Interview with Fr. Robert Barron - On Pope Benedict XVI and "Jesus of Nazareth"

welcome to Brandon Viacom where today I'm talking with father Robert Baron father Baron is the founder of word on fire Catholic ministries and serves as the rector of Mundelein seminary right outside of Chicago he's probably best known for his epic ten part Catholicism documentary series which he created and hosted today father Baron and I are discussing the Pope's latest book Jesus of Nazareth the infancy narratives the interview is a little different than the ones we've done in the past it's not live and in person nor is it done through Skype father Baron and I are exchanging video questions and answers so let's begin father by looking at the really unprecedented nature of this book never before have we had a pope write a multi-volume life of Christ and so why this Jesus of Nazareth trilogy at this point in pope benedict's life well you know one thing is Yosef rotzinger wanted to retire he wanted to end his career as the head of the congregation of the doctrine of faith and he wanted to go home to Bavaria and to sit in his library and to read and write and his great project was this one the only dreamed of all his life a lot of Ratzinger's writing is more occasional writing he didn't write a major systematics like a runner or Balthazar I think he wanted to do a major work and this was it and you know like most academics he probably fantasized about that I can't wait to get home and be alone in my library to write my books well God's providence had it that he became Pope it's almost miraculous to me that he managed during that time to write this trilogy of books I think he wrote it on Jesus of Nazareth because Jesus is always the center of Christian preoccupation whatever we say about God about human beings about the world about creation about salvation it all revolves around Jesus you know so that was his life project for a long time the miracle is he did it while he was Pope in this latest book the Holy Father really emphasizes the historicity of these infancy narratives his aim is to show how they differentiate from both myth and legend and so what is the difference well it's probably the central theme of the book I would say is that we're dealing in the MC narratives not with myth legend symbol but with history now right away you got to make some qualifications because what ancients meant by history is not what we mean by history what we mean by history is much closer to you know Journal journalistic reportage or exact retrieval of the facts where ancient peoples were very interested in facts they were but they're much more willing than we are to present those facts in a sort of interpretive context so I would say the infancy narratives in here I'm following Pope Benedict have elements of the mythic and the legendary in them but the core remains historical and see on that point much hinges because Christianity is not primarily a mythic system I love the myths I miss are very powerful Joseph Campbell told us myths had these fundamental functions to explain the world to explain social reality to explain our psychology and they do that think of the great myths of the Greeks the Romans the Babylonians etc great great love the myths but the Bible is not primarily mythic in form though there are mythic elements in it it's primarily historical in form it's about God's activity in history Jesus can be very easily turned into one mythic figure among many it's the old Gnostic temptation that goes way back to the second century up to the present day to say he's one more iteration of this old you know myth of the dying and rising God and so the Pope I think is at great pains to show we're not dealing with a mythic system but with an historical account I would say elaborated theologically now in the secular media as soon as the book came out there was a lot of fuss about really minut details in the book things like the dating of Christ's birth or the animals present at his birth or the number and details surrounding the Magi what do you make of all this fuss is there any controversy there it's much ado about nothing in my judgment I learned about dyneisha zig-zig was when I was in fifth grade in Catholic school he was the monk from the 6th century who did these calculations to determine exactly when Jesus was born and he got it a little bit off kilter so that we know now Jesus was born and what he would call 6 or 7 BC I learned that when I was in fifth grade in Catholic school it didn't throw me then it doesn't throw me now the Pope points that out so it's a common place when it comes to other details you know the later tradition filled those in with the animals and so on with the little drummer boy if you want who aren't mentioned in the Gospels well so what that's the Christian imagination that amplifies the story the roots of that to go back to the the Jewish tradition you know these commentaries on the biblical stories that fill out missing details but none of that in my view should be the least bit controversial now in the Gospels we read two different accounts of Jesus's family history both st. Matthew and st. Luke offer seemingly contradictory genealogies how does the Pope reconcile these differences it's an age-old problem there's no way you can reconcile the two genealogies so there been some kind of ingenious attempts to try to reconcile them but that's sort of silly I would again apply the principle that you're dealing here with history theologically elaborated the genealogies are good examples of that the historical point is that Jesus of Nazareth is deeply rooted in this ancient Jewish tradition that you can trace his ancestry back to the very beginnings because he's a real historical figure no one's worried about the ancestry of you know Hercules or Achilles or something you know but a real historical figure you can trace his genealogy back now how do they do it they're probably borrowing from different parts of the tradition more to it Matthew and Luke are playing different theological games I don't mean a dismissive way at all they're they're making different theological points and they're using the genealogies to illumine certain things so our concern with exactitude they didn't have that in the same way they were concerned with history but then interpreted and elaborated theologically you see different theological elaborations going on in those two genealogies a favorite target today of secularists and atheists is the virgin birth presupposing that no supernatural miracles can occur they reject the virgin birth as again legendary or mythic what is the meaning and importance of the virgin birth well of course it's it's a ancient biblical theme the call it the the unexpected birth you know go back to the mother of Samson go to Hanna the mother of Samuel go to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist all those stories are meant to signal a grace that decisive moments in Israelite history God's grace intervenes when humanly speaking all seems lost you might say that the virgin birth is the limit case of that of something which is from a biological standpoint utterly impossible yet with God all things are possible so at the decisive moment in salvation history the decisive intervention of grace takes place a second observation it's to our earlier theme about myths is many people from the 19th century on if said well look at all these myths of you know virgins giving birth and so on and the gods impregnating virgins isn't this just one more version of that and the short answer is is no what's really distinctive about the virgin birth and the stories of Jesus birth is how you've got the opposite of rape going on in almost all the other mythic stories the gods moving in this very aggressive way in this very rapacious domineering way often I mean having real intercourse with a version well there's none of that of course in the biblical account think of the angel Gabriel announcing the Incarnation courting Mary as it were you know inviting her response and not the slightest hint of a real physical intervention on the part of God you know the Holy Spirit will overshadow you the angel says so what's also interesting is did someone like Luke for example have access to the Blessed Mother you know she didn't disappear from the scene when Jesus sent it to heaven and was she a source she had to be the source who else could it be to talk about these these extremely you know private things and so there's that that mystery of particularity of historical truth that these writers are relying on traditions going back to Mary herself who witnessed to this truth now going back to his days as Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict the sixteenth has written dozens and dozens of books where does this trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth fit in and how does it affect his legacy well I think they're extremely important to as long as he as I said earlier I think that's what he always wanted to do this was his the great project of his life but it was postponed because of all those years what 26 years I think when he was in this extremely difficult sensitive role he just didn't have time for that kind of sustained scholarship again the miracle is he found time as Pope to do it well I think it's many ways the crowning of his academic career and I think when people read him as they will in a hundred years or 200 years they'll read these books precisely as that culmination of a career thanks again father for sharing your great insights on the Pope's book for more from father Barron check out word on fire org and for more interviews articles book reviews and more check out my web site brandon bot calm thanks for tuning in you

Channel: Brandon Vogt

Views: 9,529

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Keywords: Pope Benedict, Pope Jesus of Nazareth, Fr. Barron Interview, Robert Barron Interview, Pope Book Interview

Id: yVzgKXDecP0

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2013