Robert Barron | – The Story of Salvation

If you aren’t familiar with the sweeping story of salvation, the “theo-drama,” you won’t fully grasp any particular part of the story. Today, Bishop Barron unveils the five acts of the biblical drama: Creation, the Fall, the formation of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the Church.

A listener asks for some recommended biographies on the life of St. Thomas Aquinas.

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About The Author

Bishop Robert Barron These are brief and insightful commentaries on faith and culture by Catholic theologian and author Bishop Robert Barron. The videos complement his weekly sermons posted and podcasted at WordOnFire.org.

Comment (45)

  1. Is our current interest in outer space a sign of real theological development and a new era of grace, or just a redux of the Tower of Babel? Alongside all of the other "signs of the times" it feels like there's finally "something new under the sun" and an actual shift in the weather. Am I misreading this? Or is God up to something?

  2. Act 1 Creation: Why does the creator of the Universe require praise?

    Contrary to your comment, it was the Catholic Church that constantly told us ( children) how unworthy we were – not our parents. Many prayers reinforced that teaching: “Lord I am not worthy……..”

    Act 2 The Fall: Why did an allegedly “all just God” punish all subsequent generations for Adam and Eve’s “original sin” – a transgression from long ago for which they had no knowledge and therefore NO responsibility? Why were all the billions of children who never asked to be born, rendered unworthy? Thomas Aquinas claimed that original sin was transmitted down through the generations via semen during intercourse. What impact did that have on Catholic attitude about sexuality?

    Act 3 The Old Testament: The Old Testament is a paradoxical foundation for Christianity. There are so many passages justifying cruelty, murder and even genocide that it cannot be reconciled with those aspects of Christian teaching claiming a just and loving God.

    For example: We are enjoined in Micah to do justly and love mercy; in Exodus we are forbidden to commit murder; in Leviticus we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves; and in the Gospels we are urged to love our enemies. Yet think of the rivers of blood spilled by fervent followers of the books in which these well-meaning exhortations are embedded.

    In Joshua and in the second half of Numbers is celebrated the mass murder of men, women, children, down to the domestic animals in city after city across the whole land of Canaan. Jericho is obliterated in a 'holy war'. The only justification offered for this slaughter is the mass murderers' claim that, in exchange for circumcising their sons and adopting a particular set of rituals, their ancestors were long before promised that this land was their land. Not a hint of self-reproach, not a muttering of patriarchal or divine disquiet at these campaigns of extermination can be dug out of holy scripture. Instead, Joshua destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded' (Joshua, X, 40). And these events are not incidental, but central to the main narrative thrust of the Old Testament. Similar stories of mass murder (and in the case of the Amalekites, genocide) can be found in the books of Saul, Esther, and elsewhere in the Bible, with hardly a pang of moral doubt. It was all, of course, troubling to liberal theologians of a later age.

    It is properly said that the Devil can quote Scripture to his purpose. The Old Testament is full of so many stories of contradictory moral purpose that every generation can find scriptural justification for nearly any action it proposes, from incest, slavery and mass murder to the most refined love, courage and self-sacrifice. It is moral multiple personality disorder.

    Act 4 What did Jesus who spoke Aramaic, actually say? His followers were from Nazareth and were most certainly illiterate. The Gospels were written in Greek 30 to 75 years after Jesus died. We only have copies of copies of copies of the Gospels written in Greek. The first complete copy dates to the 4th century.

    Act 5 What is the evidence that the Catholic Church has been a force for good?

    What is the evidence that Christianity has helped correct any of the serious shortcomings of our species?

  3. Where does the story of salvation fit in with the millions of years of pre-modern humans roaming the Earth? Does the story of human evolution come to full circle with the story of salvation?

  4. Hi ,firstly I’ve watched countless videos and read many of your articles defending the Catholic Faith,help me no end on so many levels,I have a question concerning the demonic. I know the diabolical can manifest mimic copy anything,however are they prohibited to use the symbol of the cross in any way? Example,people seeing our lord on the cross in vision,when in reality it’s demonic? My limited knowledge and research saids otherwise ,would be grateful for any of your insight and experience on this matter,much appreciated.

