Bishop Robert Barron: "Looking for the Nones"

it's nice to see everybody friends I'm John Cavallini I'm the mcgrath cavity me director of the mcgrath institute for church life here at the university of notre dame and on behalf of myself and also on behalf of the most reverend allen Vignan Archbishop of Detroit and chair of the USCCB Committee on doctrine who's co-sponsoring this event I'm pleased to be able to welcome all of you here this evening to our keynote lecture in our conference cultures of formation friends Peter Morin co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement was fond of saying that his idea was to try to create a society in which it's easier for people to be good not a utopia but a society in which it's easier for people to be good I love that expression and our conference would like to take that very appealing ideal and mutatis mutandis apply it to the church can we create ecclesial cultures in which it's young people find it easier to be Catholic by that we don't mean to take out the intrinsic challenge and adventure of Catholic life for that's one of its principal attractions but rather ecclesial cultures that are strategically designed in such a way that young people are formed in the words of Pope Francis in what is most beautiful most grand most appealing and at the same time most necessary beyond youth ministry or a young adult ministry which by the way I'm not against to the contrary but beyond the paradigm of delegating youth to a youth minister we have to remember we already have cultures of formation the family the liturgy the school the perished based works of mercy we just have to be more intentional to think of all of these precisely as cultures of formation cultures in which our young people will be formed more easily into adult Catholics thirsting for a life of everyday holiness and who best to help us think about this then one of the foremost cultural heroes of the new evangelization bishop robert e baron whom i'm pleased to be able to introduce at this time the most reverend robert e baron is auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 in the Archdiocese he serves as the Episcopal Vicar of the Santa Barbara pastoral region Bishop Baron holds an MA in philosophy from the Catholic University of America and a doctorate in sacred theology from the answer to Catholic in Paris before his ordination to the Episcopacy Bishop Baron had served as professor of theology at Mundelein seminary University of Saint Mary's of Lake from 1992 to 2015 and he served as rector and president of the seminary from 2012 to 2015 Bishop Baron has also served as visiting professor at systemic of systematic theology in the department of theology at the University of Notre Dame so we're in a way welcoming him back to Notre Dame as well as at the Pontifical University of st. Thomas Aquinas in Rome Bishop Baron has published an amazing 15 books many of which have been embraced in the scholarship of systematic theology since their appearance and many of them had become standard reading and theology classes across the country Bishop Baron is a number-one Amazon best-selling author an astonishing achievement for a professor of theology speaking as one but even more spectacular is the success of the ministry he founded in the year 2000 which will be familiar to all of you here tonight word on fire a global media ministry which has been spreading the knit message of the New Evangelization since its founding some of bishop Barron's landmark achievements in this mystery ministry include his creation and hosting of Catholicism a groundbreaking award-winning documentary series about the Catholic faith a sign of its combination of both intellectual and pastoral genius is that it has become standard fare both in parishes and in undergraduate classes in theology across the country that's a very hard combination to hit following its release Bishop Baron released also the follow-up documentary Catholicism the new evangelization and he's wrapping up the second volume of Catholicism the pivotal players a beautiful new film series on the Mystics scholars artists and saints who shaped the church and changed the world culture of formation the first volume of the series debuted in September 2016 and was syndicated for national television Bishop Barron's website word on fire org reaches literally millions of people each year the site hosts daily blog posts weekly articles and video commentaries and an extensive archive of over 500 homilies his regular youtube videos have been viewed over 25 million times and over 350,000 people receive his daily email reflections episodes of his podcast radio show the word on fire show have been downloaded over two million times Bishop Baron has keynote at many conferences and events all over the world including the 2016 World Youth Day Krakow Poland in the 2015 world meeting of families in Philadelphia which marked of course Pope Francis's historic visit to the United States with that track record we are especially honored to have Bishop Baron surely one of the world's foremost heroes of the New Evangelization as our keynote speaker tonight and I'm sure you will all join me in welcoming Bishop Robert E Barron to the podium this evening [Applause] thank you everybody thank you everybody god bless you for coming tonight and John thank you for that wonderful introduction I think John Kemeny is one of the great churchmen today so I'm delighted that he invited me and I'm delighted that the Institute has included me as the keynote speaker and to see so many here tonight really is a thrill as he mentioned I've got a lot of connections here at Notre Dame I came here as a freshman in 1977 spent a wonderful year this year that the football team won the national championship under Dan Devine the basketball team under Digger Phelps made it to the final four that year it was an exciting year to be here I had the priesthood bug when I was here and so the following year entered the college seminary in Chicago I came back to Notre Dame of 25 years later so in 2002 I was here as a visiting professor working on a book and I did some teaching here and I think within one week of my reappearance here I was referring to the sports teams as we you know we won yesterday there's something as you well know about Notre Dame that just draws you win but it's always a thrill it's certainly one of the great centers of Catholicism in this country and indeed around the world so I'm always delighted to come back just a real quick