Rod Dreher is one of my favorite columnists. I consider his blog at the American Conservative<\/em> to be essential reading. Over the past couple of years he has been talking about something he calls the Benedict Option. He contends that Christians in America who take their faith seriously are basically going to have<\/em> to take this option in one form or another.\u00a0<\/strong> In this recently released talk, he sums up in some detail what he is advocating in under 20 minutes (answering questions and objections he has heard as well). I recommend watching it: when I send out an introductory message to my students taking the basic Christianity class I teach a few times a year, I will now be including a link to this video and encouraging them to watch it.<\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VbItNogEOx4&w=560&h=315<\/a>\n Here is a link<\/a> to one of the earliest posts I remember where Dreher really started articulating his idea.\u00a0 A clip from that article:<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were a social or religious conservative who had money to donate, I would not give it to political causes. I would use it for strengthening our institutions as places of effective cultural resistance to the times we\u2019re in, and the times that we\u2019re entering. Make them function like the Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe did during the Dark Ages: as institutions and communities that bear and pass on our moral and spiritual vision in a time and place that does not share it, so that one day, far into the future, it will be there for rediscovery, and the rebuilding of society out of the ruins.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At the time, all of this put me in mind of a longer piece I wrote about eight years ago called \u201cA child at peace in the presence of his father: a Lutheran\u00a0monasticism?<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 I will admit that to talk about Lutheran monasticism sounds like an oxymoron, but as I re-read it now, it is clear that the \u201clight monasticism\u201d that I was talking about here is basically analogous to what Dreher calls the Benedict Option.<\/p>\n Here are some clips from that piece, starting with the origins of monasticism:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026if monasticism was not necessarily an un-Christian attempt to earn God\u2019s favor, than what was it?\u00a0 Was it simply an all-out retreat from the world, as it is often characterized?\u00a0 This seems unlikely, seeing as how the writings and practices of the monks both indicate that they were still concerned to be \u201cin the world\u201d while not being \u201cof\u201d it.\u00a0 Gregory of Nanzianzus in his works endeavored to show that \u201cthe monastic profession is characterized by steadfastness in a way of life rather than by physical withdrawal\u201d[1]\u00a0 The idea seems to have been that by embracing the monastic life, persons could be most fully equipped to fulfill a priestly, prophetic and royal ministry for the \u201clife of the world.\u201d\u00a0 (Some persons have even argued that it was not the \u201cmainstream\u201d institutional church but rather the monastics that created the Church\u2019s impetus for missions and evangelism).\u00a0 \u201cIf you want to exercise the priesthood of your soul, do not let the fire depart from your soul\u201d, <\/em>Origin had said, and for some, this meant something akin to the monastic life was needed. (see here<\/a>)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n My cultural analysis leading me to think such a thing may be necessary:<\/p>\n Bouncing between what seems to be the extreme of attaining material wealth and comfort (often smuggled in to definitions of \u201cquality of life\u201d) for all, and the other extreme of a spiritual liberty (spiritual power and comfort) that degrades the physical (particularly, the human body) men these days religiously strive for a \u201cprogress\u201d, often operating in intellectual isolation from any possible consideration of any true progress that may be due to the Christian message (popularized in books like Alvin Schmidt\u2019s \u201cHow Christianity Changed the World\u201d or Vishal Mangalwadi\u2019s \u201cTruth and Transformation\u201d).\u00a0 They do not seek to be found in a renewed creation in Christ, where they may more fully grow into a realization of what it means to be creatures made in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 Instead, bolstered in part by the liberation the world has experienced because of the Christian Gospel, they fight against the ancient pagan notions of an unchanging natural order and fate in their own way.\u00a0 The worldly wiser among them do not reject notions of realism, for there is indeed \u201cthe world as it is\u201d, even as there is also \u201cthe world as it should be\u201d.\u00a0 Still, whether they atheistically embrace the material, seeing it as the only reality, or whether they seek liberation from the material in a more spiritual sense, they both see the need or imperative, now driven more so by new medicines and technologies, to liberate humanity from what it previously meant to be human. They will not \u201cdestroy the old man\u201d in God\u2019s way, through the Law and Gospel found in Christ, but rather via their own means, and to their own ends.<\/p>\n Further: all of this takes place as relationships are becoming increasingly atomized, self-focused.\u00a0 The Darwinian life that seems to be required of our persons in the ever-more demanding meritocracy which is our world lends itself to all manner of difficulties, leading to temptations to sin\u2026.<\/p>\n But the \u201cprivate sector\u201d (free market) is not the only one which has become increasingly oppressive.\u00a0 The same can be said for the public realm, the realm of those who govern.\u00a0 After all, families and churches, working hard where God has placed them, making a difference in \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d moments \u2013 especially remembering in Christ\u2019s name the poor among them \u2013 being supported in their good deeds by a government set up to encourage such work, are not enough\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The attitude of these new \u201cmonastics\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are too weak, feeble, and corrupt to resist the many temptations of this present age.\u00a0 The secular realm as it is currently imagined and hence constructed is becoming less and less Christian in its affections, and hence, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christian faith to be communicated in words and deeds.\u00a0 The tempting enticements, multiplied a thousand times, and available from the privacy of our own homes at the click of a mouse, are too great.\u00a0 The churches themselves are focusing on Jesus Christ and the Scriptures which speak of Him less and less, and their worldliness increases daily.\u00a0 Temptation abounds as sin for a season has become sin for all seasons.\u00a0 Even if I flee the sins which so clearly destroy life, in my escape it seems in the popular consciousness I only find pagan solutions that while attempting to control the gross outbreaks of wickedness (family problems and otherwise), are wicked themselves in their idolatry.\u00a0 The world constantly teaches things which are at odds with what is true about God, about us, about the creation.\u00a0 I know there are those who tell me that there are good answers to these false assertions, but the lies sometimes sound persuasive, I feel my faith being choked out, and just trying to provide food and housing, I can\u2019t afford an internet connection where I can get to Issues ETC<\/a>.*\u00a0 : ) \u2026<\/p>\n The world may call me lazy, unpatriotic, a poor world citizen, or even an atheist(!), but this is the truth \u2013 I am in need of more food.\u00a0 The Church may even call me selfish, but may I be \u201cselfish\u201d like a baby receiving nourishment at its mother\u2019s breast.\u00a0 May I be like the trusting child who simply feels the need for more love. I need more growth in grace.\u00a0 I am in desperate need of these things, which I find so little mention of in the world!\u00a0 And why should I be surprised at such need?\u00a0 I need more, for I have missed not only the world\u2019s mark (Paul: \u201cas I try to please them in every way\u2026\u201d) but God\u2019s \u2013 and I alone am the Chief of sinners. \u00a0Like Isaiah, my own lips are unclean and I live among a people of unclean lips.\u201d<\/p>\n![\""come](\"https:\/\/infanttheology.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/06\/gaywhitehouse.jpg?w=300\")
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<\/a>Here is how I end:<\/p>\n