Bishop Barron on Modernity and Morality

Another part of a video series from Wordonfire.org. Bishop Barron will be commenting on subjects from modern day culture. For more visit www.wordonfire.org

[@BishopBarron]

Come on friend, modernity did not "discover" the person! Take a good long look at Aristotle's De Anima or Augustine's Confessions if you doubt me. What modernity tended to do was to make the subject central to epistemology.

[@BishopBarron]

I thought that scientists honor Occam's razor. By far the simplest explanation is that the universe came forth from the singularity of the Big Bang. Multiple Big Bangs, for which there isn't a shred of real evidence, was put forward as an hypothesis designed to exclude God.

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

I never Will exclude God! Maybe i'll die i can't say absolutly. God is my Life!

[@casimirkukielka3842]

It’s just turtles by claiming there is a multiverse without good evidence

[@BishopBarron]

Evil is not something substantive in itself. It is a lack of a good that ought to be present, like a cavity in a tooth. The devil, in himself, is altogether good in the measure that he has intellect, will, freedom, existence, etc. What's bad about him is a twisting or perverting of his will through a wicked choice.

[@BishopBarron]

God bless you!

[@rhlogic]

You pullled off another great one, Father!

[@toakasi6425]

Thanks for sharing I appreciate & respect Roman catholiscisim 🏛️💒😍

[@BishopBarron]

Yes, we have been round and round on this. What I still find so puzzling in your position is this: if you really believed things were as relativistic as you insinuate, you would not be having this argument with me! Jon, you appeal, over and again, to values that you consider objectively real, and you are implying, as is your prerogative, that my point of view is not adequate to reality. But in all of this, you are assuming the very thing that you consistently deny.

[@BishopBarron]

Well, the person I was following in the video was Raissa's husband Jacques, who wrote the classic Art and Scholasticism. I have no quarrel with saying that the human artist continues God's creation, but he does so on the basis of God's more primordial creativity. Michelangelo in one sense gave us something altogether new, but it was based upon a whole range of natural forms that had been given by God.

[@BishopBarron]

God bless you for that.

[@rojodosh]

Wow. Just wow. So good.

[@nellahashimoto1342]

Thank you Bishop Barron we need to hear more and more of this. God bless.

[@sundevilification]

I have played piano almost 50 years and the late great Bill Evans, which I wholeheartedly agree said: I learned the fundamentals and keep going back when I play that I actually forget I am doing it. Jazz improvisation to the tee. Colorful via simplicity. Thanks Father.

[@BrotherJohannes]

Fr. Barron, I just wanted to say that the timing of this particular video was a true Godsend! For a few years now I've been trying to articulate the problems with Cartesian Dualism and how that has become the fundamental basis, or rather the 'form' of the corporate world where I work. Putting it all in the context of the Four Causes was exactly what I needed for last week's team meeting! Thanks for your work and God Bless!

[@deborahanne9793]

Excellent reminder about getting locked into oneself! Previous videos, I appreciate how Bishop Barron says that we become free by giving our lives to God - Bishop says it much better. God Bless.

[@tiffanysanchez9184]

Beautifully stated Bishop 💕

[@rhlogic]

Gosh! Fr. Barron. This is your best video I've seen so far. A true Jewel. Master expression of Truth with the beauty of simplicity.

[@jaimesantiagolonga]

Thank you so much for providing such wonderful commentary Fr. This is truly what our culture needs to hear and this in particular is a subject that I am personally involved in as a Catholic and an artist. Be assured of my prayers. God bless!

[@elzbietahapsburska3711]

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond, Father Barron!

[@BishopBarron]

Not at all! Picasso's greatest paintings and sculptures very much reflect a classical sense of form and harmony. Picasso most decidedly did not think that "anything an artist spits is art." Neither did Van Gogh or James Joyce. Heck, Joyce structured Ulysses along very classical lines.