note before I start the paper you know the two synod's on the family were glamorous in a way they got a lot of attention and people were very interested of course in the question of you know communion for the divorced and remarried and all of the sort of drama and and I wouldn't deny for a second the importance of the themes discussed those centers but here's my conviction everybody I think the Synod coming up is more important I think the theme being discussed at the upcoming Senate namely youth and how we galvanize the youth how we draw them back into the church how we send them on mission I think this is a far more pressing issue for the global church but especially for the church in the West and so I'm delighted we're having this opportunity to begin to reflect on some of these themes so that's my little fervor II know in advance of the paper I just think it's a very important theme we're looking at so the talk the title of my talk is looking for the nuns and the noe s of course now has become kind of a standard term for those who have drifted away from religion who say none of the above when asked what their religion is so looking for the nuns who are they how to bring them back so anyone who's follow my work over the past many years knows that I've been deeply concerned about evangelization especially of young adults we've all been chagrined by the disturbing statistics regarding the nuns those who claim no religious affiliation to give just one figure fully fifty percent of those brought up in the Catholic Church who are thirty or younger have left the church indeed have renounced any sort of religious affiliation Pope Francis in the general congregation speech that according to most observers gained him the papacy spoke famously of a church that goes out from itself to the margins but what too few have noticed is that he specified in that very talk not simply the economic peripheries but the existential peripheries as well he desired and outreach to those who are for a variety of reasons alienated from God and who have consequently lost the sense of meaning and transcendent purpose soon after his election the Pope sat down for an interview with a fellow Jesuit in the course of which he identified the church as a field hospital what almost every commentator focused on is the merciful attitude of a church implicit in that image but what I think almost every commentator overlooked is the Pope's rather dire assessment of the spiritual condition of many people in our culture that is also implicit in that image for Francis spoke not of a clinic where mild infections are addressed that rather of a hospital situated close to a field of battle were those who have suffered life-threatening wounds stagger or carried for treatment bring these two Franciscan insights together and you have a clear though rather sobering account of the present situation of many in the West especially among the young armies of 20 and 30-somethings I'd say now even younger are in rather acute danger and require immediate and substance of treatment precisely because they've lost their spiritual bearings now at the same time anybody who works in this field and I've been in it now for the past about 15 years dealing directly with younger people and evangelization anyone doing this realizes that behind the very questions that even the most aggressively anti-religious young people pose is indeed a spiritual longing and fascination I've sometimes teased my fiercely atheist or agnostic interlocutors on the web that they are secret harrods just to the ancient Galilean Tetrarch loved to listen to the prophet whom he had thrown in jail so many self-proclaimed enemies of religion attend ardently to the pronouncements of a religious figure coming over and again to my site to comment to critique to mock or to question well I can't help but see this stubborn refusal to give up as a manifestation of the souls passion for God so that's always in the mix now as we talk about the way young people are alienated yet there's that undeniable longing well to my mind all these insights and many more have been confirmed by the most recent work of Christian Smith and his colleagues right here at Notre Dame in their study understanding former young Catholics so Catholics who have left the church and joined the ranks of the nuns they don't simply count the number of nuns but they speak to them and of them in some depth seeking to understand their attitudes questions convictions etc their study makes for fascinating though I must admit somewhat depressing reading what I hope to make clear in the course of this presentation tonight is that the situation of young former Catholics is at the same time something of an indictment of our educational and catechetical strategies and I believe this at the same time a real Kairos it's a privileged moment to connect with young people it's a call to action it's all of that at the same time Smith presents his findings under seven major headings don't get worried I won't treat all of them only those that have a more immediate theological or catechetical implication but I'm gonna take advantage of the architecture of of his presentation to structure my talk okay so we'll look at four areas and Christian Smith's research and I'll do some musing on each one here's the first one a former Catholic still in parentheses mostly believe in and interact with in parentheses some version of God that's called the qualified statement by the way now in some ways I'm most concerned about this first finding not because I disagree with it but because it might be used as a pretext for concluding that things really aren't all that bad I can hear people saying well if these young people still believe in God they can't be so lost well I think a careful attention to what these young believers actually say will temper our optimism a tad Smith maintains quote staunch atheism is still fairly uncommon among Americans and the same holds for formerly Catholic emerging adults close quote however when we listen to the rather superficial accounts of God offered by former young Catholics we almost I dare say prefer a robust atheism at least it would give us a little more traction for constructive conversation now what I'm going to do is is cite some of the quotations that Smith has in his research they're not chosen at random but because they're very representative of the findings so just to be clear about that as I quote some of the people that he interviews so one young woman Sarah