Book Review: Adventures in Orthodoxy by Dwight Longenecker

Adventures in Orthodoxy: The Marvels of the Christian Creed and the Audacity of Belief by Dwight Longenecker

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is an ancient text that summarizes the basic beliefs held by almost all Christians. Like any list of basics handed down from posterity, it can seem a bit rote and remote. In this book, Father Longenecker goes through the creed phrase by phrase, showing how the ideas are revolutionary and exciting. One of Longenecker's favorite things is to look at things from different perspectives, as if standing on one's head in order to notice different details. His comments are both insightful and witty, making the book a delightful and quick read.

Here's a rather long quote, but it so well exemplifies the writing style and intelligence of the book:

Try a little experiment. Just for fun, if you aren't already Catholic, tell people you've decided to convert. Your friends with taste will tease you for liking plastic snowstorm paperweights with miniature basilicas inside, paintings of Mary on black velvet, and pictures of Jesus with googly eyes. At the same time your friends who pride themselves on being "plain folk" will blame you for a sudden interest in Baroque architecture, lacy vestments, and Monteverdi Masses. Educated colleagues will denounce you for joining an ignorant and unthinking religion that demands blind obedience, while your less-educated friends will think you've been seduced by philosophical mumbo-jumbo. Your populist critic will blame you for being elitist, while the snob will smile sadly and say that you've chosen to mix with peasants, simpletons, and working-class drones. "Spiritual" friends will be incredulous at your acceptance of a rigid, dogmatic, and hierarchical system, while your theologically minded friends will say you've gone in for mysticism and mushy spirituality. Your liberal friends will shake their heads in dismay at the thought that you would submit to an authoritarian and misogynistic regime, while your conservative friends won't understand how you can possibly agree with a Church that promotes social-welfare programs, opposes the death penalty, and is in favor of ecology, ecumenism, and interfaith dialogue.
  If everyone attacked the Catholic Church for the same huge and terrible crimes--as they do Hitler, Pol Pot, or Bin Laden--we'd have to conclude that the Catholic Church was indeed a most terrible organization, and every good man and true should rise up against her. But since the attacks are on totally contradictory fronts, don't we have to suspect that there might be a problem, not with the attacked, but with the attackers? [p. 124-125]

The book is very orthodox and very entertaining and very thought-provoking. Catholic or not, it is well worth reading.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Mystery of the Magi by Dwight Longenecker

Mystery of the Magi: The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men by Dwight Longenecker

The story of three camel-riding kings from distant lands following a moving star into Bethlehem where they worship an infant in a stable is both popular to the general public and scoffed at by historians and biblical scholars. It sounds too fantastic and theatrical. Is it just a fun story to make Jesus look more divine, like Santa Claus lets us give presents to each other or the Easter bunny lets us eat lots of chocolate?

The original text in Matthew's Gospel is very spartan, with few details about who these men were and what motivated them. Longenecker's book is an investigation of the story of the Magi, trying to find the kernel of truth buried under layers of elaboration and fabrication. He describes how the story had details misconstrued or added. For example, the Magi are simply described as "from the East" which for Israel would mean Arabia. As the center of Christianity moved north, "The East" was more naturally Persia, which had a strong tradition of astrologers and sages. Of course, astrologers and sages could be found at virtually any court of any country at that time. Also, the Magi are never numbered in the Gospel, only that they brought three gifts. It might be natural to assume three gifts meant three gift-givers but the text doesn't say that. The text doesn't mention camels either though it does mention the Magi meeting the mother and Child in a house, not a stable.

After identifying the source of the many elaborations around the Magi story, Longenecker digs into the economic and political history of the time to search for a more plausible explanation of the Gospel text. Relatively recent archaeology (the last hundred years or so) has uncovered the Nabatean kingdom based out of Petra. The ruins of Petra are not very far from Jerusalem (100 miles in a straight line). The Nabatean trade routes ran through Judea, so they would be wise to have good relations with the neighboring kingdom. King Herod was a prickly fellow, who had played both sides of the Caesar vs. Antony and Cleopatra war and was certainly willing to betray anyone who had betrayed him. The king of Nabatea probably wouldn't go to celebrate a new king of the Jews (just to be safe) but surely he'd send envoys with gifts. When the Magi found out their mistake (i.e. the new king was not from Herod's line), they wisely went home by another route to avoid an awkward and possibly life-threatening encounter.

