Sometimes the problems with new phrases is that they are used so often without definition. It is also easy to get such phrases mixed with other phrases. Often you hear the New Evangelization as being mixed in with New Media. So defining terms is always important.
So I was glad to see this article by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP who answers the question “What is the New Evangelization.”
His explanation reminded me of one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:
“It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity.””The Dumb Ox”
The New Evangelization is a both/and approach and really not new but renewed. Maybe that is what has come to annoy me about the term is just how misused “New” is. We are constantly blasted with how something is new in advertising copy. Although I am quite glad Blessed John Paul II did not call it the “New and Improved Evangelization.”
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I remember CS Lewis once said something along the lines of this (I’m horribly paraphrasing):
The modern world is not like the pagans of the Apostolic times who never heard of Jesus. Today they are post-Christian. While neither is Christian there is a big difference. It’s like the difference between a virgin and a divorcee. Neither are married, but the divorcee has “heard it all before” and has rejected it.