was asked if she had any religious beliefs and she responded quote I don't think so but sometimes when I look at things I'm like God will work it out then she laughed and I'm quoting again I sometimes feel that certain things happen for a reason you know some higher being you see those hallmark cars when one door closes another opens or God is saving us for bigger things and I'm like alright close quote while serving the Navy she came to admire of a chaplains in this letter to the conviction that quote God's gonna take care of this and I was like I want to fall back on God close quote now once again everybody we shouldn't overlook the I think authentic spiritual sense and perception that lies behind these formulations but at the same time we can't help but notice the rather juvenile level of articulation as well as the fundamentally self-absorbed quality of the spirituality God is there primarily to solve our personal problems I think it's fair to say that even the most cursory reading of the Bible would show that God never simply solves the problems of Israel nor is he guarantee that those who follow him will avoid suffering quite the contrary another young man Joe who identifies as an agnostic admitted that he prays occasionally but he's not at all sure to whom the prayer is directed here I'm quoting though maybe the universe maybe the big white man with the bushy beard close quote in other words he embraces either the crudest form of pantheism or the most naive type of anthropomorphism see here's my point that there is a rationally compelling biblical alternative of these options seems not to occur to him Smith tells us furthermore that most former Catholics if they believe in God don't see God as a quote personal being close quote and are unwilling again I'm quoting to commit to any clear view of God at this time in their lives close quote do you see what I mean when I say this belief in God among former Catholics is hardly ground for optimism we stand it should be clear at a rather distant remove from anything even vaguely resembling a biblical view of the Creator God or the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ now let me just say it again to be sure these deeply inadequate articulations at the very least are revealing the hunger for God the fascination for God doors even in the face of inadequate catechesis and rather deep confusion I found in my own evangelical work with young people that the Augustinian anthropology Lord you've made us for yourself and therefore the heart is restless till it rests in you still provides a good deal of traction people instinctively know that none of the goods of this world finally satisfy the longing for joy that's hardwired into them tapping into this delicious dissatisfaction if I can riff on a theme of CS Lewis ought to be central to any program of our evangelizing of the young see again this vague longing or spiritual sensibility should never be construed somehow as enough the same Agustin who spoke of the universal hunger for God also said that religion in the generic sense is to be sharply distinguished from true religion Vera religio okay second statement now from Smith's research he says former young Catholics or young former Catholics are uncomfortable with statements about who or what God is uncomfortable with statements about who or what God is young former Catholics in common with most people in their age bracket seem to be uneasy with any strong statements made regarding theology to a large degree this is a function of the relativism it holds sway practically everywhere today many of course readily speak of my truth and your truth but would be uncomfortable indeed of any talk of the truth I've termed this the culture or that I learned this some years ago the culture of whatever never see that thing whatever here's how Smith puts it in a summary report quote what works for one person might not work for someone else and consequently very few if any general statements can or should be made about God faith or morality there's a common view now among young former Catholics as dr. Smith suggests in that last statement relativism seems to have a particular authority when it comes to matters religious one former Catholic in a survey comments quote I'm so okay with the uncertainty I think uncertainty is beautiful I think the most beautiful works of art are the ones that lead you to asking questions as opposed to those try to supply answers to what something is close quote furthermore there's another quote from another interviewee the essence of spirituality is being comfortable with questions close quote now permit me to say I think young people have actually intuited hear something indeed central to the Catholic intellectual tradition namely the conviction that no statement about God is ever perfectly adequate st. Agustin famously put it see comprehend s known as Deus if you understand that isn't God Thomas Aquinas said whatever can be known or understood is less than God himself there is quite properly always an element of indeterminacy in even the best of our theological formulations however I've also come to recognize this almost complete romanticization of the quest or of the question especially among the young goes hand in hand with the relativism just noted for to make a decision either morally or intellectually to stand for something is to make a definitive claim one that excludes others other claims on others in lonergan sturms if I can quote that great figure the romanticization of the quest keeps us locked at the second stage of the epistemic process namely the intelligent exploration of hypotheses and likely scenarios that follows upon careful observation of the relevant data that's the first stage but this precludes the next and decisive step namely being reasonable that's to say deciding among the various hypotheses which one is actually correct which of the many bright ideas is in fact the right idea or at least the relatively right idea that's the third stage the stage of judgment and a failure to come to the third stage means that one never arrives at the fourth level for Lonnegan which is the responsible acting out of the implications of one's judgement number be attentive the intelligent be reasonable be responsible our the four stages I think relativism and the romanticization of the quest Laxus at step two and we never get the level of responsibility Lonnegan helps us to see why the suspension of the process at the second stage is so attractive of so many