Sometimes we might feel that it would be beneficial to reduce or package the Christian message to make it more 'relevant', 'hip', or accessible. In this video, Father Robert Barron addresses some of the issues of embracing the feel-good banners and balloons presentation of the Faith which he experienced as a child. His observations are definitely food for thought for Orthodox Christians.
Fr Robert Barron Comments On Reductionist Faith
at the 10 minute 15 seconds mark of this
Keynote Speech on the "7 Keys to the New Evangelization":
Partial Transcript:
10m:15s: "Here's number two, and I'm going to bang the podium as I say this: don't dumb down the message. Now, I got a great room here full of teachers and preachers and catechists and publishers so again, don't dumb down the message.
I went to first grade in 1965, the year the council ended. Vatican II was produced by the cream of the intellectual crop of the mid-20th century. Rahner, Balthasar, de Lubac, Daniélou, Congar, Ratzinger, Wojtyła, the list goes on and on. The best and brightest of the minds, of their time produced Vatican II. The Vatican II documents are beautiful in their intellectual richness, texture, integrity.
Why then after the council, when I was coming of age in the church, did we experience the dumbed down banners and balloons Catholicism? What I experience as a kid, was not this richly textured intellectual faith, but rather a superficial Catholicism. I say now, I'm too old I guess to keep cover this up. That was a pastoral disaster of the first order. There were a lot of people in my generation who just opted out of Catholicism.
How come? Because they grew up, when life hit them in the face, and they saw the complexity of things, and a child of superficial Catholicism was no answer to the deep problems of life. A dumbed down superficial Catholicism led to the abandonment of the faith by a lot of people. John Henry Newman one of my great heroes, said one of the surest signs that the faith is developing properly, is that it relentlessly thinks about the datum of Revelation.
We are a thinking religion, we're beautiful, yes, we're also a smart religion. When we mute that, it is pastoral disaster. You know something interesting to me, go back to the mid-20th century, on both of the protestant and catholic side, you see a flourishing of the intellectual life among Christians. Just listen to some of these names, W. H. Auden the great Poet, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, Fulton Sheen, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh.
The list goes on and on. There was a renaissance, a flourishing of catholic intellectualism in the mid-20th century. How come we got the banners and balloons in the wake of the council? That has not served us well, here's one of the problems to everybody, is that now a successive generation, even two generations have come to expect a dumbed down religion. I'll give you an example, this happens to me from time to time.
People go to me, and say "Hey father, that homily you gave, those three syllable words, you're going to lose people with that...These referencing Theologians, the kids aren't going to respond to that."
I say to them, "You're a doctor. You went to med school, you read complicated medical journals. You're a lawyer, you went to law school, you read complex case studies, you're a private equity investor, you're taking over businesses reading their business report. Why in this area of life would you expect something dumbed down?"
I say to them, "You're a doctor. You went to med school, you read complicated medical journals. You're a lawyer, you went to law school, you read complex case studies, you're a private equity investor, you're taking over businesses reading their business report. Why in this area of life would you expect something dumbed down?"
Every other area of life, we even draw young people rather quickly into complex things, why don't we do it in the area of the faith. I first read Romeo & Juliet when I was 14. I remember it vividly, I was a freshman in high school, and the teacher had this, would take the various parts and we read it aloud, and he would try to explain it to us. How much in Romeo & Juliet did I get when I was 14?
What? 10% ? I got the basic story line of the character. I still remember of this day, my feeling of amazement that there is such a thing, as that play. There is such a thing as this Shakespearean drama, this high challenging beautiful deep rich complex thing, did I get every bit of it? of course not.
At 14 I was introduced to it. How many of our 14 year olds, are introduced to Thomas Aquinas? oh how is it possible?
At 14 I was introduced to it. How many of our 14 year olds, are introduced to Thomas Aquinas? oh how is it possible?
They read Shakespeare at 14, why can't they be introduce to Aquinas, to Augustine, to Newman, to Chesterton, to Dante?
We're the ones who have to do this. We teachers, preachers, catechists, priest, publishers. A dumbed down Catholicism has not served. Here's a last little story, about 10 years ago, when the new atheists were all in vogue, and there were a lot of request for interviews and all that.
