Renewing Our Hope: Essays for the New Evangelization

by Robert Barron

In this essay collection, Bishop Robert Barron Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, draws upon Catholicism's great theological heritage to reach out to people, and renew hope in Jesus Christ in today's time of discouragement.
‘Renewing Our Essays for the New Evangelization’ traces the renewal process through four steps. The first step, 'Renewing Our Mission,' calls for self-awareness and lays out the challenges of utilizing intellectual resources when encountering the "Nones." The second step, 'Renewing Our Minds,' uses theological reflection as a symbol of wisdom and sanity in the Church, touching on Thomas Aquinas, Hans Urs von Balthasar, the recently canonized John Henry Newman, and Pope Francis. In the 'Renewing the Church' stage, Bishop Robert delves into how Catholic college graduates can each contribute to this renewal by looking closely at the Scripture, the family, and the seminary. Finally, in the last and most important stage, 'Renewing Our Culture,' he refers to the pertaining contemporary culture of family life, liberalism, relativism, the beauty of cinema, and the judgments Catholics must make when assessing them.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

340 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2020

About the author

Bishop Robert Emmet Barron is an acclaimed author, speaker, and theologian. He is the former Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago and also is the founder of Word On Fire (www.WordOnFire.org).

Bishop Barron is the creator and host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking ten-part documentary series and study program about the Catholic faith. He is a passionate student of art, architecture, music and history, which he calls upon throughout his global travels in the making of the documentary.

Word On Fire programs are broadcast regularly on WGN America, Relevant Radio, CatholicTV, EWTN, the popular Word on Fire YouTube Channel, and the Word on Fire website, which offers daily blogs, articles, commentaries, and over ten years of weekly sermon podcasts. In 2010, Father Barron was the first priest to have a national show on a secular television network since the 1950s.

Fr. Barron received his Masters Degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC in 1982 and his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique in 1992. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1986 and has been a professor of systematic theology at the nation's largest Catholic seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary since 1992. He was visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2002 and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2007. He was also twice scholar in residence at the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican.

In addition, Fr. Barron lectures extensively in the United States and abroad. Cardinal Francis George calls Fr. Barron “one of the Church’s best messengers.

Fr. Barron was baptized at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago and grew up at St. John of the Cross parish in Western Springs, Illinois.
WordOnFire.org - Fr. Barron's website launched in 1999 and currently draws over 1 million visitors a year from every continent. Fr. Barron posts weekly video clips, commentaries and radio sermons and offers an audio archive of over 500 homilies. Podcasts of his sermons are widely used by tens of thousands of visitors each month.
TV - EWTN (The Eternal Word Television Network) and CatholicTV broadcasts Fr. Barron's DVDs to a worldwide audience of over 150 million people.

Radio - Since 1999, Fr. Barron's weekly Word on Fire program has been broadcast in Chicago (WGN) and throughout the country (Relevant Radio - 950 AM Chicago) to 28 million listeners in 17 states. Fr. Barron also is a regular commentator on the "Busted Halo Show" on the Sirius satellite radio network based in New York.

DVDs - Fr. Barron's DVDs are used as powerful faith formation tools in universities, schools, churches and homes around the country. The series includes Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues; Faith Clips; Conversion: Following the Call of Christ; and Untold Blessing: Three Paths to Holiness.

YouTube - With over 180 online video commentaries by Fr. Barron, over 1 million viewers worldwide have made him the most popular of any evangelist on YouTube. These frequent, high-quality productions include brief and lively theological reviews of contemporary culture, including movies such as No Country for Old Men, Apocalypto, and The Departed, a three-part critical review of Christopher Hitchen's book God is Not Great, The Discovery Channel's The Jesus Tomb, the HBO series "The Sopranos", "Rome" and more.

