The liturgy properly offered in a suitable building offers a harmonization of the arts and culture as no other human experience can do... On Advent Sunday last year, we dedicated the new church in our small parish in South Carolina. The impact of worshipping in a beautiful temple rather than a fan-shaped suburban auditorium is [...]
Poets stand on the cusp of a new opening to a renewal of the Spirit in language, to a renewal of the infinite resonance of words, so that we may hope to infuse new depths into literary productions without at the same time losing our connection with Tradition. On a recent trip to Italy, I [...]
The conduct of the tourists in Florence, as they aimed their smart phone cameras at one great work of art after another and quickly moved on, puzzled me. What was this strange behavior?… It was with mixed emotions that I anticipated a few days in Florence this summer. I had first visited the city thirty [...]
Hunting Will Shakespeare will be a continuing pursuit. It is almost as if the hunt for him is a hunt for humanity and a search to understand ourselves… My oldest son, Benedict has rightly observed that TV series are now more interesting than movies. Many of the series are well written, well budgeted, and well [...]
The ancient Catholic world was rich, colorful, and full of ritual and rumbustiousness. It was the culture of the rough and tumble, blood and glory, lusting and loving, fasting and feasting of the lives of the English people. I was introduced to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night when I was a college freshman. Having learned to act [...]
We can approach the miracles and mysteries of the Bible, accepting the possibility of their essential historicity while allowing for elaboration, exaggeration, and the misunderstandings of the pre-scientific mind. I have had a terrific time researching and writing my new book The Mystery of the Magi—The Quest for the True Identity of the Three Wise [...]
The continued appeal of Jane Austen’s work is in the true simplicity and humility hidden within the complex, deceitful web of human pride and prejudice… Taking some entertainment time, we sat down last week to watch again the classic BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) was just as pompous [...]
Religious dogma is true— indispensably true—but Truth is truer, and bigger than dogma in the same way that a map is true, but the journey is truer and bigger than the map… Editor’s Note: This essay is an abridged version of a chapter in Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s book The Romance of Religion. When I was [...]
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ in-depth study of nature itself and his reality-based Scotist philosophy manifested in a poetry that penetrates to the heart of beauty and unlocks that gash, that gush, that glimpse of glory for the mortal reader. Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life, by Paul Mariani (512 pages, Viking, 2008) There can be no better biographer [...]
Gerard Manley Hopkins was a philosopher, and not only a philosopher but a prophet, and not only a prophet but a priest, for he saw the intimate eternal reality of all created things and called us to share the vision and knowledge that the whole world is charged with the grandeur of God. Believing that [...]
Other boys wanted to be football or basketball stars, millionaires, politicians, engineers, businessmen, lawyers, and doctors. My aim was to be an Anglican country parson. T.S. Eliot and George Herbert were my role models… From time to time, I am invited to speak to groups who want to hear my conversion story. The audiences are always [...]
The Benedict Option is more about a change of heart and mind than growing a beard, getting some chickens, and building a utopian religious community in the woods. The Benedict Option means coming to the realization that the time for dialogue and debate is over and the time for quiet action has begun. Much has [...]
The demon Slubgrip: "We must admit that all we can really do about it is to limit the pleasure—twist, and distort it as much as possible, and use it as a kind of false god which drives their attention away from the Enemy"... Slubgrip Instructs: Fifty Days with the Devil by Dwight Longenecker (Stauffer Books, [...]
Ostensibly about the Second World War, Foyle’s War actually concerns the war against the encroaching doom of the modern world… From time to time I am asked, “Father, how do you get so much done? You write books and essays, maintain a blog, run a parish, build a church, lead pilgrimages, and go on speaking tours and [...]