it precludes real responsibility in the measure that I cannot or will not decide I can remain permanently uncommitted but see when we see this everybody precisely in the religious context we see how debilitating it is for it means irresponsibility in regard to the highest and most important things not to make a judgement not to take a stand name one Saint in our tradition who's stuck at level 2 of the epistemic process right every saint in our tradition made a judgment and took a stand is why this to me is not just an intellectual matter like Oh tut tut they should be thinking more clearly this is much more profound than man it's all about decision is for life you know and though it seems to imitate the curiosity and open-endedness of the sciences it actually stands athwart the real method of the physical sciences this romanticizing of the quest the formation of hypotheses in the great science sciences leads to the conducting of experiments which lead finally to the making of judgments many of which have become what we term settled science so it's decidedly not the case that biology chemistry physics psychology remain permanently open-ended always privileged encoder answer no responsible cosmologists thinks we should be open to the suggestion that the Sun revolves around the earth no intelligent biologist holds that 7-day creationists should be included around the table of conversation uncertainty I agree with date with the interviewee uncertainty can indeed be beautiful how though as a propaedeutic to deeper understanding as GK Chesterton said the open mind is something like the open mouth designed to bite down on something solid a permanently open mind is not what we're looking for I wonder whether a route of access to young people who do indeed valorize the sciences and I'll come back to that is to show how the total romanticizing of the quest and of uncertainty is actually repugnant to real scientific achievement and gosh if true of the sciences how much truer about that most important level of reality namely the religious okay third of Smith's observations former Catholics live in religiously diverse families and friendship networks they live in religiously diverse families and friendship networks even the most a casual survey of Western culture today would reveal that diversity is radically valorized I see this against the backdrop of the oldest issue in philosophy namely that of the one of the many for a variety of reasons I can't explore tonight we've swung dramatically to the many side of this famous divide though the culture insists again and again on the positive elements of diversity and of course you know it's it's it's in the error that we breathe it rarely have ever appreciates diversity shadow side and just the ops is true of unity I think we're very sensitive to the shadow side of unity oppression and totalitarianism and so on but we rarely see the the the positive side if I might use Paul Tillich's categories we consistently stress dynamics rather than form freedom rather than destiny individualization rather than participation but if Tillich is correct and I think he is here anyone cited emphasis in regard to these polarities conduces almost inevitably to crisis in point of fact I would argue many features of our political culture today indicate precisely this exaggerated reaction formation in the direction of unity form and participation but let's talk for another night now what this uncritical I would say valorisation of diversity looks like in the religious context is an allergy to anything that smacks of orthodoxy or right belief here's how Smith sums up the attitude quote to believe in only one religion or to profess one version of God implies in the minds of many emerging adults that those other people are in error and will be judged by God close quote a practical implication is and I'm quoting again from Smith's survey religion gets talked about at home much less since it has the potential to be a source of great conflict close quote I'll come back to this but boy it's deadly stuff for religion religion thrives in conversation it seems to me it thrives through friendship and if people are shutting down conversationally about religion we're in trouble see Evangelization it's not going back to vatican ii and all the popes since that's our number one concern the new evangelization evangelization rather than say more abstract forms of religious speech or investigation is directed to conversion the evangelists perforce is a convinced believer and he wants those who hear him to become themselves convinced believers and so it stands in an at least awkward relationship with the one sided etiquette of diversity time and again in both the high in popular culture we confront the stereotype of the religious advocate as aggressive intolerant at the limit violent you must see a really good example the movie that won Best Picture last night the shape of water who's the villain well the villain is a is a self-consciously religious person that quotes the Bible but in fact is violent and hateful and hypocritical once you put those lenses on start seeing it almost everywhere in the popular culture the bad guy is the one that's got you know strong strongly held beliefs now this point of view is further bolstered by the reduction of religion to morality a tendency rampant I would say in the West today I might construe this by the way as the almost total victory of Immanuel Kant's understanding of religion as ethics remember for the great 18th century philosopher every other aspect of religious belief and practice liturgy prayer dogmas sacraments veneration of the saints etc is reducible to bringing an adept into accord with the demands of the categorical imperative or to put this content perspective in a more contemporary language as long as being a good person is all that finally matters then why are we worrying about doctrinal differences why can't we just live and let live here's how one of Smith's young people put it quote you have your beliefs I have mine and you know does it really matter in the long run close quote sound familiar that's one of the most common things I hear as I relate to people on the web now I wonder whether we might make some progress here by proposing an analogy with other areas of interest let's consider first the political arena I doubt whether you'd find many people especially among the young who would blithely remark you know it doesn't really matter which political opinion you hold as long as deep