[@StevinUNIQUE]

Thank you Father! Continue to preach :) people like you bring me so much closer to Christ and His one, holy, catholic and apostolic church

[@r0ntuber]

Bishop Barron, I appreciate your explanation of the difference in the philosophical mentalities that culture and the Church are predicated upon. Well said!

[@Clitorisaurus]

fr baron always finds words for so much of what i want to say. i think this is my favorite video of his yet.

[@kiaa11]

Amazing! Thank you and God bless you! ❤️

[@BishopBarron]

Aquinas said that the argument from authority is the weakest, and I agree with him. I would appeal to certain logical truths and moral excellences that appear to anyone who has the patience and intelligence to see.

[@Casimir1100]

I want to thank you for making this video Father Barron, it has actually helped me to want to know more about the history of Catholic philosophy. It also helps to puts into perspective Catholic moral teaching.

[@_Keith_]

Very well done. Thank you Bishop Barron.

[@clinetalbo]

You are so right! Thank you Fr. Barron

[@RepresentingRodina]

Great video, as always. Thank you very much for your ministry here at Word on Fire.

[@yankeesuperstar]

Keep your head up father, I watched pope Francis today on ewtn and it was inspiring. I'd like to thank you for your scholarship and dedication- God bless

[@Camilingue3]

Father your so awesome :D Such an inspiration God has blessed you with so much wisdom and yet you explain it so easy to understand ^_^ You are in my prayers :) Blessings from Puerto Rico

[@anthonyjakovljevic1783]

Wow. This literally just put to words the thoughts regarding art and music that I've been wrestling with. Brilliant analysis, so much makes sense to me now.

[@BishopBarron]

As I said in the video, no one should dispute that the hyper-stress on material and efficient causality led to the development of the modern sciences. But other areas of human concern suffered.

[@kattula76]

This is one of your best videos Father Barron although all of the other ones are very good, but this one is extremely wonderful and important. Thank you, keep up the good work and God bless.

[@BensWorkshop]

Very good. Been thinking about that as family life. The correct ordering of things for the correct reasons is so important or else the family falls apart.

[@carlnielsen7334]

Right on, Sammy. So much is available on the Internet, with superb lectures by the finest scientists of our time, including many Nobelists, that there is no excuse for those who have a genuine love for science and are thrilled at the prospect of learning about the Universe not to avail herself or himself of the opportunity. I'm a well-trained scientist, but I find the KZbin lectures outside my specific scientific field to be a terrific part of my continuing education.

[@TJB5]

My pleasure, friend. Hope you enjoy the read. I've actually made my way through it a few times and it's helped me to better understand Aquinas on several levels (and, by extension, Catholic teaching on the Creator God, etc.). Blessings to you.

[@forresthenry9535]

Catholicism, if not the entire Judeo-Christian belief system appreciates what it truly means to be Transcendent and thus breaks the mold of the paganism of ancient Mesopotamia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. For Christians, we believe that God is transcendent in the most absolute, purest form (meaning beyond the observable Universe). Which is why we worship God, the Ultimate Meaning of Reality, not a distant star cluster or evolutionary fluke.

[@forresthenry9535]

+Michael Montague It is in the Book of Exodus 3:14 when God speaks to Moses saying "I AM WHO I AM," in Hebrew it is translated into YHWH. It is in this statement God is saying that He is not the God of death, nor sky or contracts, cattle, the waters or harvest. In the Judeo-Christian tradition God is not a being, but Being itself.

[@olpossum5186]