Longenecker goes into more detail that is fascinating and persuasive. The most persuasive part is how Longenecker acknowledges his work is speculative, i.e. it's based on both facts and logical guesses based on those facts, so new information could change things. He insists on the importance of getting facts because the gospels do record actual history (though that is not their intended aim) and the historicity of the New Testament is part of the truth of the Christian faith.

The book is a quick read (about 200 pages, including the notes, index, and bibliography) and is written for a non-academic audience. Reading this is well worth the time and especially good for the Christmas season.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: St. Benedict and St. Therese by Dwight Longenecker

St. Benedict and St. Therese: The Little Rule and the Little Way by Dwight Longenecker

Father Dwight Longenecker draws an interesting intersection between St. Benedict, the sixth century monk who founded western monasticism, and St. Therese of Lisieux, the 20th century French nun who posthumously took the world by storm with her beloved autobiography. Benedict, by contrast, wrote a rather dry book on how to run a monastery that is the classic guide though not popular reading. How does Longenecker make these apparently diverse tracks intersect? Through the Christian faith that they share and the relationship they both write about--the relationship between a father and a child.

For Benedict, the relationship is seen clearly between the monastery's abbot and the monks who live there. The abbot provides guidance, discipline, and care for those entrusted to him. The monks, for their part, make vows of obedience, stability (they will stay in the monastery for the rest of their lives), and conversion of life (they will seek a closer relationship to God). This relationship mirrors the relationship all we humans have as children to God the Father.

For Therese, the relationship is seen in her home life with her father, M. Martin, and with her obedience in the convent. She explicitly embraces her relation to God as His daughter, performing her tasks and living her life as a gift to God in the little things she does.

Longenecker's book beautifully and fluidly weaves back and forth between the two authors, reinforcing insights through examples in their lives and in the Gospels, as well as from the lives of other saints. The book is fairly easy to read and presents many encouraging thoughts to ponder. Most of all, it shows the reader how easily accessible is the life of holiness presented by St. Benedict and St. Therese. By living the faith in small, everyday, mundane acts we move along the path God has set for us; we live the vocation He has called us to. We become the best sort of children to God our Father.

Sample Quote:

"Ah," we say, "the little way of the Lamb is indeed a beautiful idea, and doubtless it is the way some are called to." But with the Gospel, Therese insists that this is not a way, but the way. To follow the Lamb and become a child is not an option; it is a command. "Unless you turn and become like children, " says the Gospel, "you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." "No grown-ups allowed" reads the sign over the door into paradise. Pearls are tiny, and so are the pearly gates. When Jesus said the way was narrow, perhaps he meant it was too narrow for grown-ups to squeeze through. The grown-ups are camels--hairy, lumpy, over-burdened, bad-tempered brutes--who can never get through that eye of a needle that is the little door of heaven. [pp. 58-59]

Book Review: The Vicar of Great Snoring by Dwight Longenecker

The Vicar of Great Snoring (The Adventures of Humphrey Blytherington) by Dwight Longenecker

Father Dwight Longenecker is an author with many good volumes to his name. He's written a short story about one of the characters from his blog. That character is Humphrey Blytherington, a Church of England pastor who just wants to get along with a quiet life. He is described thusly on the the blog:

Guest blogger, The Rev’d Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda’s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the Great Snoring Morris Dancers.

The tale is a bit of an origin story (like most superheroes have), describing how the good reverend came to Great Snoring. The story starts as he applies for the post at the Snorings' parishes. Vague hints are made of a financial kerfuffle at his previous parish, but since the story is told by Blytherington, you can't expect much in the way of detail or precision in such matters. He fumbles his way through with lots of good, comic scenes, like his introduction and induction into the Great Snoring Morris Dancers (Morris Dancers are a rather jolly though quaint folk dancing group found in England and among diasporadic anglophiles around the world).

The story is a fun little romp through English country culture. After living here for a year and a half, it is easy to fill the story's scenes with events and people I've seen first hand. I definitely recommend reading this for a slice of humor and British life.

SAMPLE QUOTE--Humphrey and the wife discuss one of the competing applicants for the vicarage...

“Oh dear. Why on earth does he want to come to a backwater like the Snorings?”
“Working on some sort of thesis, and has to live and work with the locals for a few years.”
“Why doesn’t he take himself off and become a missionary to the ignorant natives in the back of beyond?”
“I think that’s what he has in mind in coming to the Snorings.”

FaithWorks Newsletter

Father Dwight Longenecker is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I've reviewed his book, Listen My Son, which is an inspiring work applying St. Benedict's rule for monasteries  to home life, especially for contemporary fathers like me. Now he is starting a free weekly e-newsletter providing practical tips for living and growing in the Catholic faith. The newsletter is called FaithWorks. The page for signing up is here.

