Two of my favorite bishops and theologians of the holy catholic Church are N.T. Wright, who was the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England before he retired, and Robert Barron, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Winona-Rochester in the USA. Here is a wide-ranging conversation between the two:
As someone who attended a "mainline" Protestant seminary, I've had to "unlearn" some of the instincts that were instilled in me during my seminary days. What I mean is this: in my early days of ministry, I was hesitant to even use words like "command" or "obey", because of a fear of sounding overly "harsh" to modern ears.
Well, that was stupid.
Of course, another such word is "wrath." The very idea of divine punishment was, at least for some of my professors, a deep misunderstanding (at best). While it is certainly true that many people's "pop-theology" embraces a very warped misunderstanding of what the Bible actually teaches on this topic, it remains true that this is indeed a theme of Scripture.
As is often the case, I find that Bishop Barron makes a thoughtful and sensitive case for understanding the Bible's teaching on this point.
I've been keenly aware of the erosion of not only the historic churches but also, concurrently, the erosion of freedom of speech in Great Britain in recent years.
Our cousins in the UK have never had the same robust safeguards to freedom of thought and expression that we enjoy here in the US, and recent years really have seen an erosion in these rights.
Long before J.D. Vance recently upset the European establishment by pointing this out (for the UK and Germany and other places), I've been following with dismay as certain political and even religious speech - including silent prayer by Christians in certain locations - has been punished under the law, or else punished informally through police harassment.
Meanwhile, Muslim members of Parliament are overtly pushing to make "insulting Islam" a "hate crime" in the UK. I've been open in the past about my skepticism about criminalizing "hate speech" and my views have not changed on this point.
I'm praying for a revival of Christianity in general and of classical Anglicanism in particular in the UK which, I trust, will also bring about a renewed respect for individual liberties. Others may not have noticed this, but I believe it is no coincidence that the most religiously fervent country in Western Civilization (the US) is also the most robust defender personal freedoms and individual rights. These things go together.
I'm glad to see that, while the bishops of the Church of England tilt at windmills, at least American Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron is trying to evangelize the culture. Here are his remarks to a group including members of Parliament meeting at Westminster:
Great discussion and insight-filled discussion of the Temptation of Christ in the wilderness with Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Bishop Barron, and others.
Here is a great talk from the ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) Conference from Roman Catholic bishop Robert Barron. He contents (rightly, in my view) that a renewal of Western Civilization requires God, it requires the lifting up of our gaze - our desires and ambitions - beyond the self, to the Infinite Source of Goodness, Wisdom, Truth, and Beauty.
"Don't buy into the modern lie that belief in God constrains the human spirit; the exact opposite is true!"
Something I've been talking about in recent months (as in THIS SERMON) is the importance of beauty in our own spiritual lives, and also beauty as a potent help to Christians wanting to stand out as winsome and attractive in a modernist world that has created so much ugly art, so many ugly buildings, and lost sight of the objective nature of Beauty as a glimpse of God's own nature.
One strong voice for what we might call a 'spirituality of beauty' or even using beauty as an evangelistic tool is the Roman Catholic Bishop, Robert Barron. He ponders some of these topics while reflecting on the unspoiled traditional beauty of the city of Prague in Central Europe.
Non-religious Thinkers rediscover the Bible's Wisdom
I've been watching with interest some major "non-religious" thinkers in the last few years rediscovering the importance of Christianity to the vitality of Western Civilization (and the freedoms it brings); some of these same thinkers are also rediscovering that the Bible is not just a poorly-written science book, but a source of amazing (even inspired) wisdom that really does work.
May God use this movement to bring many souls back into the fellowship of his Church. Here is the Roman Catholic Bishop and apologist Bishop Robert Barron commenting on the same movement:
Here is a great lecture from Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron on the philosophers whose ideas are now expressing themselves - sometimes even violently - on the streets of many American cities. This is a great video and well-worth watching it all. I wish I had access to this back when I was taking courses on Political Philosophy at LSU.
"One Nation, Under God..."
Why is that phrase in our pledge of allegiance so important? Why do some want to remove it?
There are many reasons, but one is this: "Under God" stands as a constant reminder that human beings and human government are not the highest authority. The power of the State cannot demand our very highest allegiance, because there is a higher power still.
In a world where the State has often made itself into an idol - from Ancient Rome to Modern Communist states - the claim that there is a higher Power that is the Ultimate source of Justice serves as a continual check against the tendency of the state or those in power to grasp more than is right.
Go back and read the Declaration of Independence. The very logic of it runs like this: God is the highest Power and the Highest source of Justice. Insofar as the King and Parliament of Great Britain have acted contrary to God's design, by trampling our God-given rights, then the King and Parliament really are in the Wrong. That is what makes our Declaration of Independence from them a legitimate and justified act.
We were appealing to the Justice of God over against the injustice of our human rulers. That is of course why the Colonists had flags that said things like "An Appeal to Heaven" on them.
That is also why governments and people in authority - especially those who have turned their own power into an idol - will often try to either hijack the Church (as the Nazis did, putting swastikas on the altars in German churches) or they will try to destroy the Church altogether (as the Communists have attempted to do for over a century now wherever they've come to power) - because the Church's confession that "Jesus is Lord" will always bring with it the corollary "and therefore the State is not..."
Below is a remarkable video from Bishop Barron discussing just this topic:
Two of the "internet intellectuals" whom I've been attending to of late are Jordan Peterson the (agnostic? secular Christian?) Canadian Psychologist and professor and also Bishop Robert Barron, who seems to me one of the most winsome, intellectually compelling, and interesting Christian (and specifically Roman Catholic) voices in the Public Square today.
So, thanks to YouTube algorithms, I ran across this video. Catholic podcaster Brandon Vogt is interviewing Bishop Barron and asking him to reflect upon the (much longer) conversation that Bishop Barron recently had with Jordan Peterson. This interview is fabulous and well worth your time.
I love Bishop Barron's observation, when reflecting upon Jungian archetypes and the "hero's journey" that plays so prominently in world literature, that in the Bible people are called on an adventure, a hero's journey with God - Abraham is called to leave his home and follow God; Jesus calls us to leave all and take up the cross and follow him. Yet in an even deeper sense, Bishop Barron points out, the Bible is the story about God making the hero's journey in order to find us. Also, I now need to go back and re-watch True Grit...