to michael montague: when internet atheists like to dismissively refer to 'bronze age peasants', it always brings to mind the trend in our society of people having a certain reverence and respect for the "alternative" belief systems from different time periods and cultures, such as pre-contact native american culture, or certain styles of east asian culture, such as zen buddhism. while not believing in those systems themselves, atheists still have an appreciation of them above and beyond their own native culture, as if those other cultures were somehow "closer to nature" or "more in tune with the universe" or some such qualifier i wonder if people raised in modern east asian buddhist nations view their culture as originating from bronze age peasants, and find it boring and icky like you of your own culture, and that they should then abandon it and embrace the vacuous, materialist consumerism of the atheistic west that you seem fond of, an "alternative" system of belief to their own. while you may reject your culture's philosophical world view, you forget that all knowledge today is built upon what the 'bronze age peasants' in our past begin to first write down. do you scoff at modern algebra, calculus and trigonometry, or what about astronomy? because it was "bronze age peasants" that first began to seriously think about those concepts and write down their ideas to pass along to the future. modern, secular man rejects the moral wisdom of the ancients but still relies upon the knowledge of the ancients to provide him all the conveniences of modern life. modern science rose directly out of the church. if you think the church rejects science, you've been arguing against a straw man. instead of hundreds of thousands of years of lived, shared experience, distilled down into oral traditions that would be capable of being memorized so they could be passed down the generations; and then another 4 millennia of further written documentation from ancient greeks, the ancient hebrews, roman-era theologians, european theology and philosophy of the middle ages, the renaissance and enlightenment; all of that profound philosophical, abstract thinking and understanding on the nature of reality and the universe, which includes all of modern science, which only further demonstrates the veracity, the validity, the Truth of the judeo-christian worldview, instead of all that you reject it and instead latch on to some dude from the 19th or 20th century and say "boy, that one dude right there had it figured out", whether its marx, or nietzsche, or hitchens or dawkins. rubbish. bronze age peasants.... lets look at your current space age peasants and their great achievements, inventing plastic bags, and industrial pollution, and abortion on demand, and social media, and identity politics, and the soviet gulag, and the nazi concentration camp, and american idol, and andy warhol, and auto-tune for singers, and toilets as art, and a starbucks across the street from a starbucks, and the incel movement, and bondage porn, and chloroflorcarbons, and ddt, and lead in gasoline, and weaponized anthrax, and the columbine shooters, and the terror of the french revolution.....want me to keep going? there's the verifiable evidence you seek, but not evidence for the judeo-christian world view, but rather for own, which is pretty damning. the judeo-christian, western world view you reject is the world view of universal human rights, of universal human dignity, and the world view of modern science. why do atheists reject such things?

[@fionaa8813]

This is a perfect and intelligent reply.

[@jonathanswires1264]

I am a Jewish Catholic Christian, who has said, continues to say, and will always continue to say: The worldview of Judaism/Christianity is the greatest humanism that has ever existed and has massive behavioural, civilizational and moral implications. Let me elaborate it on this. All the morals that we take simply for granted were the result of- not just people being "nice"- but rather as a result of the Jewish/Christian worldview. All the horrendous evils that no longer exist (no more slavery; no more SATI system in India; no more human/child sacrifice; no more cannibalism; no more brutal and gruesome Gladiator games in the Colosseum in Rome...and many more), were abolished precisely because of a particular religious worldview: namely, the Jewish/Christian worldview, because it is about the beauty of creation, the creation of human beings in the "image and likeness of the One True God (something that was not self evident in the ancient pagan world); and the eschatological reality that Heaven and earth will be joined together and human beings have been destined for resurrection and everlasting communion with the Truine God. We as Catholic Christians, at our best, have implemented this reality , here and now, and anticipate it in the present, precisely because that's what the One True God has willed from all eternity and communicated this truth to human beings from the very beginning. But sadly we were enticed by idolatry (worshipping something that is NOT God), and sadly still continue to engage in false worship. It is precisely the Jewish/Christian worldview that took a stand against the oppression of the poor, and how they were neglected, by the wealthy, and the ill treatment of widows and orphans (read the Hebrew Bible and see how the Prophets of Ancient Israel, channeling the pathos of God, speak out against those things. Moreover, the 1st Century Christians in Ancient Rome were the ones who used to collect the unwanted babies from under the bridges and raised them as their own. It was precisely the early Christians who dethroned Ceasar by declaring the Jesus Christ is Lord!!! More to it. It is the Catholic Church who has built hospitals, homeless shelters, hospices, universities, schools, soup kitchens, homes for the dying; who are working with and visiting those in prison, etc. Here's the point I want to make: we are not doing these things because we are "nice people". Rather we are building for God's Kingdom, in anticipation of the eschatological reality: namely, when the One True God who grounds human dignity, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, will remake and transform the whole cosmos and raise us human beings from the dead and give us new transfigured bodies, after the image of Jesus Christ. The whole world will be flooded with the knowledge, love, beauty, wisdom, justice, goodness, and glory of God. And human beings who have yes to his way of being will reign with him. The whole universe will be renewed. Injustices will be overturned!!! THERE WILL BE NO ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, INJUSTICE AND DISCRIMINATION, BECAUSE ALL THE WORLDS RESOURCES AND PROPERTIES, WHICH BELONGS TO GOD, WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TO EACH AND EVERY SINGLE MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD FAIRLY. And those who have used finances and resources in ungodly ways which are repugnant to God's ways will be set right! They will be taken away, as the Magnificat says, and given to those who know how to use them for God's purpose!!! Heaven and earth will be joined together forever and ever!!!! And it is precisely this eschatological vision that energizes- and should energize- us to make it a reality in the present, in anticipation of the future. We as the Church (The mystical body of Jesus the Messiah of the Jews and of the whole world) have been, continue to be and will continue to be the extension of what God, in and through the Messiah Jesus, has done and wants to do for the entire cosmos, until his second appearing when the whole world will be judged once and for all!!! And I would like to conclude by stating the moral argument: IF GOD DOES NOT EXIST, OBJECTIVE MORAL VALUES AND DUTIES DO NOT EXIST.

