Review and notes = Bishop Robert Barron, The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism

For the last four months have been slowly reading and taking notes on The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron. Why four months? Largely because I have been reading through this work of American Catholic theology during my breaks at the library. So about fifty minutes a day five days a week.

I confess not reading the entire work. I stopped before the final section in which Bishop Barron discusses the lives of four saints and how “the love of Jesus transfigured a natural virtue into something supernatural”. Might read this last section later. But at this point I have read enough and would like to tackle some other works.

It is difficult to summarize in just a sentence or two. Two things prompted me to purchase and read this. The first was the announcement of a book someone recently published on the theology of Bishop Barron. Similar perhaps to a fascinating book Ratzinger’s Faith by a theologian in Australia. Such a book “marks” Barron as an important voice in American Catholicism. But where to start? He has published so many books. But The Priority of Christ appeared to be especially significant. That in this book Barron attempts to describe an important problem and propose a way forward.

Several years ago when reading Christian Theology: An Introduction by Alister McGrath I found myself identifying strongly with what McGrath describes as postliberal Christian theology. Which is especially concerned with particularity. With communities and shared practices.

As I did when publishing my notes on Parables of the Kingdom by C H Dodd am again not going to write much for now but will focus on sharing my notes. All two hundred and seven pages. Perhaps later when I have had more time to reflect will attempt to publish a very amateur review. For now I will say Bishop Robert Barron holds an important place in American Catholic theology. I like his approach and largely agree with him insofar as I can understand him. I am not a theologian. Yeah I took the required courses on Christian Theology in seminary and did very well. But to understand fully this book one could use a strong background in historical theology and modern philosophy.

Notes_Robert Barron_The Priority of Christ_2023 (PDF)
Notes_Robert Barron_The Priority of Christ_2023 (DOCX)