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Title: More Christianity by Dwight Longenecker ISBN: 1-931709-35-1 Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor Pub. Date: 01 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Apologetics You Can Recommend w/out Apologies
Comment: So much of the new apologetics - though well-intentioned and theologically sound - is marred by pedestrian prose, testimonial melodramatics, juvenile debating tactics and or flat humor. Thus it is hard to find a book to cite in mixed company which you can recommend without a list of caveats.
No more. Longenecker's book is a terrific presentation of the Catholic Church for those coming from the Evangelical mindset. It is Bible-based, charitable, self-effacing, and modest in its ambitions, as well as being crisply written. "More Christianity" belongs on your short list of great material beside Kreeft, Howard and Krehbiel [see the latter's on-line only "Cheshire Christ" at crowhill.net].
One complaint: can the publisher please, please revamp its graphics department?! Great books like this one [and Avery Dulles' "New World of Faith" which they also published with an absurdly embarrassing jacket] deserve better than the late 90s high school photoshop class treatments they keep cranking out.
Rating: 5
Summary: Putting out the Welcome-mat for Evangelical Christians
Comment: Note to fans of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity: There's more. In this book, Longenecker ventures a good part of the way into the minefield of the 'More'. The book emerged from his own story, of finding his way to Rome, on a path that started out fundamentalist/evangelical Mennonite-influenced and led to Canterbury and Anglicanism and, eventually, to Catholicism. Unlike a lot of conversion stories, though, this one refrains utterly from even the least disparagement of Protestantism. Not once coming across as superior or sneering at the values of Protestant Christianity (in this respect he seems to have perfected the benevolent manner of C.S. Lewis, the eternal kindly uncle of evangelical Christianity), Longenecker writes with both perspicacity and genuine affection for the days of family altar, revival meetings, and youth camps in Pennsylvania. The hymns and stories remembered from his youth and favorite Scriptures, all become, in this rendition, an overture to something else deeper and more dynamic, like a great opera that is ready with the stage set and just waiting for the curtain to rise.
Somehow in the search for and propagation of 'mere' Christianity, a lot of Christians seem to have forgotten to ask what else there is to the Christian experience: to Longenecker this is an almost unimaginable pity, like walking away from a banquet after just sampling the hors d'oeuvres. 'More Christianity' orients the seeker of the More to historical Christianity in its full expression, in particular, as found in the Roman Catholic Church, and fully addresses the stereotypes and misgivings that Protestants have about Rome, without resorting to strident theological polemics. Protestant readers who devoted to the truth, and are curious and really open to understanding the teachings of historical Christianity and who are ready to forsake some dogmatic misconceptions, will be surprised at how amicable and uncomplicated the way back to Rome could be after all. Definitely the best book of its kind.
Rating: 4
Summary: An Ideal Book for Curious Evangelicals
Comment: It takes courage (some would say audacity) to write a book that plays on the title of C. S. Lewis's most famous work, Mere Christianity. But Longenecker has succeeded in writing a work of Catholic apologetics that pays homage to Mere Christianity and explains Catholic doctrine with verve and joy.
Longenecker is no stranger to both Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. He attended Bob Jones University, and while studying there became acquainted with the writings of C. S. Lewis. Longenecker eventually moved to England, attended Oxford, and became an Anglican priest. Years later, after much study and consideration, he entered the Catholic Church and has been writing about Catholicism and apologetics ever since.
The goal of More Christianity, Longenecker states, is "to help non-Catholic Christians who are interested in historic Christianity to understand the modern Catholic Church more easily." Clearly he has written his book with the curious, well-read Evangelical in mind - the sort of informed Protestant who relishes reading C. S. Lewis and has questions about the Catholic Church. "Now at the dawn of the twenty-first century," Longenecker argues, "that simple Gospel that Lewis branded 'mere Christianity' and that Evangelicals call the 'old, old story' is more fully and universally presented in the Catholic Church than anywhere else."
Longenecker understands that Mere Christianity was not meant to be promote a minimalist Christianity, as some critics suggest. "Lewis's Mere Christianity is good as far as it goes, and as a first step in Christian apologetics it probably has no equal. To be fair, Lewis denied that his use of 'mere' in the title indicated the lowest common denominator." The major flaw of the famous book is its lacking ecclessiology. The problem, Longenecker argues, "is that Lewis and other well-meaning non-Catholics believe the fundamentals can exist as objective truth outside the dynamic life of the Church. . . . The basic truths of the Christian faith cannot be separated from the wholeness of the Church. Catholics believe those basic truths can be most fully known within the bosom of the Church."
After establishing these and other core premises, Longenecker works his way through the major issues separating Catholics from Evangelicals: eccelesiology, authority, the papacy, salvation, the sacraments, the Eucharist, the saints, and Mary. While not breaking any new apologetic ground, but he does a fine job of comparing Catholic doctrine with common Evangelical notions and misunderstandings. His chapter on the Real Presence is one of the best. He correctly observes, "I believe most Evangelicals deny the supernatural dimension of the Eucharist through an inherited misunderstanding of the Catholic position combined with a concession to the spirit of the age that is skeptical of anything supernatural. The way forward is to remind Evangelicals that they do actually believe in the supernatural; they do believe God is at work in the world in wonderful ways."
Longenecker's discussions of salvation and Marian beliefs would have benefited from a greater emphasis on grace as the supernatural life of God. Catholics agree that grace is divine favor, but go much farther and deeper than do Evangelicals in holding that grace is the Trinitarian life that truly infuses the soul. And the issue of confirmation is clouded by comparing the sacrament to "personal conversion." Unfortunately, this suggests that confirmation is about an individual decision, not the conferring of further supernatural grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the person - whether they are an adult, a teen, or a baby.
A balanced, engaging, and charitable work, More Christianity will go far in helping Evangelicals (and Catholics) better appreciate the riches and glories of the Catholic Church.
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Title: Challenging Catholics: A Catholic Evangelical Dialogue by Dwight Longenecker, John Martin ISBN: 1842270966 Publisher: Paternoster Publishing Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.99 |
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Title: Adventures in Orthodoxy by Dwight Longenecker ISBN: 1928832660 Publisher: Sophia Institute Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Mary: A Catholic, Evangelical Debate by Dwight Longenecker, David Gustafson ISBN: 158743072X Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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Title: C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church by Joseph Pearce ISBN: 0898709792 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Lewis Agonistes: How C.S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle With the Modern and Postmodern World by Louis Markos ISBN: 0805427783 Publisher: Broadman & Holman Publishers Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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