Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 198

Anglicans No Longer Weird!

The Church of England General Synod has finally voted to allow women bishops. The Daily Telegraph reports here. The main thrust of the argument seems to be that the members of the Church of England didn’t want to feel ‘weird’. During the debate at Church House in London one leading women cleric warned that the [Read More...]

Stick ‘em Up

Every November I have my annual Stick ‘em Up Campaign. Put bluntly, the ole cowboy to the left asks readers to cough up for the blog. However, now that readers have to put up with ads, I don’t like to hold people up like the old days. So I’m not asking for money for myself [Read More...]

Do We Have a Progressive Pope?

Here is my latest article for Aleteia: Is Pope Francis a Progressive? The attraction in the modern and affluent developed world is to accept without question the pleasant, tasteful, and smiling materialism of our society. The way of the world is presented as beautiful, satisfying, and harmless. And in our desire to go with the [Read More...]

Dating the New Testament

For the life of me I have never been able to figure out why scholars make such a big difficulty out of dating the New Testament. On the face of it, the problem is not so difficult, but what we have to do is take things at face value with common sense. Once we get [Read More...]

The Church of England is Dying…

…or so says Lord Carey–the former Archbishop of Canterbury in the Daily Telegraph. Carey is an evangelical and so he thinks the only thing that will save the Church of England is happy clappy services and the Alpha Course. The more waspish A.N.Wilson comments sharply here saying that the reason Christianity is dying is because [Read More...]

Missionaries and Martyrs

Today on the SonRise Morning Show Brian Patrick asked me what the difference was between the national saints of England and the national saints of the United States. Missionaries and martyrs! The saints of North America are all missionaries. Yesterday, for example, St Rose Philippine Duchesne. What a life! She comes to the new world [Read More...]

Looking for Another Country

I’ve started as a regular contributor to The Imaginative Conservative website.  My first article is on longing and joy in C.S.Lewis and T.S.Eliot. There is an open space in the human heart–a void that seeks fulfillment and a hunger that longs for satisfaction. For the progressive this longing looks to the future. A brave new [Read More...]

C.S.Lewis’ Goodly Crew of Catholic Converts

Having just had lunch with Joseph Pearce today I was pleased to bump into this article of his for Catholic World Report. It chronicles the large number of converts to the Catholic Church because of C.S.Lewis. New York Times journalist Ross Douthat puts it most succinctly: “First your start reading, C.S.Lewis and that leads you [Read More...]

Where’s My Phone Call from Francis?

This new pope keeps calling people on the phone. He hasn’t called me yet. When is he going to get around to it? Is he slacking or what? I think it’s quite a nice thing for the Pope to call people. The good thing about personal conversations is that they happen in real time and [Read More...]

Pope John Paul on Persecution

This brief post calls to mind two statements by Bl. Pope John Paul II which have an apocalyptic tone–sober reading for this weekend’s lessons from the gospel on persecution. Here’s one. We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and [Read More...]