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The Thomistic Institute

Thomas and the New Atheists | Bishop Robert Barron

The Thomistic Institute

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8729 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This talk was given on January 28th, 2022 at the University of California at Santa Barbara in partnership with St. Mark’s University Parish and Newman Center. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: 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 PBS. 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 website, WordOnFire.org, reaches millions of people each year, and he is one of the world’s most followed Catholics on social media. His regular YouTube videos have been viewed over 50 million times and he has over 3 million followers on Facebook. Bishop Barron has been invited to speak about religion at the headquarters of Facebook, Google, and Amazon. He has keynoted many conferences and events all over the world, including the World Youth Day in Kraków and the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which marked Pope Francis’ historic visit to the United States. He has shared dialogue with Dr. Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, and William Lane Craig, among other influencers and thought leaders. Bishop Barron’s recent film series, "CATHOLICISM: The Pivotal Players", has been syndicated for national television and nominated for an Emmy award. His most recent project is the Word on Fire Institute, a new hub for spiritual and intellectual formation, training members of the Word on Fire movement to proclaim Christ in the culture.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This talk is brought to you by the Tamistic Institute.

0:03.3

For more talks like this, visit us at tamistic institute.org.

0:11.0

I couldn't be happier to be paying tribute to Thomas Aquinas,

0:15.1

who was one of the most important people in my own spiritual life and development.

0:20.2

Maybe some of you heard me tell this story before, but when I was a kid of 14 years at Fenwick

0:26.2

High School outside Chicago, I heard one of my young professors in religion class go through

0:33.0

one of Thomas's arguments for God's existence, and it changed my life.

0:36.6

That's simply true. I'm sure it affected

0:39.2

no other kid in the room, but for some reason, it just grabbed my attention. I was a Catholic

0:45.5

kid going to Mass on Sunday. I believed in God, but I just never thought that one could think about God

0:52.7

in a serious way.

0:59.3

And it so grabbed my attention that I went to Thomas Ford Memorial Library,

1:01.5

which is the local library in Western Springs, Illinois.

1:05.8

And I found Mortimer Adler's, you know, the great book series.

1:09.9

He had two volumes on Thomas Aquinas, so I took one of them off the shelf.

1:17.0

And I remember tucking it under the T-shirt I had on, and I rode my 10-speed bike home with this Adler book.

1:19.1

And I started reading Aquinas.

1:20.7

I had no idea what I was reading.

1:24.8

But it was sort of a fascinating moment in my life.

1:29.7

And it started me, no kidding, on the path that's led me to where I'm standing right now. Thomas led me first by my mind, then by my heart, to God and to a life dedicated to God.

1:39.0

When I became a bishop, I took one of his famous lines as my motto, non-nezzite domine, when the Lord spoke to Thomas

1:47.9

from the crucifix and said, Thomas, he's written well of me, what would you have as a reward?

...

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