About The First Four Books In The Series...
This series includes some of the most significant and influential books from the great Christian tradition. These titles have transformed cultures and have proven indispensable to those seeking to encounter God, as revealed in Jesus Christ through His Church.
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Confessions
by St. Augustine
Translation by F.J. Sheed
"Bruce Springsteen echoed Augustine in one of his most popular songs: 'Everybody's got a hungry heart.' The lesson of the 'Confessions' is that awakening this hunger and following it all the way will lead one, by however circuitous and dangerous a path, to God."
- Bishop Barron
The Seven Storey Mountain
by Thomas Merton
"In one of the blurbs written for the first edition of 'The Seven Storey Mountain', Fulton Sheen referred to it as a contemporary version of St. Augustine's 'Confessions'. Moreover, this book contributed massively to the startling influx of young men into monasteries and religious communities across the U.S. in the postwar era."
- Bishop Barron
Orthodoxy
by G.K. Chesterton
"The distinctive mark of his style was a love for paradox, puns, plays on words, surprising reversals, etc. Reading Chesterton is a bit like opening a bottle of champagne: intoxicating, sparkling, and rare. This is, perhaps, most evident in Chesterton's masterpiece of Christian apologetics, 'Orthodoxy.'"
- Bishop Barron
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
by Bl. John Henry Newman
"The book's central argument is a challenge to Protestantism. During the Reformation, Martin Luther and his disciples had claimed that much of Catholicism represented a deviation from, or unwarranted addition to, the Biblical revelation. But Newman argues that these distinctively Catholic elements represent not deviations from the Biblical revelations, but rather developments of it."
- Bishop Barron
Each volume is elegantly bound and features a ribbon bookmark and charcoal sketch of the book's author by Bishop Barron...
St. Augustine of Hippo
"Prior to Augustine, no author had ever turned his speculative gaze so intently upon his own life and interiority. Hence, without the 'Confessions', there would have been no Shakespearean soliloquies (in fact, Augustine coined the term ‘soliloquia’); Joyce could never have written ‘Ulysses’ or ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’; Freud and Jung could never have developed psychoanalysis."
- Bishop Barron
"Thomas Merton, one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century, had a decisive influence on me and my vocation to the priesthood. I became completely caught up in the drama and romance of Merton’s story, which is essentially the tale of how a man fell in love with God. Along with my discovery of Thomas Aquinas, the encounter with this second Thomas was pivotal in my awakening to the spiritual dimension of life and to the possibility of giving myself utterly to God."
- Bishop Barron
G.K. Chesterton
"Gilbert Keith Chesterton is one of the most sparkling and effervescent figures in the great Catholic tradition. A physically large man with an even larger intellect and imagination, he embodied the wealth and capaciousness of Catholicism. If one is ever tempted to see Catholic Christianity as something cramped, crabby, and puritanical, he should read even one paragraph of Chesterton."
- Bishop Barron
Bl. John Henry Newman
"The more of Newman I read, the more clearly I understood that he was one of the three or four most important theological influences on the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. I came to see how his work represents, in many ways, the first and most notable attempt to place Catholic thought in dialogue with the challenge and promise of the Enlightenment."
- Bishop Barron
Why These Authors?
St. Augustine of Hippo
"Prior to Augustine, no author had ever turned his speculative gaze so intently upon his own life and interiority. Hence, without the 'Confessions', there would have been no Shakespearean soliloquies (in fact, Augustine coined the term ‘soliloquia’); Joyce could never have written ‘Ulysses’ or ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’; Freud and Jung could never have developed psychoanalysis."
- Bishop Barron
Thomas Merton
"Thomas Merton, one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century, had a decisive influence on me and my vocation to the priesthood. I became completely caught up in the drama and romance of Merton’s story, which is essentially the tale of how a man fell in love with God. Along with my discovery of Thomas Aquinas, the encounter with this second Thomas was pivotal in my awakening to the spiritual dimension of life and to the possibility of giving myself utterly to God."
- Bishop Barron
G.K. Chesterton
"Gilbert Keith Chesterton is one of the most sparkling and effervescent figures in the great Catholic tradition. A physically large man with an even larger intellect and imagination, he embodied the wealth and capaciousness of Catholicism. If one is ever tempted to see Catholic Christianity as something cramped, crabby, and puritanical, he should read even one paragraph of Chesterton."
- Bishop Barron
Bl. John Henry Newman
"The more of Newman I read, the more clearly I understood that he was one of the three or four most important theological influences on the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. I came to see how his work represents, in many ways, the first and most notable attempt to place Catholic thought in dialogue with the challenge and promise of the Enlightenment."
- Bishop Barron
Each Volume Includes a Foreword by Bishop Barron...
Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is also the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic Faith, which aired on public television.
Bishop Barron is a #1 Amazon bestselling author and has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology and the spiritual life. He is a religion correspondent for NBC and has also appeared on FOX News, CNN, and EWTN.
Bishop Barron's pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Francis Cardinal George to describe him as “one of the Church's best messengers."
Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is also the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic Faith, which aired on public television.
Bishop Barron is a #1 Amazon bestselling author and has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology and the spiritual life. He is a religion correspondent for NBC and has also appeared on FOX News, CNN, and EWTN.
Bishop Barron's pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Francis Cardinal George to describe him as “one of the Church's best messengers."