Here's his synopsis of the latest issue:

This week my main article is the beginning of a series entitled Finding Forgiveness. One of the main problems many people have is that they are burdened with problems from the past. They are burdened with guilt, with bad memories, with regrets for things they have done and things that have been done to them.

They've been to confession and they know God has forgiven them, but the problem is they still don't FEEL forgiven! There are ways to deal with this problem, and I'd like to suggest a few in this article and in the articles in the weeks to come.

Have you learned how to listen to the voice of the Lord? The second article is the beginning of a series on contemplative prayer. We're getting started on this topic this week, and I'll be writing much more on prayer and how to pray in the weeks ahead.

The newsletter isn't very long. I read it in under five minutes. And it comes to your email, so you don't have to check a blog or blog reader to see if a new one has published. Best of all, it provides some spiritual nuggets to help you along the way. Check it out!

Book Review: Listen My Son: St. Benedict for Fathers

Listen My Son: St. Benedict for Fathers by Dwight Longenecker. Morehouse Publishing, 2000, 288 pages, $28 US.

By dumb luck or divine providence (and I don't believe in dumb luck), the Happy Catholic has just written an article on devotional books, though her list is devoid of this jem we are reviewing today. Anyway, if this book doesn't seem like your cup of tea, be sure to check her article for a myriad of other recommendations.

Brief overview of content:

The key insight of this book is that the Rule of St. Benedict, written 1500 years ago for use in keeping a well-ordered monastery, is also applicable to modern day families, especially focusing on the role of the father as head of the family. Various aspects of monastic life are covered by Benedict, including the types of monks, the character of the abbot, the balance of prayer and work (Benedict is famous for the "ora et labora" concept of "prayer and work" being blended together), the importance of obedience and humility (virtues sorely lacking in our day), and many other practical concerns. These writings are skillfully applied to contemporary domestic life by Father Longenecker, a Catholic priest who, as a former Anglican minister, has a family himself. He does not use personal examples but his experience comes through.

The book takes Benedict's Rule and divides it up into daily meditations over four months. Each passage from Benedict is followed by an explanation or application to today's family by the author. Each day's reading is two or three pages, which can easily be read in five or ten minutes. The author even recommends days to start: January 1, May 2, or September 1. Each reading has a calendar day so it is easy to keep track if you fall behind. Since the readings are short, it is also easy to catch up to the current day.

Author overview:

Blurb from the back of the book: "Dwight Longenecker was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He studied theology at Oxford, and was ordained into the Anglican ministry. After ten years serving as a curate, school chaplain, and country parson, he was received into the Catholic Church. He is married and the father of four children."

Recommendations:

1. Read cover to cover vs. consult as needed.

Without an index or a robust table of contents, this book would be hard to consult as needed. It's pretty easy to read cover to cover if you follow the "one chapter a day" plan and are patient. The whole book is worth reading.

2. Readability.

The translation of The Rule of St Benedict is not archaic or hard to read and the author's commentary is very no nonsense, straightforward, and accessible. Reading only three pages at the most each day is also an easy accomplishment.

3. Helpful to a parent?

While the book is focused on fatherhood and how men can be better fathers, the information is also useful for mothers and other family members. The Rule of St Benedict wasn't written for the abbot of the monastery, nor just for the members, but even those thinking of joining the monastery. They all had to read it (or have it read to them) several times. Likewise, this book is valuable for all family members.

4. Did we use it?

Some parts of the book were rather compelling. Benedict goes on at length about praying throughout the day, especially using the Psalms. The author recommends using short prayers throughout the day, even as short as "God, come to my assistance; Lord, make haste to help us." Such a prayer is easy to fit into any schedule and can be the start of something bigger. At least I hope it will be so for me.

Sample text

On the value of giving "time outs" as punishment in a monastery or at home:

...Benedict uses isolation from the community because the stubborn, grumbling and disobedient monk has, by his actions and attitude, shown himself to be unfit company. The extent of the isolation matches the seriousness of his fault. This is fair and logical.

Isolation is also a fair punishment to use in the home. If a child's behaviour is obnoxious he should be separated so that everyone else will be spared his bad behaviour. Children can be sent to their room; in some homes a special chair in a room is reserved for isolation. Isolation is effective if the amount of isolation suits the child's misdemeanour. The manner of isolating the child is important. He or she should never be isolated with sarcasm or personal comments which make the isolation a personal rejection. Instead it must be emphasized that they are being separated because their behaviour is troubling the rest of the family. [pp. 141-142]