WOF 534: The Evangelical Power of the Old Testament
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Release Date: 04/27/2026
WOF 541: “Heaven in Stone and Glass”—A New Feature Film by Bishop Barron
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. We’re delighted to announce that a new feature film by Bishop Robert Barron will be hitting theaters—yes, theaters—soon. The full-length documentary, entitled Heaven in Stone and Glass, draws on the collective shock and sadness the world experienced watching Paris’s Cathedral of Notre-Dame burn in 2019 to explore the enduring philosophical, theological, aesthetic, moral, and evangelical significance of the great...
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WOF 540: How the Virtues Help Us Respond to an Increasingly Vicious Online Culture
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. From Bishop Barron’s very first social media post close to 20 years ago, he and Word on Fire as a whole have recognized that the online world is a rough-and-tumble place. While most, over the years, have interacted with our content with charity and respect, even if they disagree, there’s always been a gallery of trolls who traffic in insults and profanity and are only interested in taking potshots at the ministry...
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WOF 539: Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday, marking two and a half centuries since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That a country as expansive and diverse as ours has remained united under a single Constitution for two and a half centuries—passing through multiple existential wars, including a civil war, and numerous periods of traumatic political and economic upheaval—is a monumental...
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WOF 538: Bishop Barron's Work on the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Bishop Robert Barron has long defended religious freedom as a universal human right. As part of his ongoing advocacy—which includes a new book on how to confront persecution against Christians—he has recently completed serving on a presidential religious liberty commission charged with ensuring that people of all faiths can participate fully in society without fear of violence or unjust discrimination. One of the few...
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WOF 537: How to Keep the Momentum in the Surge of New Conversions
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. A wave of fresh converts has entered the Catholic Church in the United States, Australia, and parts of Europe. The evidence for this surge is far from anecdotal; even secular media outlets that are historically inclined to downplay positive stories about Catholicism widely reported packed sanctuaries this past Easter, the day those who have been preparing to enter the Catholic Church typically receive their first...
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WOF 536: Bishop Barron’s New Book on Persecution Against Christians
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Although not widely reported in legacy media outlets, Christianity is, by far, the most persecuted religion in the world. From the Middle East and Africa to India, China, North Korea, and elsewhere, Christian communities regularly experience widespread humiliation, imprisonment, kidnappings, expulsions, and even murderous mob violence. While not as severe, Christians in parts of Europe and even right here at home, in the...
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WOF 535: Bishop Barron on Bishop Fulton Sheen
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The faithful recently rejoiced at the news that Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the great American evangelist who lived from 1895 to 1979, has moved forward in the canonization process. The Vatican recently announced that he will soon be beatified, which is one step away from being declared a saint. This is an especially happy development for Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, which, as an apostolate dedicated to evangelization,...
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WOF 534: The Evangelical Power of the Old Testament
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The Old Testament is about three-quarters of the Bible. It is theologically and morally impossible for Christians to understand God’s relationship with the world, the nature and purpose of human beings, original sin, salvation history, the person of Jesus Christ, and the foundation of the Church without it. Indeed, as far back as the second century AD, the Church condemned the heresy of Marcionism, which sought to...
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WOF 533: Hollywood & Catholic Priests
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Hollywood is not known for being friendly to Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular, especially nowadays; unfortunately, there is no shortage of storylines and characters that mock and even demonize believers. At the same time, however, whenever the film industry wishes to depict a “religious looking” scene or add a transcendent element to the plot, it frequently employs Catholic architecture,...
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WOF 532: The Suffocating "Warmth" of Marxist Collectivism
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Marxism, unfortunately, seems to be making a comeback. Despite its economically disastrous, politically oppressive, and horrifically inhumane track record, the atheistic philosophy that produced the Communist revolution and eventually led to the deaths of tens of millions of people has wheedled its way back to the center of our political culture. On the surface, this may sound surprising: Since the fall of the Berlin Wall...
info_outlineWelcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I’m Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The Old Testament is about three-quarters of the Bible. It is theologically and morally impossible for Christians to understand God’s relationship with the world, the nature and purpose of human beings, original sin, salvation history, the person of Jesus Christ, and the foundation of the Church without it. Indeed, as far back as the second century AD, the Church condemned the heresy of Marcionism, which sought to distinguish the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament and to lop off the Old Testament from the biblical canon. There is and never has been, in short, Christianity without the Old Testament. Nevertheless, much of the text remains difficult for the faithful to understand and, even more so, to explain to others, especially to those who know nothing about it. To make matters more complicated, secular critics of the faith often try to use the Old Testament against it, arguing—like the Marcionites of the past—that belief in the Old Testament is both irrational and immoral. So how should Catholics respond? What are some strategies we can employ not only to make the Old Testament accessible but also evangelically compelling? Here to help us understand the Old Testament and its enduring evangelical power, especially in a highly secularized culture, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:33 | Bishop Barron visits Washington
03:38 | How many Catholics read the Bible
09:37 | Understanding the Bible through the interpretive tradition of the Church
11:13 | The historical critical method of the Old Testament
13:10 | The influence of Joseph Ratzinger on Bishop Barron's biblical approach
16:00 | The otherness of God
20:28 | Why God's self-sufficiency matters for reading the Old Testament
22:57 | God as radically transcendent and personally involved
25:25 | God, creator of all people and the father of Israel
26:43 | Critique #1: The Old Testament God is violent
30:09 | Critique #2: The Old Testament God is a moody, jealous diva
32:52 | Critique #3: The Old Testament God is not the New Testament God
34:53 | Critique #4: The Old Testament is just a collection of myths
37:23 | Advice for evangelists regarding the Old Testament
39:34 | Listener Question: What is the Bible's role for Catholics
40:45 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
- Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/
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