Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic represents a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic community. As the Church seeks to maintain its unique witness, nurture the faithful, and evangelize, a new generation of American Catholics has emerged. No longer the "next generation," these new leaders came of age after the Second Vatican Council and, like many others, no longer find compelling the battles between the liberals and conservatives throughout the post-conciliar period. Today's faithful are searching for an expression of Catholic Christianity that is vibrant, colorful, provocative, counter-cultural, deeply rooted in the tradition, and full of the promise of the Good News. In this timely and prophetic book, Father Robert Barron--himself a member of the younger generation--has minted a new vernacular and blazed a new way that goes bridges the great divide and gives voice to the concerns of post-liberal, post-conservative, evangelical believers.
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These essays afford an opportunity of moving, in the company of Father Robert Barron, away from some of the polarizations that have left much modern theological writing in a cul-de-sac. The reader will judge how successful he has been in avoiding both a stuffy traditionalism and a liberalism without content; but the discussion is everywhere stimulating, the product of a fertile and cultivated theological mind. (Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. )
Clearly well versed in his own and other Christian denominational traditions as well as with contemporary popular and academic culture, Barron puts all these in dialogue in ways engrossing and accessible to a variety of audiences…Spiritual and theological richness-not to mention sheer pleasure…await the reader in this volume. (Anglican Theological Review )
Barron takes his readers on an interesting ride through systematic theology, liturgy, homiletics and spirituality, social ethics and finally through several essays on theology of priesthood and the laity. (Catholic New World )
Father Robert Barron grew up after the Council and hence was in a position to compare the riches of the Catholic heritage with the dry, lifeless version taught in the schools after the Council. He calls this "beige Catholicism"—a Catholicism devoid of its historic color and vitality and energy. The Council did not create this beige church, rather priests and nuns, desperately seeking a new certainty to replace those which had been lost fashioned it, doubtless in good faith and with good intentions. Father Barron does not indulge in nostalgia for the Church of the fifties and sixties. He supports the Council enthusiastically. He insists, however, the the Church must retrieve the theological and cultural riches of its age-old tradition—not as a museum piece but as resource for further growth. (Andrew Greeley )
Clearly well versed in his own and other Christian denominational traditions as well as with contemporary popular and academic culture, Barron puts all these in dialogue in ways engrossing and accessible to a variety of audiences…Spiritual and theological richness-not to mention sheer pleasure…await the reader in this volume. (Anglican Theological Review )
Barron takes his readers on an interesting ride through systematic theology, liturgy, homiletics and spirituality, social ethics and finally through several essays on theology of priesthood and the laity. (Catholic New World )
Father Robert Barron grew up after the Council and hence was in a position to compare the riches of the Catholic heritage with the dry, lifeless version taught in the schools after the Council. He calls this "beige Catholicism"—a Catholicism devoid of its historic color and vitality and energy. The Council did not create this beige church, rather priests and nuns, desperately seeking a new certainty to replace those which had been lost fashioned it, doubtless in good faith and with good intentions. Father Barron does not indulge in nostalgia for the Church of the fifties and sixties. He supports the Council enthusiastically. He insists, however, the the Church must retrieve the theological and cultural riches of its age-old tradition—not as a museum piece but as resource for further growth. (Andrew Greeley )
About the Author
Rev. Robert Barron is an associate professor of systematic theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. His other recent books include Heaven in Stone and Glass, which addresses the spirituality of the Gothic cathedral, Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master, and And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation. Barron has published numerous books and articles, and is highly sought after as a speaker throughout the United States.
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59 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The future of theology for the 21st century,
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This review is from: Bridging the Great Divide : Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post Conservative Evangelical Catholic (Paperback)
Fr. Barron's most recent work is one of the most approachable, yet incisive and intelligent accounts of the most exciting movements in recent theology. I have studied with Fr. Barron, and without hyperbole I often remark to friends how he was the best professor I ever had--passionate and excitingly contemporary, immersed in the tradition yet generously critical. A wonderful priest and a masterful teacher.
This book delivers the same invigoration. Fr. Barron's chapters range wide: from the postconciliar liturgy, to Joyce and narrative, to postmodern non-violence. Underlying his various treatments is an attempt at recovery: opposing the often narrow and always self-reflexive modern hermeneutic, begun in Descartes and apotheosized theologically in Schliermacher, Fr. Barron wishes to return us to a more humble, reverent posture before the universe, each other, and most especially, God. The subtitle "post-liberal, post-conservative" brings this critical, even playful, acumen to bear on current American ecclesial concerns. You will find no naive polemics here: Fr. Barron's attempt to recover a theology (even more: an adequation with reality) that transcends these jejune dichotomies opens the reader to a invigorating purview that commands such different resources as Teilhard, von Balthasar, Bob Dylan, Chesterton, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Aquinas. Fr. Barron has particular debts as well to the best in recent Protestant theology: a plus that should make this book a resource to those Catholics who stopped with Tillich. No stranger to Rahner, Fr. Barron is also able to underscore the insights he brought, while reading him within the tradition, noting various lacuna. His knowledge of von Balthasar is especially helpful here, and a needed corrective to an often one-sided emphasis in recent Catholic theology. In short, if you would like to gain a perspective into what is most exciting, most relevant, and most important for not only Catholic theology, but the life of the Church, you will find no better guide than Fr. Barron.
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