[@trioan3500]

The one who is ever so beyond even to that which we may imagine or think are Beyonding, Transcending-or not at all We can never truly know and thats the beauty of the mystery of God We can say what we may say We may add whatever we may add But it can never be enough to cover God in His Greatness

[@Mysticamusings]

Good video, Fr. Barron. The modern abandonment of telos is something that occupies my mind a lot.

[@jetc4332]

Fascinating. So much of our modern world and culture cannot truly be understood unless we understand how it reacts against the traditional Christian mindset. Which in turn implies that you need to understand that Christian mindset, even if you don't like it...

[@ravissary79]

Mike Colbourne well that would be true except it isn't. the history of creative diverse and self-critical thinkers in Christianity is a rich study. To think Christian thought is inflexible is to not take it seriously enough to know it at all.

[@ravissary79]

***** sounds like you refuse to learn about something you don't know about because you believe that it's not true. That's not how acquiring knowledge works. And saying "it's anthropologically proven" is not a sensical statement. Anthropology acquires and categorizes knowledge about cultures through history, but it can't "prove" anything about those cultures. It's not a hard science like that. It can come up with theories on why certain cultures are the way they are, but most of those theories are just fitting an idea to existing data sets, hardly any of it has any predictive power at all. My Father acquired a masters in anthropology and I studied it some myself when I was initially getting a masters in Global studies. You're just flat out wrong. Also, your statement is contradictory in that you make the case that looking inward is a product of low primitive imagination, but this excludes or prevents an inquisitive mind. that's patently absurd. The father's of the origins of science itself were both creative and inquisitive, they looked inward and outward, they knew symbols and made measurements. That makes no sense at all. Do scientists not reminisce, or like music, or think about life or mortality? Are musicians bad at math, or is something about poetry or painting inherently superstitious and so they knock three times when they have an idea? You have very odd conclusions, seemingly based on no research at all. If you looked into these matters then you'd know that a respectable number of scientists through the years, and even centuries, have also wrestled with faith, inner questions about life and meaning, etc. Heck many modern scientists have done the same in reverse bu not gotten as far. Some of the early quantum theorists opened the door to theological speculations of a decidedly eastern sort after the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum phenomena. A german mathemetician opened the door ina different way based on similar interpretations of how reality works on a mathematical level, his name was Albert North Whitehead and he wrote a book called "process and reality" in which he extrapolated his work in the mathematics of time and space and relayed it to metaphysics, human thought, the experience of time and where God fits into this and how he operates causally in time. It's a fascinating book that's frankly very confusing since he invents or uses a lot of terms most people haven't a clue about and then uses them so liberally that it makes Sarte sound like "dick and jane" readers for grade schoolers. But he defies your idea about the sciences because he was clearly VERY interested in how reality, on the most bleeding edge of mathematically processed quantum theory defines it... and God... interact. St. Aquinas dealt heavily with such issues using the best that the proto-sciences of Ptolemaic and aristotelian cosmology and platonic metaphysics had to offer and then applied questions of life, death, morality, reality, and then biblical questions, what is sin, why do things feel morally wrong, what does the bible say about that, if that's true what does it mean cosmologically, is free will real... all sorts of questions, and then he explored possible answers logically.... but wait, I thought he was a primitive superstition riddled cave man banging rocks together. You couldn't be more wrong. These people were geniuses. You've got to remember that when the church disagreed with Galileo's publishing efforts, it wasn't because they were defending the Bible, it was because the best science up till that time was Ptolemy and Aristotle and the heliocentric model contradicted it. They weren't defending the Bible, they were defending the older science. They eventually relented because the found out for themselves that the math was right.... because they actually had their own scientists, they knew the math, they understood it because the church was the epicenter of the sciences at that time. These were not people who hated investigation and knowledge. If anything you seem to have a pretty strong aversion to it since you refuse to look into the factuality of what I'm expressing here for yourself. Anthropology cannot prove what you're saying it can. Even an anthropologist would tell you that. Their theories have explanatory power, but they don't take the place of gathering more data. And that further data disproves that theory.

