catholic approach to the Eucharist as “idolatry” have a fair point as an objective matter. But the form of Christian unity must be maintained, according to Walls, who grants no understanding of the points that Barron makes concerning the Catholic connection of the Incarnation with the Real Presence. Catholics cannot be indifferent to denials of the latter any more than they can be indifferent to denials of the former.

Another example:

“A fundamental biblical principle is that in a world gone wrong there is no communion without sacrifice. This is true because sin has twisted us out of shape, and therefore intimacy with God will involve a twisting back into shape, a painful realignment, a sacrifice. And this is why, on a biblical reading, covenant is almost invariably associated with sacrifice.”

Another point presumed by Catholic practice that most Catholics don't see.

I found this book to be well worth the price and the time expended on it. It is one of the least apologetic of apologetics. One of the strengths is that Barron uses the people who make up Catholic culture as examples of Catholic culture. Thus, Barron offers fascinating vignettes of Catholics of all backgrounds, including Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Edith Stein and St. John of the Cross. A reader cannot come out of this book without having learned something, including the vast diversity of the Catholic experience.