Romance of Religion for Christmas

Last updated on: December 9, 2014 at 8:19 pm by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Romance of Religion for Christmas 2014-12-09T20:19:45-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

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Why not order a signed copy of my book The Romance of Religion as a Christmas gift?

Here’s an excerpt

In a world of useful things it might seem absurd to write a book in praise of romance. Who needs romance in a world that has been rationalized, economized, mechanized and computerized? Can romance survive in a world of profit margins and the bottom line? Isn’t romance (with its unfulfilled longing) a waste of time in a world where every desire can be gratified cheerfully and cheaply? Can the frail flower of romance live in the winter of a cold and cynical age? Can romance thrive where angels in full flight are shot down with facts, and fragile ideals are shattered by the hard stones of reality?

Let’s be optimistic. We should never be too convinced by the attitudes and emotions of the age in which we live. When poisonous ideas are universal, the desire for an antidote becomes all the more urgent. When certain ideas seem unassailable there is all the more reason to predict their downfall. Anything that has reached its peak must be on the brink of decline. Conversely, any process of thought that has reached its nadir can only be on the way up.

History shows that the pendulum swings back. Just when we thought a political system, a philosophy or an attitude was true and fixed for all time it is swept away by some sort of revolution. Those systems (like atheistic communism) that are built on false premises simply cannot stand. Like the house build on sand, it must fall when the tide comes in. Does our Western materialistic society seem thoroughly rationalistic, atheistic, despairing, and brutal? All the more reason to believe that the edifice is about to crumble and that everyone will soon be fascinated by faith and enchanted by the romance of religion.

It is a sad diagnosis, but the Western mind is seriously sick. Like the psychotic, we can’t think straight anymore—even if we want to. Like the psychotic there are only two options: Either we drift further into nihilism and continue to commit a kind of cultural and corporate suicide, or we get better. Put simply, we either turn into the dark void or turn away from the dark void, and to turn away from the dark void means we become romantics once more. What do I mean by becoming romantic? I mean that we realize we are members of a frail and finite little race, and as such we are all a little bit mad.

In other words, because we are limited in our knowledge, even the sanest of us are slightly insane. Our limitations are a kind of madness, and we only have two choices: to deny we are mad, and so descend into a dark spiral of total insanity, or accept we are mad and embark on a quest to regain our true and wholesome sanity.

To do this we need to engage in battle with the dark and embark on a valiant quest. We need to find the costume cupboard, dust off the broad-brimmed hat of the musketeer, practice brandishing the rapier and fare forward to defend the honor of our beloved. I’m suggesting that, like Don Quixote, we read the old books, don the armor, whistle for Rocinante and ride out to do battle with windmills. In other words, we need to discover once again that we have something to die for, for it is only when we have something to die for that we have something to live for.

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