2 Samuel and Colossians - Brazos Theological Commentary (Brazos Press)

The Brazos Theological Commentary series is an ongoing work by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. The books are being published in no particular order, as far as I can see, and it also seems that they will only address the 66 books from the Protestant Bible and omit what some consider Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical, i.e., Tobit, Judith, etc. That fact is a bit disappointing, but with ecumenical commentaries, it's rare people buy the whole set, and instead pick and choose volumes from people of their faith background, i.e., Catholics will buy Catholic volumes. Today, I will be reviewing the latest two releases in this series 2 Samuel and Colossians.

Fr. Robert Barron, the author of the commentary on 2 Samuel, needs no introduction. He has reached celebrity status in more than the Catholic realm. Through the use of breathtaking videos and popular culture references, he has made the Catholic faith understandable, accessible, and approachable to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. One cannot ignore the fact that he is actually a brilliant theological mind, which he puts on display in this commentary of the often forgotten Old Testament book - 2 Samuel. Fr. Barron's commentary style is not verse-by-verse, where he analyzes every word for meaning. Instead, he focuses on five overall themes found in the book of 2 Samuel and how each chapter displays the particular theme. The themes are as follows:

1. David Comes to Power
2. Priest and King
3. David and Bathsheba
4. A Sword Will Never Leave Your Home
5. Toward the Temple

While reading this commentary, I was enlightened so much on what I had misread or just glossed over in my past reading of 2 Samuel. Fr. Barron does an excellent job of explaining terminology and phraseology that would have been used for the time, and in doing so, the passages actually started to make sense. He also does a nice job of explaining difficult to understand passages. For example, I always wondered why it was such a sin for David to take a census of the people. Fr. Barron explains that it is the act of a tyrannical king looking to reassure himself of his might and power. The most interesting chapter to me was Chapter 11 where David's story completely turned around with Bathsheba. In this chapter, he explains the sin of David and the shrewdness of Bathsheba. In this chapter, I learned that I had been completely blaming David for what happened and painting Bathsheba as innocent victim. This is not the case. The only victim in all of this was Uriah who was everything David should have been.

After reading through this commentary, I have a greater understanding of the book of 2 Samuel. It is not just some dry historical text, but a deep and beautifully written work that touches on the idea of priesthood; kingship; bad fathering and bad kingship; and the noncompetitive transcendence of God. Fr. Barron explains all of this and more in a manner that is appropriately profound yet easily understood. There are Catholic references in this volume as well as patristic references (like St. John Chrysostom), but it is not just a commentary for Catholics. I honestly wish he would have worked on both 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in this series, but I guess I will have to buy 1 Samuel and see how the style and scholarship compares to this work. If you are looking for an excellent commentary on 2 Samuel, this one is 5 stars!

Colossians is one of St. Paul's shortest Epistles, and it was also written while he was in prison. The general consensus is that he was writing to correct errors found among the converts in the church of Colossae, such as false forms of worship, avoiding certain foods, and mortification of the flesh. Seitz, the commentator argues otherwise. When I received this commentary on Colossians, I was expecting a roughly 100 page book. The book was in fact 200+ pages, and it left me wondering, "How can you write that much on a four chapter book?" For starters, this is a verse-by-verse commentary, and anytime you analyze every verse in a Biblical book, you give yourself room for plenty of words. There are also many excursuses or narrative digressions sprinkled throughout the book. Seitz divides Colossians into the following sections:

1:1-2 Formal Introduction and Salutations
1:3-8 Paul and Associates Give Thanks
1:9-14 Our Prayers for You and Our Common Destiny in Christ
1:15-20 Hymn to Christ from His Scriptures
1:21-29 Christ's Reconciliation and Paul's Vocation
2:1-7 Striving Mightily for You
2:8-23 The So-Called Conflict at Collosae
3:1-17 Putting on the New Life in Christ
3:18-4:1 In Deed
4:2-18 Goodbye

There were two features of this commentary that I found interesting. The first is that Seitz read Colossians in the context of all of St. Paul's Epistles and the entire Canon of Scripture. The other part I found interesting was that Seitz ignored the Colossians heresy and focused instead on this being a shift from Paul the missionary apostle to Paul the letter-writing apostle. The former I greatly appreciated, and the latter I found disappointing. To completely ignore the heresy seems imprudent. This wasn't the best commentary I have read on Colossians, nor was it the best commentary in Brazos' series. If you are looking for a more traditional commentary, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a different perspective on this Biblical book to compare with other commentaries, pick it up. 3.5 stars.

These books were provided to me for free by Brazos Press in exchange for an honest review. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

Priest, Prophet, King (Word on Fire)

Fr. Barron is a man who needs no introduction. His DVD program Catholicism has been seen by millions and is responsible for introducing and converting people to the Roman Catholic faith. He followed that popular series up with Catholicism: The New Evangelization and will be introducing a third part Catholicism: The Pivotal Players in 2015. I've had mixed feelings regarding his Catholicism series, but I continue to receive and review Fr. Barron's products, because despite his fascination with Thomas Merton, I believe Fr. Barron is doing a great bit of good in the Roman Catholic world. Today, I will be reviewing his latest series called Priest, Prophet, King.

