Catholicism: Chapter 1 - "Either You're With Me, Or You're Against Me"

There's an interesting argument made at the beginning of Catholicism, which also comes up in G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity.

The argument, in a nutshell is this: Jesus said that He is God. Given those statements, there are only two logical ways that we can think of Him. Either we can agree that He is God (and must embrace all that He says to the best of our ability), or we can suppose that He is a madman for thinking that He is God (or perhaps even someone or something really evil who is pretending to be God). There is no possible middle alternative. He couldn't have been *just* a great moral teacher, or really good and admirable person, because saying that you are God when you are not is not only wrong, but delusional.

Though he did indeed formulate moral instructions and though he certainly taught with enormous enthusiasm, Jesus did not draw his followers' attention primarily to his words. He drew it to himself...

It has been said that the healthiest spiritual people are those who have the strongest sense of the difference between themselves and god. Therefore who could sanely and responsibly make the claim that Jesus made except the one who is, in his own person, the highest good?

- Fr. Robert Barron, Catholicism, "Amazed and Afraid"

Here are a few of the related quotes from other sources:

Divinity is great enough to be divine; it is great enough to call itself divine. But as humanity grows greater, it grows less and less likely to do so. God is God, as the Moslems say; but a great man knows he is not God, and the greater he is the better he knows it. That is the paradox; everything that is merely approaching to that point is merely receding from it. Socrates, the wisest man, knows that he knows nothing. A lunatic may think he is omniscience, and a fool may talk as if he were omniscient. But Christ is in another sense omniscient if he not only knows, but knows that he knows.

- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, "The Strangest Story"

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, "The Shocking Alternative"

Does this argument make sense to you? Do you find it compelling? What consequences does this concept have for us?

Catholicism Introduction: "What is the Catholic Thing?"

"What is the Catholic thing?"

I find myself surprised that I never really attempted to answer this question before, nor would have been able to answer this question simply put.

According to Fr. Robert Barron, who refers to Blessed John Henry Newman's own answer, the Catholic "thing" is the Incarnation!

Yes!

That makes sense to me, but I'm amazed and surprised and delighted at the answer.  Here's a little of what Fr. Barron has to say about this:

I stand with Blessed John Henry Newman who said that the great principle of Catholicism is the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God. What do I mean by this I mean, the Word of God - the mind by which the whole universe came to be - did not remain sequestered in heaven but rather entered into this ordinary world of bodies, this grubby arena of history, this compromised and tear-stained human condition of ours.

  This has many ramifications, of course, (especially the Eucharist) which are breezily highlighted in this introduction. Here is just a sampling:

Essential to the Catholic mind is what I would characterize as a keen sense of the prolongation of the Incarnation throughout space and time, an extension that is made possible through the mystery of the church. Catholics see God's continued enfleshment in the oil, water, bread, imposed hands, wine, and salt of the sacraments; they appreciate it in the gestures, movements, incensations, and songs of the Liturgy; they savor it in the texts, arguments, and debates of the theologians; they sense it in the graced governance of popes and bishops; they love it in the struggles and missions of the saints; they know it in the writings of Catholic poets and in the cathedrals crafted by Catholic architects, artists and workers. In short, all of this discloses to the Catholic eye and mind the ongoing presence of the Word made flesh, namely Christ.

I particularly love the idea of the many different ways that people can participate in bringing Christ to the world - most notably by manifesting Christ's love to others - by being Christ for them. This too seems like a simple and obvious concept, but I don't remember really grasping the importance and centrality of this concept until reading Pope Benedict's Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) just a few years ago.

So, what do you think? Does this answer satisfy you? Is it adequate? Would you put it a different way?

It certainly makes me think of The Angelus prayer in a more profound way.

Catholicism by Fr. Robert Barron - Starting Point

This is the starting point for the discussion on Catholicism by Fr. Robert Barron. The discussion should apply well to both the book and the DVD series.

Here's a mini-breakdown of your options...

Book:

Less expensive
Content is nearly identical to the DVD series, but a little filled out in places (I especially love the Introduction about "The Catholic Thing" which is a great intro to the DVD series as well).
The book is available in print, as an e-book or on audio.

DVD Series:

More expensive (though you can look for it on sale)
More accessible to a wider age range
Accompanied by beautiful art, music and various settings (historical, cultural, religious, etc.) that bring extra meaning to the overall content.

We have chosen this book/series because it offers a profoundly beautiful, but also challenging overview of the faith which strives to provide a substantial sense of what it means to be a Catholic.

*Please be careful not to confuse this book with Catholicism by Richard P. McBrien.

Here's a lovely quote sample from that introduction that I mentioned above:

"What is the Catholic thing? What makes Catholicism, among all of the competing philosophies, ideologies, and religions of the world distinctive? I stand with Blessed John Henry Newman who said that the great principle of Catholicism is the Incarnation, the enfleshment of God. What do I mean by this? I mean, the Word of God - the mind by which the whole universe came to be - did not remain sequestered in heaven but rather entered into this ordinary world of bodies, this grubby arena of history, this compromised and tear-stained human condition of ours. 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us' (Jn 1:14): that is the Catholic thing."