  5. Thank you Bishop Barron for another great lecture. I think the novelty of modernism has confined us into our own little plays, our own little relativist worlds without realizing that we are supposed to be part of a much bigger story. For a few years now, I have desired to be part of something bigger than myself. What I have, I need to play it out in the open and into the world. I'm only just beginning to discover it. Even for many Christians, we tend to confine our faith to our personal lives and often that faith needs a lot of development too. How often do we think of the Church as a body consisting of all of us and that we must strive to the same goal which is salvation? How often do we think that our faith must affect every choice we make starting from ourselves, our closest family then to the bigger society? The confined way of thinking has limited us severely on what we ought to do as priests, kings and prophets of this Kingdom established by Christ on Earth.

    Aged 27, I now find myself as a religious conservative. I'm a sinner and need an ongoing transformation and so I need grace. In my late teens and early 20's, I was close to being agnostic and picking up New Age stuff on Youtube because my religious conscience was so uninformed. I learned from Catholic Youtubers, starting with Bishop Barron so much about my faith way more than what I learned from homilies or 12 years of education in Catholic schools. What I struggle from now is that no one around me shares the same view. No one from my parish, no one from my friends seem to share the ideals I wrote above. Everybody seems to be individualistic on faith matters and ignorant of objective truths. Everyone frequents the perennial problems of the society but hardly anyone acts like a priest, prophet or king. What you see with the millennial are social justice warriors with their posts on Facebook which do nothing to render justice in the real world or at least partially solve the problems they were complaining about even by an inch. I'm not claiming to be holier than other people but I find myself alone in this quest, unsupported by a close shepherd that pushes me to be holier or even a few good friends who shares my mind.

  6. If recent events have made anything apparent, we have those in society who will deny their own faults but be at the ready to punish those who they deem to be at fault.
    Look at the race riots. These same people will deny their blatant racism, hiding behind the notion they fight for a just cause, but accuse others of being racist and seek to ruin their lives through the cancel culture.

  7. Poppycock. That's like people complaining about the influence of Mother Teresa or the command from Thomas Aquinas, etc etc. Now my good bishop, you are not a saint yet …. yet! Stay true, stay strong. God Bless.

  8. I read Creation to include Adam’s priestly and regal offices, along with prophetic. The Lord has Adam ‘name’ things. This is declarative and suggests not mere arbitrary authority but sense of the essence of things.

    As if we could ask why name this or that a “ lion” and Adam says, the creature has “lion-ness” in its core.

  9. I think Bishop Barron pushes buttons, so to speak, calls on the pharisaical way of living religion, also on an indifference, boredom many catholics have (include myself) succumbed to. All this will not be liked by the extremes, whether Pharisees or liberals. Oh well, He did say, 'If they hate you, remember they hated Me first'. Personally Bishop Barron has helped and stimulated my spirit. Thank you for that, Bishop!

  10. I propose the following hypothesis: that, at the heart of the church's failure to excite modern humanity (or, put differently, part of the reason for the explosion of the "nones") lies the church's refusal to reframe its notion of original sin. As a result, its proclamation of the theordrama falls flat.

    We are not morally deficient because of a singular historical event in Act 2, but as a result of evolutionary attributes (aggression, jealousy, possessiveness, greed, etc) positively present in Act 1 of the theodrama. They are positive because they contribute to our early survival as a species. They grow into being negative in Act 2 because our numbers have increased so that collaboration has become the more urgent and because we become increasingly capable of making free moral choices.

    Bottom line: I believe that unless and until you learn to explicitly weave the evolution story into the theodrama, you will increasingly lose modern educated humanity.

  11. Many actors have done Shakespearian stories , many have done stories of both true and fiction…we all within the arts and entertainment industry know this…including those in "BOLLYWOOD" who many don't know of our history either… u understand the part of Union memberships…and non union…not all of us are protected…since much of the industry previous covid have been promoting …you know don'tcha

  12. This is the first time that I’ve ever heard the story of the Fall where the woman wasn’t to blame for everything. Rather, Adam failed to protect his wife from the depredations of the Serpent. A failure in kingly leadership. Wow. That is huge!

  13. I’m a homeschooler to a 5th grader learning about the Israelites, 6th grader learning about the Ancient Greek and the philosophers and an 8th grader learning about Ancient Rome and early Christians. This puts everything together in such a perfect way for my entire family. Thank you!!

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