[@ravissary79]

***** it's clear you don't hear. but that's sort of tragic, and if true, why are you communicating with people?

[@rougeshot7395]

fuck off high born

[@rougeshot7395]

catholic high born realy any body who looks vatican 2 and says this was not necessary is an ass whole who should sit and spin for all eternity for worshiping the 3 days darkness

[@isaihisaih2024]

wow i like it...sometimes i have to play your video again and again to understand and do some research..there are so many learnings in just 11minutes!

[@Spritespitfire]

The feeding of ego and over sense of self, makes people an island within themselves and its very hard for people who have grown up in such away to tear down those barriers. This is one of my own biggest problems is my over sense of self, and it closes me off from the possibilities, of the world around me. Once a person has locked themselves in over the years it is very hard to get out of that rut.

[@nelsonrodriguez6815]

SO POWERFUL EXPLANATION VIDEO...THANKS BUSHOP ROBERT BARON..YOU TEACH ME PRAY AND HOW TO DEFEND OUR BELIEF ..OUR VALUES IN INTELECTUAL WAY..WITH TECHERS..STUDENTS..ETC.....PLEASE..MAKE THIS TOPIC..THIS KIND VIDEO IN SPANISH...WE NEED IT...GOD BLESS ALL YOUR TEAM

[@BishopBarron]

Muchisima gracias, Cesar.

[@BishopBarron]

I'm not making a moral critique of modern thinkers themselves. My concern isn't with their "selfishness" as you say. My complaint is that they stubbornly read the world through the lens of subjectivity, as though the self is the determiner of value. I object, in a word, to Kant's Copernican revolution in epistemology.

[@StevinUNIQUE]

I love you Father Barron

[@ginofillion]

Father Barron deserves his videos are filmed in 1080HD please. Thanks I'm a fan.

[@ozlemdenli7763]

thank you, Father

[@danipar7388]

Definetely the best one

[@BishopBarron]

Why would you blame God for the wicked choice made by an angel or a human being? God could have precluded this scenario by denying us freedom, but I doubt you'd be happy with that.

[@marcusdrope6994]

Father Barron your brilliant!

[@davelipsiea1553]

Fr Barron is brilliant.

[@TheCsegovia]

Gracias a usted por su brillante genio y por darme a Cristo. Soy católico gracias a usted.

