Lenten thoughts on holiness, part 4 Review of Robert Barron’s The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path (2002; 2nd edition: 2021)

     The pioneers of 20th-century Christian apologetics used the latest mass media technology to evangelize and offer a rational defense of the faith.  In the U.S.A., Fulton Sheen (1895—1979) used radio and TV to expound/defend Roman Catholic Christianity from 1930—1968.  In the U.K., C.S. Lewis (1898—1963) argued for “mere Christianity” on the BBC radio from 1941—43 and offered both rational and imaginative defenses of Christian doctrine through the publication of numerous books.  The 21st century has seen many apologetics ministries avail themselves of the power of the internet to defend the faith.  American Catholic priest Robert Barron (b. 1959) founded Word on Fire Catholic Ministries[1] at the turn of the third millennium.  Fr. Barron began his evangelistic efforts by delivering homilies on a Chicago-area radio station at 5 a.m. on Sundays.  His first audience consisted of truckers!  Barron is the Fulton Sheen of this generation.  His Catholicism TV series (2011) was aired on PBS.[2]

     Barron’s The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path is as personally relevant and enlightening as it was when I first took it up a decade ago.  In this timeless work, Barron argues against the modernist tendency to over-intellectualize religion, and makes a case for an embodied approach to Christian practice and discipleship.  Barron shares the anecdote of a memorable exchange that a young Thomas Merton had with a friend, early on in his life as a Christian, which led the young convert to conclude that his Christian faith was not about getting his ideas straight, but rather a matter of getting his life straight.  The goal of the Christian life, Barron insists throughout his work, is to become a saint, to walk the way of Jesus.

     To that end, Barron presents his readers with three paths to holiness, as well as a set of practices that embody each path and shape the desires of the pilgrim on the way.  The first path is “finding the centre”, i.e. to encounter the love of God, the love of the One who is the very act of being itself, the centre of all reality.  One of the spiritual practices that demonstrates that one has found the centre is, appropriately enough for Lent, fasting.  Fasting, the temporary refusal to feed the many relatively superficial human needs, is designed to identify and feed the truest human hunger, the need for God.  The second path is “knowing you’re a sinner”.  Barron insists that those who can freely acknowledge their sins are participating in the centre, i.e. they are on the path to sainthood.  Those with the humility to confess their sin and turn back (repent) to the centre who is more than willing to forgive are positioned to grow in godliness.  The third path is “realizing your life is not about you”.  Barron, using the language of the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, encourages his readers to embrace the “theo-drama” of which their lives are a part.  It is by living in light of one’s God-given purpose – itself a part of the divine plan, a plan that is not particularly concerned with one’s private “happiness” – that one can experience true joy and freedom.

     Barron concludes by once again putting his readers at the foot of the cross, the same “place” where he begins his work.  As Jesus dies on Calvary, we witness the love of the triune God in action, (literally) embodied.  Jesus invites us to participate in that divine and dangerous love, detaching ourselves from the chains of self.  True “detachment” was experienced by him who was himself attached to the cross, in utter abandonment to the Father’s will.  This is the mystery of life as Jesus has revealed it to us – “whoever loses his life…will save it”.


[2] Bishop (since 2015) Barron is one of the most-followed Catholics in the world on social media.  EWTN (The Eternal Word Television Network) and CatholicTV broadcast Bishop Barron’s videos and documentaries to a worldwide audience of over 150 million people. His weekly homilies and podcasts air on multiple radio stations to millions of listeners: https://www.dowr.org/bishop-barron/index.html (accessed February 13, 2025).

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