The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism - Softcover

Barron, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801098203 ISBN 13: 9780801098208

Publisher: Baker Academic, 2016

Synopsis

A Major Statement on Christology from Bishop Robert Barron

For a long time, Christians have tried to bridge the divide between Christianity and secular liberalism with philosophy and theology. Bishop Robert Barron shows that the answer to this debate--and the way to move forward--lies in Jesus. Barron transcends the usual liberal/conservative or Protestant/Catholic divides with a postliberal Catholicism that brings the focus back on Jesus as revealed in the New Testament narratives.

Barron's classical Catholic postliberalism will be of interest to a broad audience including not only the academic community but also preachers and general readers interested in entering the dialogue between Catholicism and postliberalism. The hardcover edition includes a new preface by the author.

Praise for The Priority of Christ

"Barron's wonderful book The Priority of Christ brings postliberalism back to its Catholic home. . . . A downright lovely book, written with a kind of winsome literary flair that exhibits the inviting clarity of a master teacher. Highly recommended."
--James K. A. Smith, Religious Studies Review

"The book is full of gems worthy of hours of contemplation."
--Mark G. Boyer, The Priest

About this title

From the Back Cover

Bishop Robert Barron transcends liberal/conservative and Protestant/Catholic divides to explore the possibilities of postliberal theology for Catholicism. This hardcover edition includes a new preface by the author.

"By displaying how an imaginative human spirit can be illuminated by the manifold sense of Scripture, and by activating tradition to dissolve lingering philosophical distractions, this stunning summa for a 'postliberal Catholicism' will at once subvert any tendency among the faithful to demand a facile 'fix,' as well as offer lucid direction for anyone daring to undertake a pilgrimage of understanding--in and with the Christ."
--David B. Burrell, University of Notre Dame / Tantur Ecumenical Institute (Jerusalem)

"Drawing deftly on Aquinas, Newman, Lonergan, Balthasar, and many others, Barron convincingly explains what a postliberal Catholic theology might be. But the great merit of this book is that he not only talks about what theology should be, he actually does it--above all in his lucid mystagogy on a series of Gospel stories and in striking meditations on the mind of Christ embodied in four great women saints of our time."
--Bruce Marshall, Southern Methodist University

"A magnum opus. . . . Barron has made a signal contribution to contemporary Catholic theology. Something like his postliberal Catholicism marks the way ahead. Many will disagree, but anyone whose life and work involve trying to talk seriously to and about God will profit from reading The Priority of Christ."
--William L. Portier, Commonweal

"Barron offers a compelling reading of several New Testament portraits of Christ and brings them into enriching conversation with later doctrinal and theological perspectives. He thus effects a renewed unity of biblical and systematic theology, which too often meander their separate ways. . . . Barron has gifted us with an important work that opens exciting vistas for exploration and theological renewal."
--Robert P. Imbelli, Worship

"Barron's wonderful book The Priority of Christ brings postliberalism back to its Catholic home. . . . His postliberal Catholicism is a narrative Catholicism, teasing out the implications of this for Christology and the doctrine of God, as well as ethics and epistemology--all drawing on a prodigious knowledge of the history of philosophy and theology. On top of all this, it is a downright lovely book, written with a kind of winsome literary flair that exhibits the inviting clarity of a master teacher. Highly recommended for sharp undergraduates; required reading for graduate students and scholars."
--James K. A. Smith, Religious Studies Review

"The book is full of gems worthy of hours of contemplation."
--Mark G. Boyer, The Priest

From the Inside Flap

"It is crucial for Christians to apprehend the implications of Robert Barron's trenchant thesis: 'Modernity and decadent Christianity are enemies in one sense, but in another sense, they are deeply connected to one another and mirror one another.' Moving beyond the 'decadent Christianity' that mistakenly sought its very starting points in the epistemological and metaphysical dead ends characteristic of 'modernity,' Barron expertly weaves together a robust short summa. Readers seeking spiritual and intellectual renewal will be revitalized by this much-needed book, which overflows with love of God and his path of salvation."
--Matthew Levering, Mundelein Seminary

"Catholic theology stands at a foundational moment, and in this extended meditation on the figure of Christ, Robert Barron boldly argues for a Catholicism that rethinks the controversy between modern and postmodern thought through classic theological formulations. Broad in reference and informed by the homilist's touch, The Priority of Christ will be an important contribution to a conversation the Church must have."
--Richard A. Rosengarten, University of Chicago

"An extremely well-written, informative, and insightful text that would be a delight to use in an undergraduate or seminary classroom."
--Stephen H. Webb, Reviews in Religion & Theology

"Barron's project is impressively traditional and thus postmodern, aggressively independent and thus postliberal, and philosophically undistracted and thus properly theological. This book brings together many of the motifs of a re-emergent, unembarrassed, and confident Catholic theology."
--Daniel P. Sheridan, CatholicBooksReview.org

"The Priority of Christ is unusually stimulating for an exercise in 'postliberal' theology. The book is strikingly readable and saturated with what one might call 'first-order' doctrinal claims instead of primarily methodological navel-gazing. . . . Its title, 'The Priority of Christ,' indicates the epistemic primacy of believing, doctrinally traditioned engagement with the Jesus Christ of biblical narrative. This scriptural primacy is a great strength and delight of the book. . . . [It] will challenge readers to formulate their own understanding of what constitutes authentically theological interpretation of Scripture."
--Daniel J. Treier, Modern Theology

About this edition

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0801098203
• ISBN 13: 9780801098208
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352