Priest, Prophet, King is a two-disc, six-lesson series which is designed to help you understand Jesus more fully as priest, prophet, and king. Each lesson is approximately 20 minutes long, and the study guide (which is written by Carl Olson) has enough material to facilitate an hour long discussion. If you're in a smaller group, like I am, you might find yourself watching the session two or three times, just to absorb the material. Unlike Fr. Barron's previous work, Catholicism, this sessions are much shorter (which I greatly appreciated), but they seemed to fly by so quickly that you might blink and miss something...hence the re-watching. The lessons are titled as follows:

1. Adoratio: Adam as Priest
2. The High Priest
3. Challenging False Worship: Elijah the Prophet
4. The Word Made Flesh
5. Ordering the Kingdom: King David
6. King of Kings
Bonus: Heroic Priesthood

In this study, Fr. Barron weaves high theology with his accessible teaching style to present Jesus' three-fold mission. One minute he is making Lord of the Rings references explaining symbolism of Frodo as priest, Gandalf as prophet, and Aragorn as King. The next minute he is diving deep into the Scriptures and explaining the significance of a specific Greek word. It was hard to pick a favorite lesson, but if I had to it would be Session Three, and that might just be because I am a big fan of Elijah. In addition to providing an explanation on Elijah vs the priests of Ba'al. He also challenges us to right worship. He then compares Ba'al to modern day idols like power or pleasure, and asks us if we put these idols ahead of God.

This was easily my favorite Fr. Barron study program. Each session was a good length (especially if you are doing this with young kids in the background), and provided you just enough information to get a good discussion going and make you want to dive deeper either solo or in a small group. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to grow not only in your understanding of Jesus, but your love for Him as well.

This program was provided to me for free by Word on Fire in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, click here and hit Yes!

Catholicism Blog Tour Day 1 and a Contest

Welcome to Stuart's Study. Today, I am kicking off a blog tour for the world-renowned book Catholicism by: Fr. Robert Barron. In order to celebrate the release of this book in paperback and pay respect to the fact that it has sold over 100,000 copies, Image Books and Word on Fire are hosting this blog tour and sponsoring a contest where the winner can win a trip for 2 to Rome and Paris. You'll have to read to the end of this post to find the contest link though. (Don't cheat and scroll down early!) Today, I will be featuring Chapter One, entitled "Amazed and Afraid."

Chapter One serves as the jumping off point for Fr. Barron's book Catholicism. Before we embark on his epic journey through Roman Catholicism, he sets the stage and provides in great detail who Jesus is. We first look at Jesus' humanity. "Deus fit homo ut homo fieret Deus (God became human so that humans might become God.)" Ponder that for a minute. God in His infinite majesty and grandeur humbled Himself and took on human form. However, he didn't come and make Himself a worldly Caesar, king, or pharaoh in some great city. He was born in an insignificant town to a poor teenage girl, and with His birth the world was never the same again.

After His birth, there is little mention of His childhood except for two instances in the Temple - His Presentation and His Finding. We instead jump straight to His ministry. Fr. Barron points out that other great religious teachers (Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius) insisted the focus be on their teachings and words. Jesus wanted the focus on more than His teachings and words. He wanted people to be drawn to Him; to develop a personal relationship with Him. By doing so, they will develop a personal relationship with God the Father.

The rest of the chapter is not only my favorite part of this chapter, but quite possibly of the book. Fr. Barron opens up the Old Testament for us and explains the four-fold mission of the Christ. 1. Gather the scattered tribes of Israel. 2. Cleanse the Temple of Jerusalem. 3. Definitively deal with the enemies of the nation. 4. Reign as Lord of Heaven and earth. After reading detailed explanations of each of these four things, it puts a new light on the Gospels and how one reads them. We can also better understand why Jesus performed certain actions, like his Healings.  Yes, there was mercy involved, but God was also calling His children back to Him through Jesus.

To enter the contest click, here. Tune in tomorrow at Seasons of Grace as Kathy Schiffer highlights and reviews Chapter Two of Catholicism entitled, "Happy Are We: The Teachings of Jesus."

Fr. Barron Friday (Image Books and Word on Fire)

It's a double review here again at Stuart's Study. Today, I'll be reviewing two Fr. Barron products. One of them is his world famous book Catholicism and the other is his latest project Tre Ore. This coming Monday, I will be kicking off an Image Books blog tour to celebrate Catholicism selling 100,000 copies and being published in paperback as well. Also on the blog tour, I will link up a contest that Image Books and Word on Fire are co-hosting where you can win a trip for two to Paris and Rome! Now let's get to the reviews!

