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Catholic Online Interviews Fr Dwight Longenecker on His Lenten Book: The Gargoyle Code

2/16/2012

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down. By getting into the skin of the tempters I am trying to get my readers to see themselves and their world from a new perspective.

This is the task of all good literature--whether it is poetry or novels or articles or screenplays. Good writing should help us to look at the world aslant--to see things we've never seen before--to have one of those 'aha!' moments of enlightenment. So The Gargoyle Code is about more than inspiration during Lent or examining our consciences. It is also about breaking the mould and seeing everything in a new way.

CO: The Gargoyle Code is billed as 'hilarious'. What do you think is the role of humor in religion?

FDL: That's a good question. It's really the same thing that I've just been explaining. Humor also helps us see things in a fresh way. I once did a course on the structure and theory behind jokes. Comedians know that surprise is one of the key elements of humor. A good comedy writer has a gift for seeing the world in a fresh and funny way. He sees connections nobody else sees. When that connection is made a joke is sparked. We like the juxtaposition of unlike things. Seeing the world upside down is a funny business, but the point of the joke is serious. The humor is also an attempt to jar our prejudices and shake us up in order to view everything in a new way and glimpse a reality we have never seen before.

CO: What are your favorite funny parts of The Gargoyle Code?

FDL: Am I allowed to laugh at my own jokes? I like the running joke about the demons being punished by being "invited for dinner" Which means they are going to be served up as the first course rather than eating they will be eaten. "Going to the banqueting hall below" therefore has a gruesomely ominous meaning...

CO: Where can we get a copy of The Gargoyle Code?

FDL: Best to buy them through my website: They were available through Amazon and the main bookstores, but that distribution channel has been discontinued, and they are only available now direct from my web page.

CO: Are you working on any other writing projects?

FDL: The new edition of my book Adventures in Orthodoxy is published this Fall with a new cover and a new title: The Quest for the Creed.  I've just finished the sequel to The Quest for the Creed. It's called The Romance of Religion, and this summer I hope to get time to finish the sequel to The Gargoyle Code called Slubgrip Instructs.

CO: What's that about?

FDL: Slubgrip the demon has been condemned to teaching Pop Culture 101 to the the freshman worms at Bowelbages University in the seventh circle of hell.

CO: That sounds like devilishly good fun. When does that come out?

FDL: It should be out for Lent next year.

CO: How do you manage to produce so much writing in addition to being a parish priest, a husband father, blogger and speaker?

FDL: Quantity not Quality I'm afraid...

CO: Thanks for talking with Catholic Online Fr Longenecker

FDL: My pleasure!

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Fr Dwight Longenecker is parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina. He is a prolific author, blogger and sought after speaker. Visit his website and blog at dwightlongenecker.com


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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Lent, GargoyleCode, Book Review, CS Lewis, Anglican ordinariate, Spiritual warfare, fasting, penece, almsgiving, Fr Dwight Lonegenecker, Deacon Keith Fournier

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

  1. Henry Zielinski
    1 year ago

    Fr Longenecker:
    I knew that I needed to order your book when I found out just how difficult it was to find outside your website. My favorite (find ANYTHING) book site acknowleged there being only 3 copies available WORLDWIDE, with the lease expensive being priced at $50 from a bookseller in the UK! Methinks there are forces afoot that would rather have us be ignorant of what you have to say.

    Hank Zielinski, M.D.

  2. abey
    1 year ago

    Jesus Christ in His humbleness to The Father, as the Lamb of GOD, in the full obedience marched to the Slaughter saying "Not my will but yours be done". In today"s world if this act of Jesus is termed "Radical" and since He is the Truth, then truth itself seem so, instead of being the most ordinary, which goes on to show the alienation of man from the Truth of GOD. Since the mind is carnal, that which cannot contain God, even in the wildest imaginations, again off the carnal, is understood of the manner " Where the Mind is to Knowledge, the Spirit is to Recognition, for in it is all the knowledge" So it is about the Spirit more than the mind & to this a C.S. Lewis or a T.S. Eliot is not of much help, to live by the Spirit, but we do need Jesus, available to any one, any time to the most ordinary, absolutely free in the gift of Grace & nothing radical about it in the truth. In other words it is impossible to know GOD or his Will by our minds but by the Spirit, in Christ sans Time, in the words "Be still & know i am GOD".

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