down you're a nice person how many would commonly say you know I'm a Democrat you're a Republican but as long as we're decent people Who am I to tell you how to think do you hear that very often I sure don't most people I know feel there is an at least relatively correct political point of view and they're ready willing and eager to defend it through argument and deceit to bring their interlocutors to political conversion in regard to this dimension of life they seem little concerned that their opponents would feel condemned or excluded if they sought to correct their assumptions if such a situation obtains in regard to politics why would or should such a bland indifferentism obtain in regard to religion or consider the arena of sports I sincerely doubt that an avid golfer eager to draw a friend into the adventure of that most difficult of games would blindly say swing any way you want it doesn't really matter as long as you've got a positive attitude you know now fully acknowledging each player will indeed develop a distinctive swing I get it I mean everyone's that I've got a somewhat different swings sure fully acknowledging that but an experienced golfer would nevertheless insist upon some very objective features that characterize a successful striking of the golf ball but again regarding religion an almost complete subjective ization is permitted to hold sway that's the way I've kind of teased interlocutors when they're very radical in their relativism I'll say in any area of life that you really take seriously you stop being a relativist fan right so taking religion seriously is part of the solution here now there appears to be an underlying though rarely avert to assumption that only two options exist when it comes to religious claims either bland toleration or violence what I want to suggest is that a very lively third option exists namely real religious argument you know can I quote someone who used to teach her at Notre Dame and has been a sort of intellectual mentor to me for a long time Stanley Howard was however I said one of the most important needs of our time is to develop the capacity again to have a religious argument in public instead right it seems to me as a middle ground between violence everyone's against that but the other extreme being just a bland toleration no no there's a middle ground called argument one can marshal evidence form hypotheses cite authorities make illuminating analogies draw conclusions in a word one can make arguments religiously and Contra Conte it matters very much what we believe in regard to doctrine why because ethical imperatives are grounded finally in certain metaphysical and anthropological convictions just as flowers will eventually wither once they're removed from the plant that sustains them so ethical principles will indeed even S once they are dissociated from a doctrinal framework I'm completely against that view but you know it deep down were all nice people so who cares what we believe that is a dangerous ground to walk on because trust me these ethical convictions are born of more fundamental metaphysical insights and religious insights and anthropological insights and so we can't bracket that in favor of you know being nice people I can't think by the way of a better model for the making of religious argument within a pluralistic context then st. Thomas Aquinas was my own intellectual hero even the most casual acquaintance where the kindnesses writings reveal the Thomas is remarkably inclusive in his engagement of a wide variety of viewpoints in fact the spirit of the University of Paris in the 13th century was not altogether different from the pluralistic atmosphere of our own time a wide range of viewpoints philosophies religious attitudes were on offer in the course of his public dispute ations and writings Thomas dialogues with a plethora of Christian thinkers with whom he has disagreements some quite serious think here of origin or the pseudo-dionysius or Tertullian and and with a plethora of non-christian figures Plato Aristotle Cicero Moses Maimonides Avera we's Avicenna etc etc in his writings we find a veritable seminar where these diverse viewpoints are entertained and always I must say in a deeply respectful manner indeed one of the distinctive marks of Thomas's style was the formulation of his opponents arguments in a manner pithy er and more convincing than they themselves could manage read the objections in the Summa but mind you the purpose of the Aquinas conversation is to come to religious truth Thomas is not satisfied merely that a lively respectful exchange of views has taken place he wants the dialogue to yield clarity in regard to the question at hand Cardinal George who was an intellectual mentor to me as well once commented the church is not a debating society but an evangelical engine a final point regard to Aquinas one crucial condition for the possibility of his intellectual achievement was a community of friends who thought religious conversation was of the highest value Smith reports quote former Catholics are also distinct in that more of them report that none of their close friends is it all religious close quote my judgment saddest line in the report let me say it again former Catholics are distinct in that more of them report that none of their close friends is it all religious I mentioned conversation earlier friendship friendship is the atmosphere in which religion thrives that's something we need to keep looking at ok fourth and final one I'm gonna look at tonight former Catholics tend to describe religious faith as illogical or unscientific breaks my heart I run across it every day breaks my heart in a Pew Forum study about six months ago is reported that the number one reason that young people give for abandoning religion is that religious faith is at odds with science when I read this I was a tad surprised it was the prime reason but I wasn't at all surprised it was a significant factor for I confront this problem on a daily basis in my evangelical work I found this particularly striking Smith statistic that among former Catholics get this everybody at the center of Catholic education get this fully three-quarters agree or strongly agree with the statement that ultimately the teachings of science and religion conflict with each other that's a major failure it seems to me I don't know where I'm gonna put the blame I put it here it's Jamaa cues I mean I think it's a failure for all of us if 3/4 of these young people are saying religion and