Brandon Vogt is a Catholic, husband, father, author, blogger, speaker and mechanical engineer. He is the author of many books, and runs a blog and a website for Catholic and atheist discussion. Originally published on my website GADEL.info.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: Who is Brandon Vogt?
Brandon Vogt: I’m a 27-year old Catholic, husband, father, author, blogger, speaker, and mechanical engineer–in that order. I’ve written a couple books including The Church and New Media (Our Sunday Visitor, 2011) and the Study Guide for Fr. Robert Barron’s forthcoming film, CATHOLICISM: The New Evangelization. I blog at BrandonVogt.com, and back in May I founded StrangeNotions.com, the central place of discussion for Catholics and atheists.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: What keeps you going in your many Catholic projects?
Brandon Vogt: That’s simple: my passion for Jesus Christ. I want people to know and love the Lord. Evangelizing is the greatest adventure in life. No other pursuit carries more difficult challenges with such inestimable rewards.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: Which of the Catholic Saints would you have loved to interview and why?
Brandon Vogt: Well, my favorite saint is Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, so I would naturally love to sit down and chat with him. Then there’s Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Augustine. But one man I would love to interview, especially in light of today’s secular tsunami, is St. Thomas Aquinas. I’d ask him two questions. First, what would he say to the so-called New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, etc.) My guess is that he’d treat their arguments seriously and fairly before offering devastating point-by-point refutations. My second question would be, how do you become a thinking saint? He’d probably give the same answer he gave his sister: “You will it.” But I’d try to squeeze more out of him.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: You are a husband and father, can you tell me more about that vocation?
Brandon Vogt: That’s my greatest challenge, my greatest joy, and my greatest honor. It’s a serious responsibility knowing that every day you’re helping your wife and kids move closer to heaven or hell–to become, in the words of C.S. Lewis, either everlasting splendors or immortal horrors. God has given me and all men one task alone: to encourage saints. I try to remember that everyday. At the end of my life, my faith-in-action will be judged by how I helped my family to know and love the Lord.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: How do you see the Church in America?
Brandon Vogt: We’re in an interesting spot right now. Of course, the subtle persecutions and religious tepidity mean we live in a culture that is mostly ambivalent toward Catholicism. Yet I don’t see that as all bad: it’s a great opportunity. It’s when the walls cave in around the Church that heroic saints rise up and burst out. The stage has been set for an evangelical renewal in the Catholic Church and the warriors are sprouting up in many parts of the country.
Godwin Delali Adadzie: What are your favorite books?
Brandon Vogt: Great question! My top four favorites are Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Frank Sheed’s To Know Christ Jesus, Lewis’ Mere Christianity, and Fr. Robert Barron’s Catholicism. The first taught me virtue. The second revealed the Lord. The third baptized my mind. And the fourth illuminated the Church. All four drew me deep into God.
Brandon Vogt is a Catholic blogger, writer, and speaker. He covers faith, technology, books, and more at BrandonVogt.com where he offers regular book reviews and weekly giveaways.
Brandon has been featured by several media outlets including NPR, FoxNews, EWTN, Our Sunday Visitor, and Christianity Today, and he’s a regular guest on Catholic radio.
He’s also the author of “The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops who Tweet”, published by Our Sunday Visitor.
