Priority of Christ, The: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism [Paperback]

Robert Barron (Author), Francis Cardinal George (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 158743198X | ISBN-13: 978-1587431982 | Publication Date: June 1, 2007

For a long time, Christians have tried to bridge the divide between Christianity and secular liberalism with philosophizing and theologizing. In The Priority of Christ, Father Robert Barron shows that the answer to this debate--and the way to move forward--lies in Jesus. Barron transcends the usual liberal/conservative or Protestant/Catholic divides with a postliberal Catholicism that brings the focus back on Jesus as revealed in the New Testament narratives.

Barron's classical Catholic post-liberalism will be of interest to a broad audience including not only the academic community but also preachers and general readers interested in entering the dialogue between Catholicism and postliberalism.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"By displaying how an imaginative human spirit can be illuminated by the manifold sense of scripture, as well as activating tradition to dissolve lingering philosophical distractions, this stunning summa for a 'postliberal Catholicism' will at once subvert any tendency among the faithful to demand a facile 'fix' as well as offer lucid direction for anyone daring to undertake a pilgrimage of understanding--in and with the Christ."
--David Burrell, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame / Tantur Ecumenical Institute (Jerusalem)"Catholic theology stands at a foundational moment, and in this extended meditation on the figure of Christ Robert Barron boldly argues for a Catholicism that rethinks the controversy between modern and postmodern thought through such classic theological formulations as the controversy between Aquinas and Duns Scotus on the being of God. Broad in reference and informed by the homilist's touch, The Priority of Christ will be an important contribution to a conversation the Church must have."
--Richard A. Rosengarten, University of Chicago"It is crucial for Christians to apprehend the implications of Robert Barron's trenchant thesis: 'Modernity and decadent Christianity are enemies in one sense, but in another sense, they are deeply connected to one another and mirror one another.' Moving beyond the 'decadent Christianity' that mistakenly sought its very starting points in the epistemological and metaphysical dead ends characteristic of 'modernity,' Barron expertly weaves together Thomistic and Balthasarian motifs into a robust short summa that treats Jesus Christ, God the Trinity, the created order, and Christian ethics. Readers seeking spiritual and intellectual renewal will be revitalized by this much-needed book, which overflows with love of God and his path of salvation."
--Matthew Levering, Ave Maria University"Drawing deftly on Aquinas, Newman, Lonergan, Balthasar, and many others, Barron convincingly explains what a postliberal Catholic theology might be. But the great merit of this book is that he not only talks about what theology should be, he actually does it--above all in his lucid mystagogy on a series of Gospel stories, and in striking meditations on the mind of Christ embodied in four great women saints of our time."
--Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University

About the Author

Robert Barron (STD, Institut Catholique de Paris) is professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake and author of Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative, Evangelical Catholic; The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path (winner of a Catholic Press Association Book Award); and Heaven in Stone and Glass.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158743198X
• ISBN-13: 978-1587431982
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars extremely interesting book, December 8, 2011

By 

Dave G (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Priority of Christ, The: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism (Paperback)

I found Barron's approach extremely refreshing. Having waded through modern philosophy and much contemporary theology, I found Barron's ideas penetrating and profound. Instead of attempting a false "neutrality," he stands clearly in the faith perspective of the Church and tackles the modern dilemma that "modernity" has handed the modern-day believer. He shows how a correct understanding of Aquinas and Scripture lend themselves to what he terms a "post-modern" Catholic view of reality. The book develops many of the insights of modern hermeneutics and avoids returning to the over-emphasis on rationalistic foundationalism found in theology during the enlightenment and post-enlightenment periods. He is not afraid to find agreement in modern thinkers, and is nuanced in his disagreement. He diagnoses the problems, show how Christ offers a solution, and then deals with the implications of the perspective offered through the lens of Thomistic thought. While some may attempt to dismiss this perspective as old (chronological snobbery) in their worship of modernity, the points Barron discusses at least deserve a careful reading and debate. He breathes fresh life into the discussion.

I would suggest this book for those who have at least a little background in theology. Recommended for Catholics, but would be interesting for all Christians, (especially his critique of modernity and discussion of the roles of Christ).

2 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Modern Era Made Into a Children's Playground, July 17, 2011

By 

Peter P. Fuchs (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Priority of Christ, The: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism (Paperback)

It is not an easy thing to get a handle on the reactionary Catholic mindset these days when it comes to anything historically past the age of Aquinas. It can be a slightly brain-fog inducing experience to try to understand the diverse approaches. What is good about this guy is that at least he takes Kant seriously, and has some realistic sense of the debt of modern religionists to the great thinker, even if he's got predictable criticisms. (For this alone he gets 2 stars!) This is at least more honest than the many crazed reactionaries, like Kreeft, who have made Kant into some sort of unrecognizable villain. However, the story gets poorer in Baron's account of the inception of modern thought more generally. I blinked in disbelief as I realized that he actually was seriously trying to portay the birth of modern thought as a sort of children's playground dodge-ball war between "Heraclitean" modern impulses and those more traditional "Parmenidean" traditional ones of the medieval world. For the mean time let's leave aside the utter misprision of the terms used. Beyond that, two things should stand out to anyone with even a basic honest sense of intellectual history. And these should call into question the entire premise of this effort here. First, the modern era was at least as much, if not more, concerned with revivals of stable ancient wisdoms as anything else. In this it was in fact often more reverential for the recovery of the stable past than, say, scholasticism was. Second, therefore, to see it merely as a reaction to the medieval world is ultimately simply a cryptic form of propaganda for a medieval view. A mere sop in that direction, not accurate history of ideas. Or one suspects in this author's case, a neo-medieval view he would like to propound. But whatever the case, the idea that the modern era can described as a reaction between these pre-Socratic tendencies, even if meant poetically, is just tendentiously misleading. One suspects it is done with the underlying desire to portray all modern though as evanescent and in "flux". When in fact the modern era has brought vastly more stability in terms of understanding of human rights based on modern conceptions. Thus, as is so often the case with these reactionary Catholic intellectuals, there seems to be a hidden purpose. One wishes they would stop beating around the bush and just come out and say. They want to find a way of making it acceptable that the conceptions of a late medieval Dominican friar should be the basis of contemporary conceptions of society. Good luck with that.