[@jenhgorman7506]

Thank you for these videos! Please do one on art history and architecture. I saw your speech about beauty and I would love to hear your thoughts about the state of western visual arts in a postmodernist world. I studied art history and working in arts organizations it was taboo to say you're a fan of any movements pre Impressionism. Why is that? It seems like once Deconstructionism came along (i.e. Russian Avantgarde, Dada, Surrealism, and thereafter), we don't have much to deconstruct anymore. It's a nihilistic approach to art (and architecture too) that has led us to (mostly) iterative and uninspired contemporary art. How can artists aspire to more? Thank you, Bishop, for your wonderful work! And thank you for this online community.

[@EctothermalPuppy]

Thank you!!

[@EctothermalPuppy]

Excellent. Thank you, I have ordered it.

[@f.oliver8078]

Excellent and bold.

[@dynamic9016]

Very insightful.

[@Restlespirt]

Thank you for letting me comment on your videos. God Bless. Just so you know,It was a Catholic Priest who came onto the reservation from 1989-99. Every Tuesday and Friday nights we had 2 hour bible studies.We never asked him questions of the RCC.We only wanted to know about the white mans Jesus.He taught us that he is for all.Taught us some Greek and Hebrew.A real man's man.Spoke from the heart. I cant call you Father,I am atleast twice your age. Peace to you.

[@Diego-hv4de]

Excelente video!! Muchas Gracias

[@rosawisteria]

Super interesting. This way of thought rubbed me the wrong way at first…. But I’m coming around to it now

[@BishopBarron]

I wouldn't disagree with a thing you say here. To defend classical aesthetics is not to say, tout court, that classical style is the only legitimate one. It is to stand against a sheer subjectivism and sentimentalism in regard to art.

[@ishaqsahil7417]

I really like u soo much God bless you

[@rachealbrimberry8918]

the best commentary on existentialism is Maritain's " Existence and existent". I really like the way he draws his reader in, and dare I say his female readers, when being ever the Frenchman, he mentions about dressmaking and thus fashion on the first page?

[@jessewallace12able]

I agree. If one follows the reason of Sartre or Nietzsche to its end, and takes it seriously, one finds : ho-hum. IMO life without God is boring.

[@bilbobaggins5815]

Leo - what is your favprite Kierkegaard work?

[@Javier-il1xi]

Nietzsche said that the world without God is a bleak, boring and painful place. Nietzsche was extremely worried about how modernity killed God and was looking for a solution.

[@foxmulder6695]

Nietzche's problem is that the death of god was a tragedy because it was the ultimate ideal of every individual. He knew that in the world without god, many people wouldn't be able to find an ideal within themselves that was strong enough to replace the one that was destroyed. So he predicted, along with many others like Dostoyevsky, that most would turn to pathological forms of nationalism or populism, or even the scientific principal, falling prey to ideologies left and right.

[@solidbloke]

Fox Mulder scary how that is becoming true. Left and right at each others throats.

[@Bayo106]

the truth isnt very exciting. The bible and other 'good books' make promises that have never been shown to be true/real

[@salon201]

What an awesome commentary Fr. Barron!! As a catholic and art lover myself, this video made me understand why the modern artistic community (Hollywood to name an example) is so full of liberals.

[@BishopBarron]

Quite right. And that's precisely why I am so sympathetic to much of the postmodern movement.

[@FDRPR09]

In resume, Modernity and post-modernity are just ego centrism of the person which leads to relativity, atheism, agnosticism, etc.

[@FDRPR09]

That all of that is wrong and irrational without any base of logic what so ever

[@nathanc9866]

Geek Rican Z As an Agnostic, I don’t really see why it is so irrational.

[@MrLlurati]

Hi Father Barron, you continue to bless us with your knowledge and understanding of the Church. It sounds like what you are criticizing in this video is something like moral relativism. I saw a clip of your new series that is coming out on the New Evangelization where you discuss Nietzsche and the "who cares" culture, which I am also very critical of. AGain, thank you so much for these videos. You are changing a lot of lives and I will pray for you and your ministry. God Bless

[@BishopBarron]

I don't know: the Ubermensch is "beyond good and evil." What Nietzsche liked about the Greeks was their courage and assertiveness.

