Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 39

Tradition: The Democracy of the Dead

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” I’ve been pondering this for some time from a couple of different perspectives. First of all, in the present political maelstrom, when all seems uncertain and insecure, where the old definitions are dissolving [Read More...]

Ben Hur Re-Visited

They’re finishing an exciting re-make of the classic film Ben Hur. Ben-Hur is a major Paramount Pictures/MGM motion picture hitting theaters nationwide on August 12, 2016. Bursting with action – including a new chariot race for the ages – and elevated by Christian themes of justice, liberty & radical forgiveness, it tells the classic story [Read More...]

Ten Traits of the People Who Killed Jesus

In reading the daily gospels this passion week it is frightening to see the traits of the religious leaders who killed Jesus. They exhibit the kind of anti-religion that develops within any religious system. It has shown its ugly face with many different names. In one place Manicheanism, in another age Jansenism, in another place [Read More...]

Movies and the Middle Ages

My article for Imaginative Conservative this week discusses the visual age we live in and why it is increasingly like the Middle Ages. One of the reasons I sometimes wax nostalgic for the Middles Ages is for the religious spectacle. This was an age of the dramatic gesture: St. Francis standing barefoot in the snow [Read More...]

CRUX is Dead. Long Live CRUX

Yesterday the Boston Globe pulled the plug on its support for the Catholic website CRUX. I had the privilege of attending the star-studded launch of CRUX about a year and a half ago. I was in Boston at the time and went along to meet the folks and find out what was up. I knew [Read More...]

Fighting the Fundamentalists…

…Why would you do that? My blog posts on Catholic fundamentalism this week have provoked the predictable tempest in a teapot. Some have questioned why I do not have a comments box on my blog and suspect it is because I do not have the courage to debate with people. The fact of the matter [Read More...]

New OLR Video!

Check out this stunning video of the construction of our new church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Greenville. Would you please help by sharing this as widely as possible?

The Domestic Monastery…

…is another name for the Benedict Option. My latest article at National Catholic Register assesses the signs of the times and wonders if it isn’t time to emulate St Benedict–who headed for the hills when faced with a society in terminal decline. By the end of the fifth century, the Roman Empire was in ruins. [Read More...]

Catholic Fundamentalists Take Two

In case anyone thought yesterday’s blog post on Catholic fundamentalists was some sort of hit job on traditionalists, the comments box at CRUX on my most recent article remind us that the wild eyed fundamentalists are not only conservative Catholics. They’e on the other side of the fence too. The radical trendies are just as [Read More...]

Ten Traits of Catholic Fundamentalism

Within Catholic ultra traditionalist circles a new wave of ugliness has arisen. Numerous traditionalist blogs, websites and publications spew disrespectful hatred towards the Catholic church. They mock the Mass by despising the “Novus Ordo” they denigrate the Holy Father referring to him as “Pope Frank” or “Bergoglio” and refer to their mother the Catholic Church [Read More...]