Missions - MISSION CHICAGO features evangelization lectures by Fr. Barron at the behest of Cardinal George. These special missions and presentations throughout the Archdiocese are centered in downtown Chicago and attract business, civic, and cultural leaders.
Books - His numerous books and essays serve as critical educational and inspirational tools for seminarians, priests, parishioners and young people worldwide. His published works are also central to the numerous retreats, workshop and talks that h

Reviews

[Steve M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bishop Barron paints a dramatic picture of the Church, its mission, and the culture with elevated strokes of theological and philosophical language in Renewing Our Hope.

While the title is apt, Barron not only invokes hope but also a deep sense of urgency to refocus the Church on her source, Christ, and her mission, evangelization. With these in mind, the book emphasizes the epic history of Israel, the importance of the liturgy, and the beauty of the Catholic tradition among other paramount tenants to the prosperity of the faith.

Importantly, this collection of essays provides a glimpse into the heart of the author, one of the great evangelists of our time, and by extension into that of the faith entirely. By repeating important themes, this book, when read cover to cover, reiterates and instills the great moves and arguments of the intellectual tradition that Bishop Barron so frequently celebrates. But as it is--a collection--the book can also be enjoyed in its digestible segments.

I highly recommend it for anyone who has enjoyed Bishop Barron's speeches or productions and is interested in a more formal presentation of his work.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since my arms are too short to box with God I give this book five stars. In truth, I didn't actually finish it because it's theological discussions are way over this layman's head. Since the pandemic I watched a number of Bishop Barron's Sunday Masses and have become an admirer of his, especially of his homilies which are a little more down to earth. However, I get his message that the Church must re-engage with the people, especially the younger ones. I don't think he fully recognizes the extent of the damage done by the Church in its handling of the priest sexual abuse scandals of the past 25 or so years. Entire countries like Ireland have been alienated. My wife has aunts and uncles in their 80s in Ireland, raised in the Catholic Church, who no longer attend Mass with the previous zeal, if they attend at all. This is astonishing. The scandals have reduced attendance here in the U.S. to the extent that numerous Catholic schools have closed due to lack of support. And the media loves to pile on and TV commercials gleefully advertise that if you were once abused by the Church you can receive a lucrative payout. So I think Bishop Barron's plans to re-energize outreach to the young people of the Church are real pie-in-the sky. The Church has lost an entire generation of young people and needs to start at the youngest level. Instead of closing schools it should reopen or build more. The pandemic has provided the impetus. Because of the pandemic parents are taking their children out of public schools ostensibly for more face-to-face instruction. But I think they are also fed up with the militancy of public school teachers and the strident calls for social justice. Because deep down parents know that the call for social justice is one that Jesus has been proclaiming for two thousand years. And He didn't prescribe rioting, violence, vandalism, and rioting to achieve social justice. Children need to be taught virtue not vandalism. Unfortunately, you won't learn that in public schools. Renew our hope? Fine. Renew our Catholic schools is the better idea.

[Anne Farrington · Rating 1 out of 5]

We chose this book for our parish book club, erroneously believing that it would give us ideas on how to help bring people back into the church. However, it was an extremely difficult read, particularly if you are not knowledgeable of philosophy (and theology). A series of essays that the bishop has delivered at various times, there were a couple that were meaningful - particularly some of the statistics on the growing population of “nones” (those who identify their religion as “none”). However, we didn’t feel like the subsequent essays were actionable or gave lay people a path to help bring particularly young people back to the catholic faith. I have enjoyed many of the videos and other writings of Bishop Barron, but can not recommend this one unless you are a serious philosophy and theology student.

[Francis Yacobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bishop Robert Barron has had enough of the "dumbing down" of Catholicism, and he calls out any and all who might like a spirited and muscular discussion of it facets. The book is a series of essays, addresses, homilies and articles produced by Barron for various occasions and among diverse audiences. Not a book to be breezed through, but one that offers substantial material for ongoing discussion on a variety of topics germane to a richer and deeper understanding if the Catholic faith.

[Sister M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book!

[Steven Nowak · Rating 3 out of 5]

enlightening

[Charles Zlock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but gets lost in philosophical weeds

Good post Covid analysis of what Church is facing on a broad front of topics. Found it a bit too academic after a while as a practical guide for what to do in parishes today.