We're the ones who have to do this. We teachers, preachers, catechists, priest, publishers. A dumbed down Catholicism has not served. Here's a last little story, about 10 years ago, when the new atheists were all in vogue, and there were a lot of request for interviews and all that.
I was on a radio program, actually in Canada. There was kind of a feisty interviewer who was asking me about Christopher Hitchens and challenging. So I got into debate with him, at the end, you know what he said to me? "Father would you at least admit that Christopher Hitchens got you Catholics thinking about these things for the first time?" [Audience Laughs]
Well, I pause to let me annoyance sink in.
Then, I said, "I'm the very inadequate representative of the oldest intellectual provision in the West, that includes Origen, and Augustine, and Chrysostom and Jerome, and Anselm and Aquinas, and Bonaventure, and Newman, and Chesterton and John Paul II. [Audience Claps] Trust me when I tell you we did not need Christopher Hitchens to get us to think about these things. [Audience Laughs] Friends, part of the problem is, look at that phenomena, the new atheism, is a large part of a culture as turned on us.
Go on Youtube sometime, that's where I have my ministry. Those men, Hitchens and Dawkins and Sam Harris, talk about evangelist. Clear, articulate, smart, and they've got millions of followers... we need to be in that fight... with the full arsenal of our intellectual tradition. A dumbed down Catholicism will not serve."
+ Fr Robert Barron, 7 Keys to the New Evangelization,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRzDBro3FiE (at 10min 15sec)
For Orthodox Churches this is a humble reminder that a dumbed-down liturgical life: a dumbed-down Orthodoxy and an appeal to reductionist theology will not serve. Though we hear various debates and statistics about the decline of youth in various jurisdictions (such as in this article and in these two responses: Losing our Religion & The Side of American Orthodoxy that Orthodox are Loath to Admit), we also hear about the positive effects of Orthodox Liturgical life in the life of children (ie. in the beginning of this article and in the work of the Orthodox Catechesis of the Good Shepherd). While a "silent exodus" is of serious concern it is also important to note that declining Church attendance also occurs when a community begins to reduce the faith with bad theology, moralism, pietism and mega-church activities.
“When theology is false, then Christianity is reduced to activities.” + Fr. John S. Romanides
If we reflect on Father Robert Barron's exhortation to not dumb down the faith, it might be wise for Orthodox Christians to assess where "banners and balloons" theology created a "superficial Catholicism" and how we could all learn from the past mistakes of the Roman Catholic Church in America as well as the positive directions of the 'new evangelization'.
“My work has been sort of warfare against dumbed-down Catholicism. I think you present the faith in a way that people are going to understand, but I think you do it in a way that’s intellectually rich and compelling. We have a smart tradition and want to make sure we bring that to the fore.”
+ Father Robert Barron, Taking aim at ‘dumbed-down’ Catholicism
It is a reminder that in the Orthodox Church we too have a smart prayerful liturgically rich and beautiful Tradition and that perhaps our struggle in the individualist consumer driven modern society is to bring this Great Mystery to the fore.
Let us not shy away from engaging our Holy Tradition and drawing on its wealth. Let us also not shy away from engaging the world, intellectually as well as bodily. Let us offer all things, in thanksgiving, on behalf of all and for all, for the life of the World.
If there are any doubts about the need for a deep and intellectual witness of the Faith today and in every era, let us be encouraged by the exhortation of St Clement of Alexandria to draw on all faculties (including our Orthodox theology) in life:
"Some people who think themselves naturally gifted don't want to touch either philosophy or logic. They don't even want to learn natural science. They demand bare faith alone - as if they wanted to harvest grapes right away without putting any work into the vine.
We must prune, dig, trellis, and do all the other work. I think you'll agree the pruning knife, the pickaxe, and the other farmer's tools are necessary for growing grapevines, so that they will produce edible fruit. And as in farming, so in medicine: the one who has learned something is the one who has practiced the various lessons, so that he can cultivate or heal.
And here, too, I say you're truly educated if you bring everything to bear on the truth. Taking what's useful from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, you guard the Faith from assault."
+ St Clement of Alexandria, Miscellany, 1.9
+ + +
Also by Fr Robert: "Evangelizing Through Beauty" http://www.wordonfire.org/Written-Word/articles-commentaries/February-2013/Evangelizing-Through-Beauty.aspx