science are in conflict with each other or that religions illogical in my experience it's clear that armies of young people have internalized the new atheist characterization of religious claims as so much pre scientific nonsense Bronze Age mythology as Christopher Hitchens he has armies of followers that use that phrase all the time religions the musings of ignorant people who barely understood the physical dynamics of the universe at cetera cetera Hitchens Richard Dawkins sam Harris Daniel Dennett on a more popular level Bill Maher regularly hold religious faith up for just this sort of ridicule Smith interviews confirm this intuition quote Jordan one of his interlocutors is confident in his atheism because he sees no good scientific proof for the Christian God no more than say Thor the comic-book hero or Vishnu the Hindu deity close quote Jordan also shares what he takes to be unanswerable intellectual objections to theistic belief quote if God is omnipotent can he create a rock so big that even he can't lift it close quote I mean philosophy 101 on day one we clear that problem oh you know I'm saying but anyway and and if the principle that everything comes with something else holds and what caused God etc you know these sort of sophomoric observations Smith shows that even those young people who cultivate some belief in God nevertheless apologize for it sheepishly as though it's something they ought to have grown out of by now here's one of his interlocutors I know it's unscientific but and then she went on with her religious view another when asked whether God is an explanation for the unexplainable said with a laugh yeah I guess so but I know it's really unscientific to say that still another and a remark that would have warmed the hearts of Ludwig Feuerbach and Sigmund Freud commented when asked about her beliefs whether religion is reasonable well I'm not really but they're like nice things to fall back on you know I mean god help us and again my memory point that the Smith is not choosing these to arbitrarily but they're very representative of the views of a lot of our young people now a first observation to make is that scientism does indeed hold sway in our culture especially among the rising generation by this term I mean the reduction of all knowledge to the scientific form of knowledge what can be known through the scientific method through empirical investigation the formation and testing of hypotheses experimentation the drawing of conclusions etc is identified quite simply with the real or the true the obvious success of the physical sciences and the mastery of nature and the massive usefulness of their attendant technologies have made this a very plausible position for many young people whereas philosophies and religion see mired and endless and irresolvable debates sciences do indeed have a predictive power hence on scientistic grounds any any other claim to rational insight is invalid the alternative to the physical sciences is simply nonsense now there's much that could be said against this point of view I'd only point out first that scientism is self refuting in the measure that the scientific method as such could never yield the conclusion that non scientific forms of reasoning are invalid where precisely did one empirically verify this principle how precisely did one perform an experiment to test its legitimacy etc secondly in a fundamental sense religion and science cannot even in principle be in conflict for God is not an item in the universe but rather the ground of the universe is being the reason why there's something rather than nothing God is not one competitive cause among many not one more item within the Nexus of conditioned things and hence the methods appropriate to the sciences could never be adequate to adjudicate issues regarding God one way or the other but I find I have to make that clarification a lot in the face of this very rampant scientism now this is not to say of course there aren't rational paths to God and indeed it's my conviction that every catechist every of every apologist ought to have a compelling argument for God's existence and his or her fingertips and I really mean that when I was coming of age we under played the the classical arguments but young people today I find they'll come at you with a lot of scientific objections I think we've got to be ready though young people today have little acquaintance with philosophy or at least with some non relativistic version of it it might be good to introduce them to a non scientific but yet deeply rational approach to God I've had a good deal of success with a modified version of the classical argument from contingency for God's existence the starting point is irrefutable contingent or non necessary things exist if someone box even at this asked them whether they had parents whether they eat or drink whether they breathe oxygen all that would prove their contingency a contingent thing requires extrinsic causes now are those causes themselves contingent or they self explanatory if they're contingent we have to search for their extrinsic cause etc the process cannot go on indefinitely otherwise we have not met the demand of the principle of sufficient reason we must come finally to some reality whose very nature is to be whose essence and existence coincide I think a particular advantage of this demonstration is that it clearly concludes to the existence of a reality which is not one more item within the physical universe but rather the creator and ground of the finite world you know it's been a great source of joy for me really as I put these arguments out and others like it on the web sometimes very lengthy and interesting conversations ensue as people begin to engage them usually in a very negative way at first but good good I like that I get some traction that I can engage someone you know but I find with this argument which is you know classical one been entertained by some of the greatest minds in our tradition it has a lot of of impact relatedly we have to get to work everybody on communicating the proper understanding of the word faith this is a real stumbling block I find for young people I'll cite bill maher again here on his program real time one night I saw a prominent evangelical activist a political activist but a publicly evangelical Christian very intelligent man sparring with the host on political matters and finally Maher said now you're a man of faith which means you're someone who accepts fantastic things on the basis