Robert Barron - To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age

I remember with particular fondness the sessionsadding up to around twenty-four hours in totalthat I spent with John Allen in preparation for this book. The experience was a combination of my doctoral defense and psychoanalysis! Johns questions were probing, smart, challenging, sometimes personal, and always thought-provoking. I have long maintained that the clearest indicator that a conversation has been successful is when both interlocutors come out of the experience changed, further enlightened. A dysfunctional conversation, on the other hand, is one that involves only the exchange of information and the clarification of positions, and leaves both conversationalists precisely where they were when the exchange began. The three lengthy sessions I had with John Allen at my residence in Santa Barbara were decidedly of the first type. A priority for both of us was that the text of this book would not be in a bland question-and-answer format; instead, it would be structured so as to reflect the vibrant conversation we had. We achieved this aspiration; I owe that entirely to Johns artistry.

Gary Jansen, who inspired this book and shepherded it very deftly to conclusion, asked me to write a preface for this paperback edition, drawing attention to developments in both the culture and the Church that bear upon its central themes. On the cultural front, ideological polarization between left and right has only intensified, and civil discourse has, accordingly, practically evanesced. This has massively compromised, Im sorry to say, the evangelists capacity to speak of religious matters in the public square. Real arguments about religious and moral matterssmart, public, respectful, carefulhave given way to polemics, shouting, and the aggressive shutting down of ones opponents. John and I spoke often of Archbishop Fulton Sheen and his cultural influence in the middle of the previous century. What strikes me is that Sheen was able, at that moment in our cultural history, to engage in authentic religious argument, precisely because there was, even among people of widely divergent backgrounds, a common moral and metaphysical frame of reference. The disappearance of that shared context and its replacement by willful self-assertion have made religious engagement highly problematic.

At the same time, I have noticed, especially in the past few years, an intense amount of interest in religion on the various platforms of social media. To give just one example, about a year ago, I engaged in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), announcing myself simply as a Catholic bishop who loves to dialogue with atheists. Within an hour and twenty minutes, 11,700 questions and comments were registered, making it the third most discussed AMA of the year, behind only those of Bill Gates and Jordan Peterson. Though most who entered into that conversation didnt display great skill in real argument, and though an awful lot of willfulness was on display, still there was an army of mostly young people who wanted to talk about the things of God. I take that as, evangelically speaking, a great sign of hope.

On the ecclesial front, I must speak of the re-awakening of the clerical sexual abuse crisis after the revelations regarding the crimes of the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick and the publication of the Pennsylvania attorney generals report on decades of abuse and cover-up on the part of priests and bishops. These disclosures proved lacerating to Catholics around the country and led many to consider leaving the Church. I have described the now twenty-five-year-old sex abuse scandal as the devils masterpiece, since it is hard to imagine a more exquisitely designed undermining of the work of the Church. What is painfully obvious is that these sins and outrages drastically undercut any effort toward evangelization. When John and I spoke of the scandals, we assumed that they were, largely, a thing of the past. Since the publication of the book, they have become, once more, sickeningly present. In response, I would return to a theme that John and I spoke of often in this booknamely, the treasure of the Church: God; Christ; the sacraments; the great theological and spiritual tradition; the beauty produced by Dante, Michelangelo, and the architect of Chartres; et cetera. God knows that this treasure is, as St. Paul himself said, in earthen vesselswhich is to say, carried by fragile and deeply flawed human beings. But it remains, nonetheless, a treasure, and it is because of the treasure that people ought to stay in the Church. The newest eruption of the crisis has undoubtedly complicated any attempt at evangelization, but it is no justification to give up. More than ever, we need intelligent and passionate bearers of the Mystery.

Jesus came to light a fire on the earth, and he wants to give us the privilege of participating in his mission. If this book can help inform and inspire those who might take up the torch, Im grateful to God.