Seasons of Grace
Raise your hand if you remember CliffsNotes. Those black and yellow-striped study guides were a boon to the hapless undergrad who lingered too late at the fraternity kegger, squandering his time with new friends when he should have been studying for his Lit exam. For just a few dollars, CliffsNotes offered a quick plot summary, description of the characters, and analysis of the theme. Ideally, CliffsNotes would be a companion to the complete masterpiece, offering insights without replacing the rich work of the author.
Anyway, there is a sense in which Fr. Robert Barron’s newest book Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture is like a CliffsNotes on contemporary society. Let me explain: Crack open the book and there, in its 275 pages, are 84 essays–each of which explores the meaning of a popular novel, a film, or a report gleaned from current events or from the sports pages in your local newspaper.
Father Barron scans familiar works which are not usually called “Christian”–and yet he finds Christ or, at least, finds a teaching moment. He extracts the gospel values in films such as Moneyball and The Hunger Games and True Grit. He exposes the moral message in The Hobbit (no surprise there!), then shines a spotlight on the deliberative pragmatism in Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. He provides a critical analysis of the works of Hitchens, Nietzche, Bill Maher, and the aggressive atheists on the CNN Belief Blog. He notes with some bemusement that our “tolerant, accepting” society loves to judge, as evidenced by reality shows like Judge Judy and Dancing with the Stars and Dr. Phil. He finds the spiritual value in the B.P. Oil Leak.
How does Fr. Barron compare Christ to modern-day superheroes? Here, read this:
“I can’t help but hear an echo of the ancient Christological doctrine in the latest films featuring Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. All three of these superheroes are hybrids–combinations of the extraordinary and the ordinary. In all three cases we have someone who, in his lowliness, is able completely to identify and sympathize with our suffering and, in his transcendence, is able to do something about it. A particular charm of The Amazing Spider-Man is that Andrew Garfield, the actor who plays Peter Parker, is quite obviously an ordinary and even geeky kid who at decisive moments gracefully demonstrates godlike powers.”
It’s easy to pick up Seeds of the Word and read a single chapter. For example, I was struck by an essay on the feature film For Greater Glory, about Mexico’s Cristeros War, since I had seen and reviewed the movie when it came out in theaters.
And Fr. Barron’s essay on “A-Rod and Augustine,” in which he makes the case that pursuit of anything–money, fame or, in the case of controversial baseball legend Alex Rodriguez, athletic excellence–will ultimately leave us seeking more, is absolutely brilliant.
How botched abortions expose the illogic of the pro-abortion position. Why everyone is crazy about vampires. The hook-up culture. The bully problem. Father Barron finds something important in each of these memes.
Read Seeds of the Word; grow smarter and holier, and impress your friends.
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