More Christianity

More Christianity.  By Dwight Longenecker, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2002.

 

The backstories of converts to Catholicism are widely varied, but all are inspiring in amazingly different ways.  Dwight Longenecker was born into an Evangelical Christian family from Pennsylvania.  His education took him from Bob Jones University across the Atlantic to Oxford University.  Longenecker would stay in England for years, becoming a member of the Anglican clergy and working in numerous positions until growing dissatisfaction with the state of Anglicanism led him, his wife, and his children to convert to Catholicism.  More Christianity is one of the numerous pieces of apologetic religious writing he would produce over the next several years.  Longenecker returned to the clergy in 2006, when he took the job of the Chaplain of St. Joseph’s Catholic School in South Carolina.  Later in the same year, he became a priest, which is allowable in Roman Catholicism because married Anglican clergy who have converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism may, under certain circumstances, become Catholic priests while remaining married.  His blog is titled “Standing on my Head,” (http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/) and the website serves as a news and discussion board for numerous religious, cultural, and artistic issues.

 

The title of this book is inspired by C.S. Lewis’s classic Mere Christianity, a collection of essays about the nature of Christianity and its doctrines.  The contents of Mere Christianity were originally a series of lectures about Christianity broadcast over the radio during World War Two.  (For more on Lewis’s Mere Christianity, please see the Catholic Book Reviews Monthly review for May 2007.)

 

Like Lewis’s Mere Christianity, Longenecker’s More Christianity is an adaptation of several lectures that he originally prepared for the radio.  Longenecker hastens to limit the comparisons between himself and Lewis, going so far as to call his own adaptation of Lewis’s famous title “shameless” (9).  In an introduction by Thomas Howard, Longenecker’s motives in crafting this volume are explained.  Howard believes that “Longenecker has not written a Catholic diatribe.  This is not a Catholic attack on Protestants.  Rather, with immense tact, clarity, sagacity, and learning, he takes us the rest of the way along the road charted in Mere Christianity.  Again, it must be stressed that Longenecker is not presuming to piggyback, or cash in on, Lewis’s work, nor to set himself up as Lewis’s successor” (15).

 

Lewis called his book Mere Christianity because he wished to explain the basics of the religion that all branches of Christianity share, doing so in a simple and clear way that that could appeal to a popular audience.  Comparatively, Longenecker chose to call his book More Christianity because he was attempting to explain how the Catholic Church was not a distortion, a corruption, or an unnecessary elaboration of the teachings of Jesus Christ; but instead is a fuller and more thorough understanding of the history and lessons of Christianity than any other denomination.  When explaining how Catholicism takes Christianity further than other faiths, Longenecker writes:

 

“Throughout this book I have stressed that Catholic Christianity is “more Christianity,” not “mere Christianity.”  Time and again I have tried to show that Catholics do not believe differently than other Christians; rather, they believe morethan other Christians.  We affirm everything other Christians affirm.  We simply cannot deny some of the things they deny.  When it comes to the Blessed Virgin Mary, this is especially true.  All traditional Christians affirm the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We all believe he really was true God and true man.  This is “mere Christianity” if you like.  Catholic Christians affirm the Incarnation too, but we also pay devotion and honor to that singular and extraordinary young girl through whom the Incarnation became possible.  Because of the Incarnation we honor Mary, and by honoring Mary we praise God for the Incarnation.  Without her “yes” to God our Lord would not have been born.  As a result we not only give thanks to God for her, but we also realize that because of her submission to God’s will each one of us has a Savior” (223-224).

 

Longenecker opens his book with a brief look at Lewis’s career and legacy, and moves on to discuss Lewis’s profound effect on his own religious development and intellectual formation.  Though Longenecker was accustomed to emotional, passionate approaches to faith due to his Evangelical/Fundamentalist background, he found Lewis’s cerebral, intelligent approach to exploring Christianity extremely satisfying and fulfilling.  

 

Lewis’s influence on Longenecker is evident throughout More Christianity, evidenced by more than just the numerous references to Mere Christianity.  Frequent references are made to some of Lewis’s other work.  The Screwtape Lettersare cited in order to illustrate how there is nothing sinful about many simple pleasures, and The Great Divorce is used to underscore an explanation of Catholic teaching regarding Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.  Longenecker also adopts and in some cases expands some of the metaphors Lewis often utilized in his writings, such as Lewis’s comparison of all of Christianity and its denominations to a large mansion with many rooms, as he does when he writes:

 

“If becoming a Christian is like entering a great hall, then becoming a Catholic is stepping from that entrance hall into an enormous country house… In going through the door you may feel full of apprehension and anticipation at the same time.  You may feel you have left all to follow Christ (cf. Matthew 19:27), but once inside you will discover that everything has been restored.  You will not have left home but arrived home and known the place for the first time.  You will not have denied anything of true value; instead you will have discovered the source and fulfillment of all that has gone before.  In becoming a Catholic you will have chosen not a hall or a side room but that ancient and glorious mansion that Christ himself has built” (38). 

 

While Longenecker is strongly convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith, he does have some strong ecumenical messages sprinkled throughout the book.  The common ground that all traditional Christians share receives frequent mention.  Examples of dialogue, such as the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, the product of a major Catholic and Lutheran exchange and cooperation, are also cited (107).  The point of the book is not to argue for religious moral relativism, but, as Longenecker writes, “This book is intended to help non-Catholic Christians who are interested in historic Christianity to understand the modern Catholic Church more easily” (30).

 

The audience for More Christianity may actually be considerably wider than just non-Catholics who seek a more thorough explanation of Catholic teachings.  Many Catholics may be able to turn to this book for a better comprehension about how their faith differs from other denominations, as well as to dispel several prevalent myths or exaggerations about their belief systems that have permeated the popular culture.  Although Longenecker’s intention may not have been to attempt to bask in Lewis’s limelight, when crafting a religious reading list, More Christianity has an excellent claim to being read immediately after Mere Christianity.