[@TheCsegovia]

Estoy de acuerdo! El Padre Barron es un gran comunicador y es mi héroe personal en muchos sentidos, necesitamos a mas personas para llevar el catolicismo a nuestros hermanos de la lengua española, especialmente con recientes encuestas que descubren que los hispanos están dejando el catolicismo y abrazando el protestantismo.

[@deborahanne9793]

Deborah Anne ? Art is a great form of relaxation and therapy for many of those who create many different items. For myself, if I was to try and be as perfect as Michaelangelo, then I would never create. I do agree and appreciate that the best inspiration of art is from God, God is the greatest Artist and Architect!

[@BishopBarron]

Who's defending "representationalism?" To reverence the formality found in God's creation is not equivalent to producing simply "realistic" art. Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc., etc. were all imitating form in the sense that I'm using the term.

[@zsizsi66]

That was wonderful. Been watching for ages; first time commenting. Abandoning Aristotelianism and Aquinas has been the Enemy's greatest victory. Thank you for putting this in terms I can now tell my two daughters. God Bless.

[@BishopBarron]

By reason.

[@Jarek_73]

A true heavyweight, this piece!

[@tommore3263]

Just found this one. I was looking for the definitive philosophical explanation to the infantile, divisive and mob like "identity" politics that is ruining Canada and the west. You nailed it with Sartre's (incoherent) Existence precedes Essence... as if that idea just bubbled up out of nowhere.... And final cause.. that which gives us all a shared purpose and meaning. Great stuff. Thanks.

[@bens4446]

"In what ways was the Enlightenment a decline?" Fascinating question. The bishop does it again.

[@specialteams28]

In simplistic terms, the “enlightenment” way of approaching life was that God was no longer the center of life as is was before the enlightenment is the age of Tradition. Now the central character and protagonist of life is the humans, aka humanism. The irony of calling it the “enlightenment” when it was actually darkening by removing from the center of life the ont real true source of light from the world, Jesus. Similar to calling the apostasy of men leaving the church in the 1500s and creating hundreds of fake man made churches and calling it a “reformation”.

[@BishopBarron]

Friend, what you're saying would make sense only if the inability to make a square circle would qualify as a limitation on "freedom." God is the sheer act of to-be itself. The "limits" that God sets to possibility are simply the limits inscribed in the nature of being.

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

Great stuff, thanks

[@johnandrez]

I agree very much with what you've said, Father Barron and I can tell where a lot of this is going with respect to the controversies in American society. I am a gay Catholic from Canada who has struggled with my sexuality and my spirituality and matters of morality particularly the meaning or final cause or eschatological orientation of the body and the sexual impulse are particularly important to me. (continued...)

[@margarethhuapcent1270]

WoW Jesús Christ! Thank you for LOVE us so much! Thank you Mommy Mary! 😇😇😇👼🔥☄️🕊️💗🌼💐💎❄️

[@thecarlitosshow7687]

Watch “the poison of subjectivism” by CS Lewis

[@TheCsegovia]

I love John Lennox, he is arguably the best Christian apologist out there. But none compare to the brilliance and fervor of Fr. Barron

[@1976Bryan]

Fr. Barron, I am absolutely hooked on your videos. Although we do not always reach the same conclusions, I recognize your teaching as a tremendous blessing. I hope at some point (perhaps you have done so somewhere else) address how one ascertains finality. It seems that if we do not agree on the finality, or purpose, of an act, then we're not going to agree on the moral assignment. Do we look to the Biblical tradition? The Church (which seems divided)? Personal revelation?

[@robbiepy]

great one

[@johndee3868]

So true! I find both Sartre and Camus to be not only outright BORING but highly superficial. Great video.

[@alex_roivas333]

I do think Camus is a bit boring (and I don't quite agree with him) I prefer sartre, doesn't matter though, if they're right, doesn't it?

[@karsten9895]

I've never read Sartre, but a lot of Camus. This comment actually reveals only your superficiallity and ignorance about great literature! I've seen a couple of Bishop Barron's videos and his superficiallity occasionally (when he talks about science e. g.) makes me cringe as a Christian. I'd rather have him restrict himself to preaching to his flock and not embarrasing Christians with his lack of understanding about the the topics he chooses on such huge medium. I actually share a couple of his beliefs, opinions and interests. It's not that I think he's a bad guy, a bad priest. He comes across as a genuinely faithful and honest person and I like his way of talking about movies for instance. But, let's face it: he's not a great intellectual and the only tragic is that he seems to believes he is. He has no idea, how outdated certain ideas of Aristotle are scientifically and philosophically e. g.

[@gixxerfixxer4159]

Karsten Just curious, but what specific has he said do you disagree with? And what counter-arguments do you have to prove him wrong? I'd genuinely like to know.

[@rachealbrimberry8918]

In fact, Paul wrote not just one letter but two directed to the Greeks that ended up in the New Testament...1 and 2 Corinthians. The Greeks literally ran with the whole early Christian movement. They were so enthusiastic he had to temper their efforts & tone down competition.

[@apologiacristiana]

Muy buenos videos :)

[@undertheheavens]

From the "Journal" of Raissa Maritain: "Art proceeds from a spontaneous instinct, like love, and it ought to be cultivated like friendship."

[@DH-om6fo]

Well said.

[@WrongTimeline]

Interesting to see where you see the change occuring. I've been looking at The Supreme Courts' work on privacy and then the new prosperity 1960+ (mirroring the 1920's) as the points of change, and you're back centuries earlier.

[@BishopBarron]

God wills in accord with his own goodness. That's why his will, though uncaused, is anything but arbitrary. And God gave us freedom, but he didn't, and doesn't, determine the exercise of that freedom.

[@tinman1955]

Reason comes in many flavors.

[@QuisutDeusmpc]

Parchments: How We Got Our English Bible", "Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament". F. F. Bruce was the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism at the University of Manchester in England and wrote over forty books. He covers the issues thoroughly and is accessible to the educated layman.

[@EC-rd9ys]

This makes a lot more sense to me now. I think I had an inkling of this, but now it’s clearer. I think that’s the difference between good abstract art and bad abstract art. Good abstract art is communicating the forms of things. Bad abstract art is communicating a subjective opinion that admits no objective truth. It is just the artist’s “spit.”

[@VQuiZ11]

Say what you said to Brian Eno, or indeed any jazz musician ever. The act of creation and expansion is the essence of art itself.

[@AdmiralPrice]

I completely agree with your assessment on modern morality. The Qur'an talks about the mentality of the person who follows only his own desire. "Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah ? Then will you not be reminded? And they say, "There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time." And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming." I find it interesting how close catholic and orthodox Muslim theology really are.

[@bobbolondz4211]

+AdmiralPrice Do they say all that before or after they behead the person?

[@AdmiralPrice]

Bob Bolondz Usually after, while holding the bloody knife over the cadaver and between shouts of "Death to America!!!"

[@QuisutDeusmpc]

word of mouth based on the apostolic witness (Acts 2:42 - "They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers."). The living breathing apostles transmitted the faith both orally and in writing, the tradition they had inherited from Temple and synagogue became the communal tradition of the people which also became authoritative. The "breaking of the bread" and "the prayers" refers to the very sacraments you have

[@TheMarioBros]

On another note, there is something distinctly Aristotelian in Nietzsche. He's very concerned with excellence, and often praises the Greeks against contemporary rule-based Kantians and utilitarians. To reduce his view to the mere assertion of will is pretty consistent with his legacy (and so what you say about his effect on contemporary thought is spot-on,) but it doesn't do Nietzsche himself justice.

[@BishopBarron]

Well, of course... I just wasn't addressing that issue.

[@VQuiZ11]

I meant dubstep with that last statement. And I only meant it in the fact that the genre itself has become diluted due to overexposure. I think electronic music, and music in general still maintains the ability to produce new and exciting works.