Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith
by Robert Barron
(Image, 2011)

This is a beautifully-written work, extolling the virtues of Catholicism by showing the great beauty of it all and how we can become more connected to that sense of beauty and wonder. This runs counter to the current social narrative in the best of ways.

The spirit of the age/zeitgeist is not life-affirming. Neither is the plan of the World Economic Forum, or the CDC, or the U.N. The lockdown agenda seeks to isolate and divide people. Barron explains that God is all about inclusion: “If God is a great gathering force, then sin is a scattering power” (pg. 16). The social climate currently rejects organic life, casting it as unworthy, in favor of a transhuman agenda. In such a world, Catholicism is a powerful force for affirming mankind’s importance. “No philosophical or political or religious program in history—neither Greek nor Renaissance nor Marxist humanism—has ever made a claim about human destiny as extravagant as Christianity’s” (pg. 3). Thus, this book is a jewel, arguing for the spiritual nature of life itself. Thus, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this work, because it is an anchor in the turbulent seas of the world, just as the author describes the church as being a “shelter from the storm, a boat tossing on the waves of a dysfunctional world.”

Whenever I read a good piece of religious literature, it reminds me that we are God’s creatures, whom he loves, and that life is a gift and a blessing. The ways of the world as it currently is do not reflect on God, but on mankind having gone astray. In our current social climate in America, for example, the family is not valued, our poor are not well taken care of, our political divisions have become ever more pronounced, and hierarchies of power and control have become the dominating model of our institutions. An example of this is the World Economic Forum’s assertions on how it intends to dominate human life.

Klaus Schwab, of the World Economic Forum, has told the public, “You will own nothing and you will be happy,” a concept with the potential to turn individuals away from the temporal and toward the eternal, which is surely not his intention. He either makes this assertion from a position of a will to dominate others (a position divorced from that of God) or from the assumption that material good are of an evil nature, which is not necessarily true.

The author of this book reminds us that, despite their delusions of dominance, God does not abide by Klaus Schwab’s dictatorial edicts. “Even if we delight in fashioning structures of domination and exclusion, the in-gathering Yahweh plays by an entirely different set of rules” (pg. 18). Thus, this work serves to remind us that God is in control, as always, and not the people who act as tyrants here on Earth. God wants what is truly best for us. “Catholicism is a celebration, in words and imagery, of the God who takes infinite delight in bringing human beings to fullness of life.”

I enjoyed this work thoroughly in its well-articulated descriptions of what Catholicism is about, and I also like that it appealed to me on a philosophical level, as the author manages to tackle the weighty and much argued-over topic of the presence of evil in light of an omnipotent God. It was fascinating as well that the author was not afraid to explain the major philosophical arguments that have been leveled against Catholicism through the ages. And as a woman, I found it to be intriguing that the book contains biographies of four female saints.

Click here to buy Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith.