Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 116

Movie Popes

  My article for Aleteia this week catalogues the various portrayals of popes on film–from Jeremy Irons’ Alexander VI to Alec Guiness’ Innocent III Struck by the underlying drama of the papacy (and being somewhat of a movie buff), I began to explore the portrayal of popes on film. Some of the world’s finest actors [Read More...]

The General Thanksgiving

I do sometimes miss the Church of England and the Book of Common Prayer. For Thanksgiving Day here is Cranmer’s “General Thanksgiving” Have a great day! ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men;  We [Read More...]

Thanksgiving and Puddleglum

One of the simplest bits of evidence for the existence of God is the human instinct to give thanks. What is this strange impulse in the human heart to thank someone? We stop and pause on  the mountaintop and view the expansive sky  and we are swept with wonder and want to give thanks. We [Read More...]

The Fires of Ferguson and the Dynamic of Blame

The violence erupting in Ferguson, Missouri is not really about racial tension or socio economic inequality. It’s not about class struggle or police brutality or social injustice. It’s a symptom of a much deeper poison which I call the Dynamic of Blame. Rooted within every human heart is the stain of original sin. Now, when [Read More...]

The Pros and Cons of a Married Priesthood – 2

My problem in researching the married priesthood is that whenever I find a good argument against, I immediately come up with an equally good argument in favor. Here’s an example: “The married priest will not be able to devote himself exclusively to his vocation as a priest. He will either be so busy as a [Read More...]

A Married Priest on Married Priests – 1

What are the pros and cons of being a married priest? I’ll be writing on various aspects of this question over the next few days. Firstly, we need to get some huge red herrings out of the way. People say, “A married man will understand married people’s problems better than a celibate man.” On the [Read More...]

Anglicans Wonder Why No One Comes to Church on Sunday

  An article in the Daily Telegraph ponders why the number of people attending parish churches in England continues to plummet. While attendance at cathedral worship is up, the number of worshippers in the local churches is in free fall. The Anglicans, of course, are not the only ones. All the churches in the Western [Read More...]

A Married Priest on Married Priests

Last week I was asked by an editor at the New York Times to contribute a very short article as part of a forum on the issue of married priests in the Catholic Church. She asked me specifically to outline some practical reasons against having married priests. I did so, and thereby received a fair [Read More...]

The Radical Vision of the Christian Family

I was asked to comment on the marriage-family crisis in our society. This interview was published elsewhere last week. I thought it would combine to make a good blog post. Enjoy. Is there a marriage crisis in the United States? How would you characterize it? “Crisis” is a good word to use because part of [Read More...]

CSL and JFK – Two Jacks

Today is the fifty first anniversary of the death of C.S.Lewis. He died, of course, on the same afternoon that JFK was gunned down in Texas. Both men were nicknamed “Jack” and that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. The two Jacks symbolize two different ways through the world. Jack Lewis stands for the world of [Read More...]