of no evidence to my infinite surprise and chagrin the man simply nodded his assent I wanted to throw the the remote at the TV screen authentically construed we know this but but increasingly our young people don't know it authentically construed faith is never in for a rational but only super irrational right it's never below reason it's always above reason it hasn't a thing in common with superstition or credulity or naivete it is decidedly not the acceptance of claims on the basis of no evidence I much prefer John Henry Newman 'he's characterization of faith as quote the reasoning of a religious mind it's a really cool definition of faith religious Minds empirically observe they form hypotheses test them in various ways martial evidence etc they're just reasoning about different things or better about a different dimension of reality but they're no less reasonable that's the point no less rational I think the process by which one comes to know another person well even intimately provides a remarkably apt analogy to the relationship between faith and reason when one wants to find out about another person he first engages in a good deal of rational investigation he makes his own observations he speaks with others who know the person in question he does a Google search perhaps even a background check eventually he meets the prospective friend and does his own direct sizing up serving listening musing but at a decisive moment if the friendship has deepened sufficiently the interlocutor will reveal something about himself that one could never have known by any rational means he will speak his heart at this point one has to make a decision whether to believe what has been revealed if sufficient Trust has been built up one accepts one acquiescence one chooses to believe and in that process a dimension of that person's reality opened up that would never been available to reason alone something I think very similar obtains in regard to knowing the creator one can and should investigate the matter rationally examine arguments for God's existence ask an answer question after question interrogate those who already believe but at the propitious moment one considers what God has revealed about himself in the biblical witness one then chooses whether to believe one makes the decision for faith but it should be clear I hope this hasn't a thing to do with credulity or accepting wild propositions on the basis of no evidence rather the act of faith rests upon is conditioned by and yet goes beyond what reason can attain our kids don't get this it seems to me I love Ralph Waldo Emerson I think caught this with remarkable acuity when he said quote for the simplicity on the near side of complexity I wouldn't give a fig but for the simplicity on the far side of complexity I would give my very life that's good that's catching the difference between naive take radula T and authentic faith now much of the supposed conflict between religion and science is tied up of course with naive approaches to the Bible and this is they're huge area with our young people as long as one holds up the Bible especially the opening chapters of the book of Genesis are trading in physics and cosmology in the contemporary sense of those terms then the scriptural account will indeed just seem a primitive key to the resolution of this problem is an introduction to non literalistic strategies of biblical interpretation which have been on offer in the church from the earliest days Reed Reed Irenaeus and Reed especially a Gustin on this Reed origin on it we would also keep in mind father George coins simple observation the father coin who ran the Vatican Observatory for many years since the last book of the Bible was written around the Year 100 AD and the modern scientific method was developed only in the sixteenth century it's simply impossible that the Bible would be scientific in the modern sense of the term another step this one more positive is to show that the modern physical sciences emerged precisely out of a theological thought matrix hardly surprising since they were born in and through church sponsored universities the first assumption that undergirds the sciences is that the world of nature is distinct from God as long as nature is divinized or sacralized it cannot be the object of investigation and experimentation rather it's worshipped or revered the second wreck was an assumption is that the world of nature is in its entirety intelligible any scientist in any discipline must commence her work with the assumption that the reality she goes out to meet is marked by an intelligible pattern this is true for the physicists the chemists the biologists the psychologists etc but both of these assumptions are grounded in a more fundamental theological commitment namely the doctrine of creation if the world is a creature of God then it's not divine and it can and should be analyzed and if the world is a creature of God who necessarily accident away it must be marked in every nook and cranny by intelligibility the young Joseph Ratzinger by the way made this very argument in his introduction to Christianity the 50th anniversary of which we celebrate this year he said universal intelligibility points to the existence of a grounding and creating intelligence therefore properly construed religion and science are not only compatible but in a way are mutually implicative man if there's one lesson we can get through to our young people to help them over some of these obstacles it might be that one is to heal the rift between science and religion something I've been doing in my in my pastoral region when I preach I'll say could I have anyone here in the sciences please stand any any doctors or nurses or technicians or or chemists and number of people stand so scientists at church you need to start talking to our young people because they're not getting this connection and it's causing a lot of cognitive dissonance okay having made these clarifications let me conclude this section with a more a general observation these comments I think you've sensed us about the irrationality supposed of a Catholic faith break my heart and they prompt a kind of Creed occur one of the distinctive marks of Catholicism across the centuries has been a commitment to the intellectual articulation of the faith the mainstream of the tradition has not cited with certo Leon's observation about Athens having nothing to do with Jerusalem right John Henry Newman said that one of the surest signs that the faith is developing