Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 3

The Future Church

John Allen Jr. is one of the most experienced, objective and knowledgable journalists on the Vatican scene today. For decades he has been covering the Catholic Church news worldwide and is an invaluable source for news, reflection and comment. Ten years ago John published an important book The Future Church in which he charted ten trends that […]

After the Fire Can a Modern Spire Inspire?

Baron Foster of Thames Bank aka Norman Foster is the baron of high tech modernist architects. Foster is famous for the glass and steel Hearst Tower in New York and pickle shaped “Gherkin” that distinguishes the modern London skyline. Quick off the mark after the Notre Dame fire, Foster enthused that the restoration of the […]

T.S.Eliot and C.S.Lewis, Nuns, The Mission and The Creator of All Things…

I must have written thousands of articles over the years for various papers, journals, blogs, websites and magazines. Bit by bit they are being archived over at my main blog-website. Scroll to the bottom of the home page to see the various categories: apologetics, church history, film and television, culture, the Inklings and more. Four […]

Planet of the Apes: Science but Not Fiction?

A researcher in North Carolina has pulled out of a genetics experiment because he’s worried about the ethics of it. This article reports that Chinese scientists have inserted human genetic material into the brains of monkey so they will become “more human” Like most people my mind jumped immediately to the Planet of the Apes […]

On the Execution of John William King

Yesterday in Texas, an avowed white supremacist, John William King, was executed for his part in the gruesome killing of James Byrd Jr. in 1998. King and his friends Shawn Berry and Lawrence Brewer beat James Byrd then chained him to the back of their pickup and dragged him for miles along a country road. […]

Sri Lanka: The Mystery of Martyrdom

After the horrific terrorist bombing in Sri Lanka our modern, utilitarian world asks why such things happen. They happen because, below the surface of our political news cycle, below the surface of our celebrity culture, below the surface of our affluence, below the surface of our humanistic attempts to create our utopias another battle simmers. […]

Was the Last Supper on Wednesday Not Thursday Night?

Anyone who reads the gospels closely will have discovered some seeming discrepancies in the timing of the event of Jesus’ Last Supper, arrest, trial and execution. The most glaring problem is that John’s gospel has Jesus being executed on Friday afternoon, the day the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple. However, the Last […]

The Notre Dame Blaze: Was It Terrorism?

One of the questions which immediately arose during yesterday’s fire at Notre Dame in Paris was whether this was a jihadist terrorist action. In 2016 three jihadist women were arrested for plotting to blow up Notre Dame and last Friday, one of their number–Ines Madani–was sentenced in a French court. Curiously, a fire broke out […]

Ocasio-Cortez and the Resentment Flip

Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a hero? I think she’s driven by the Resentment Loop. After reading Max Scheler’s Ressentiment I’m fascinated first of all by what I call the Resentment Loop. This is the constant replay of negative emotions or experiences. We do this when there has been some conflict that we are powerless to resolve. You know […]

Meghan Markle and the Ten Commandments

There was some gossip last week that the latest member of the royal family–American TV personality Meghan Markle said the baby she and Prince Harry are expecting will be raised “gender fluid. The palace PR machine went on to deny the story utterly, simply saying it was false. It does open the question to the […]