If you've seen the Catholicism series, then this book will prove to be nothing new under the sun. In fact, this book is almost a transcript of the video series. This is both good and bad. It is bad because the book will never match the visual appeal of the videos. They were breathtaking presentations that brought us to many great landmarks of Roman Catholicism. However, there is a lot of dense material in the videos that is easy to miss, unless you rewind and re-watch several times. Having it presented to you in book format gives you a chance to see the words in front of your face, chew on them a bit, and hopefully understand. There are many great parts in this book, which Roman Catholics (and I stress Roman Catholics) will appreciate, including focus on the Mass, the Sacraments, and great saints. Now don't get me wrong, this book and series has done a great deal of good for a great many people. Instead of telling you about the good parts, which you can read in the hundreds of reviews on Amazon, I will tell you about the parts that bothered me.

For starters, there is also a lot of bias in this book. Fr. Barron states that Protestants and Orthodox don't hold as firm a conviction on the doctrine of the Incarnation as Catholics do. I would agree with him regarding Protestants, but disagree regarding Orthodox. He mentions sacraments, Liturgy, bishops, cathedrals, etc. All of which the Orthodox have. He then uses an image from the Hagia Sophia (a once Orthodox Church) on the opposite page. Sadly, the whole book only shows you the Western view of Catholicism, and completely ignores Eastern Catholics. The Roman Rite is but one of the many rites in the Catholic Church. This book doesn't even mention them and gives the feeling of "If it ain't Roman, it ain't rite."

Also, I don't like how he highlights Thomas Merton so much in Chapter 9 on prayer. I have spoke with people close to Fr. Barron before, and they have told me that he was shaped "by two Thomases" - St. Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Merton. The Summa Theologiae dramatically shaped his early religious life and set him on the path to priesthood. However, it is Thomas Merton that I am wary of. Merton was a Trappist monk who got involved to excess with Eastern religions (primarily Buddhism and Zen) near the end of his life. In fact, Fr. Barron has readily admitted in some of his homilies that Merton went too far to Eastern religions. If he knows that, why bother to include him in the book? He seems like too controversial of a figure to include in a book that is supposed to be a broad strokes view of Catholicism for outsiders, inquirers, new Catholics, and/or uneducated Catholics. If they see Fr. Barron endorsing Thomas Merton and read Merton's later stuff, bad things could happen! I agree with Dan Burke who says the following:

"The Church is in no way lacking in solid and perfectly trustworthy writings on the spiritual life. I personally don’t know why anyone would want to carefully sift through this kind of literature when it is clear that Merton had serious issues even during the his “orthodox” period. It seems a bit like sifting through the refuse at the back of a good restaurant. You will no doubt find much that is of nutritional value, but why not just go take your seat at the table for the best and purest meals available? I would encourage you to stick with the spiritual doctors of the Church. To name a few, the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Francis de Sales will more than meet your needs for spiritual guidance and you need not worry that you might be led down a path that leads away from the Heart of the Church."

So for the lack of focus on Eastern Catholicism and the heavy amount of Thomas Merton, I can only give this book 3.5 stars.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. For helpful links, click below:

• Author's Web Site
• More Info
• Read Chapter One
• Author Bio

Tre Ore: The Seven Last Words of Christ is a series of homilies that Fr. Barron gave at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 2012. Tre Ore stands for "Three Hours." This is a liturgical service that is held on Good Friday from noon until 3 PM, which remembers the time that Jesus hung on the Cross. The CD series itself is actually 90 minutes long and the contents are as follows:

Disc One

INTRODUCTION 4:08

FIRST: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. 12:39

SECOND: Today you will be with me in paradise. 15:56

THIRD: Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother. 12:28

Disc Two

FOURTH: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 16:13

FIFTH: I thirst. 9:53

SIXTH: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. 8:01

SEVENTH: It is finished. 7:27

CONCLUSION 2:54

I enjoyed these homilies. They were brief (ranging from 8 to 16 minutes), but poignant. For example, The First Word dealt with forgiveness. He touches on "turning the other cheek," and shows how this is a third possible response instead of "fight or flight." I particularly enjoyed The Second Word as this focused on St. Dismas the Good Thief. He was my RCIA saint, and he is largely forgotten in the Catholic world, despite being the first one to be granted Paradise. Topics addressed were sin, temptations, and addictions; how we use them to try and replace God and how it leaves us empty doing so. He also took the time to reveal a bit of his personality and how he is one who seeks glory, honor, and recognition. I could definitely relate to him there, and it was a nice wake-up call that these things can also be used to replace God if we let them.

In addition to the homilies, you get a little booklet with three to four reflection questions for each of the homilies. This booklet is glued to the CD case, which means you won't lose it unless you lose the CDs. However, it also means that you can't detach it, which made it a little inconvenient for me. Thankfully, the questions and answers can also be found on their website for easy printing. Overall, this was a very good program. I think it would have been great, albeit a bit more pricey, if it was a video recording that included hymns, moments of mediation, and the Way of the Cross like normally happens during the Tre Ore.

I received a copy of this from Word on Fire for free in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click the link and hit Yes!