The Most Rev. Robert Barron serves as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and founder of Word on Fire Ministries. A Chicago native and former seminary rector, he became known as a digital evangelist with his PBS-aired “Catholicism” (2010) documentary series and book, expanding from there into multiple social media platforms.
Bishop Barron, who appeared June 16 on America’s Jesuitical podcast, released the book “Renewing Our Hope: Essays for the New Evangelization” at the end of July. On 28 August, I interviewed Bishop Barron by email about his work in digital evangelization.
In the interview, Bishop Barron references St Thomas Aquinas as his pick for a ‘patron saint of digital evangelisation’, saying “In tens of thousands of pages, Thomas never engaged in ad hominem attacks against his opponents. Rather, he responded to their arguments, in fact often presenting them more persuasively than they themselves did. To use our jargon today, he “steel-manned” rather than “straw-manned” their points of view.”
To read the full interview with Bishop Barron, click here.
Sean Salai SJ is a special contributor to America.
With thanks to America Magazine and Sean Salai SJ, where this article originally appeared.