properly is that Catholics stubbornly think about the data of Revelation Mary treasuring the events of salvation history in her heart turning them over and the meditative spirit is for Newman the very model of theologizing a wonderful that Mary stands the top of the golden dome here as she's the model of a fetus cuarón's and delectable however over the past several decades it seems to me at least in the West there has been an extraordinary dumbing down of our faith an option again and again for the experiential and the emotional over the intellectual I mind you I'm a Catholic we've got a broad sense of what this is all about does emotion belong to the faith yes the experiential yes liturgical yes so please don't misconstrue me here but I think we have underplayed at least in the catechetical level the intellectual some of this was due to the victory of Schleiermacher x' more experiential expressive astute e ology but much of it was due to a failure I think at the catechetical level the level of instruction a stubborn insistence that religion is not some that young people ought to be thinking about seriously a community the sharing of feelings a commitment of social justice again all important things please don't misconstrue me but they all seem to outweigh the importance of theology but see yet listen listen to the surveys again and again its intellectual conundrums that are bugging the young people it's their blacks at that level why do our high school students in many Catholic schools read Shakespeare and English class Einstein and physics class Virgil and Latin class and relatively elementary books and religion if young people can handle Shakespeare Einstein and Virgil why in the world couldn't they handle a Dustin Aquinas Chesterton why in so many of our religious education programs and confirmation programs there's little focus study of a creed or an apologetic engagement with the objections of the faith which are on offers so widely in our culture and reflected in survey after survey this dumbing down of Catholicism I have said it many times before publicly has been a pastoral disaster of the first order and I think in survey after survey including Smith's we see them the bitter fruit event dumbing down okay now just couple pages of conclusion then I'll bring it to a close the theme you know of the Synod young people and vocational discernment so just like a couple paragraphs on this all the aforesaid provides a sobering but clarifying background to the consideration of the main theme of the upcoming Synod namely vocational discernment among the young the call is one of the most fundamental biblical categories God's great rescue operation commences with the summoning of Abram after a disastrous period during which human beings listen to their own voices and produced calamity after calamity look at chapters 4 through 11 of Genesis for the details we hear finally of someone who listens to the voice of God Abram was called out of his home country in his former way of life and worship and called into the desert to sojourn to a new country in a new form of worship this vocation this call of Abram sets the tone for the rest of the biblical narrative Israel is called out of something old towards something new this the sense of cahal in Hebrew the convocation or the assembly synagogue a' typically translates the term in Greek in the New Testament the term ecclesia carries much of the same sense derived as it is from act and colleen to be called out from israel's of people called out from the world and into right relationship with god the church which paul calls the new israel is in a similar way called out from the cosmos world now in the negative sense that the world of sin right and into the body of christ which is an entirely new way of thinking a new way of behaving a new way of seeing may that same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus the Apostle urges the church at Philippi the one who's heard the call of God moved from the narrow confines of the ego drama into the capacious space of the Pheo drama if I can borrow the terminology of Hans von Balthasar Paul expresses the idea with characteristic vigor there was a power already at work in you that can do infinitely more than you can ask or imagine in his inaugural address from the Gospel of Mark Jesus speaks of metanoia which carries a very similar sense going beyond the mind that you have meta news what we've been exploring together tonight are some of the many factors I think that are making the vocational call hard to hear for many young people today how do I know they're saying that the voice of God is not just a wish-fulfilling fantasy how can I believe something that stands a fort scientific reason how can I follow one truth to the exclusion of all others wouldn't accept me the demands of God not lead to division into violence in a way we find ourselves in a cultural situation analogous to that which held sway in the time of Eli and Samuel the Word of God is exceptionally hard to hear especially for the young even when we manage to hear it we don't recognize it as God's voice what do our young people need today they need elders everybody in this room to assume the role of Eli those who know how to hear the voice of God in the call for justice and equality who can hear the voice of God in the radical contingency of the world who can hear the voice of God in the narratives of the Bible in the definitive teaching of the church in the beauty of the Saints see we we need it seems to me an army of Eli's to rise up who know how to hear and interpret the Word of God and help our young people to discern that voice that's what the Pope is interested in I think they can hear the voice of God so they can move out of that narrow space of the ego drama and learn to live in this one full expansive space of God's great drama for them I think everybody that's the challenge today and that's the great opportunity god bless you all thanks for listening tonight [Applause] so friends if you weren't already convinced now you can see why Bishop Baron is one of the true heroes of the New Evangelization so let's thank him again [Applause] and friends thank you all for coming you

Channel: McGrathND

Views: 32,069

Rating: 4.6972971 out of 5

Keywords: Notre Dame, Bishop Barron, Word on Fire, McGrath Institute for Church Life, Catholicism, 2018 Synod of Bishops, Cultures of Formation

Id: tuQq3nn15ZE

Length: 64min 23sec (3863 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018