{"id":2296,"date":"2017-02-25T20:28:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T00:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=2296"},"modified":"2017-02-25T20:28:26","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T00:28:26","slug":"benedict-option-puzzles-benedictine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2017\/02\/benedict-option-puzzles-benedictine\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cBenedict Option\u201d Puzzles a Benedictine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"saint-benedict-1508869_1280\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am a Benedictine monk, and I\u2019ve been perplexed ever since I first heard of Rod Dreher\u2019s proposal of a \u201cBenedict Option.\u201d (Dreher answers frequently asked questions about his \u201cBenedict Option\u201d here<\/a>.) He turned to St. Benedict after reading Alasdair MacIntyre\u2019s recommendation of the monastic saint. Dreher states:<\/p>\n

The \u2018Benedict Option\u2019 refers to Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefore are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the empire represents.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dreher wants to see such an option for laypersons. However, in writing his regulations for monks, St. Benedict did not propose resistance to any external empire, but rather to self-will and one\u2019s own lack of humility.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Dreher\u2019s \u201cBenedict Option\u201d should have had a different name in the first place, since St. Benedict (d. AD 547) wrote only for monasteries and those who lived inside them. It was not his intention to shape the world of laypersons outside the monastery, but to keep all the world out of the monastery.<\/p>\n

In chapter 66 of his \u201cRulebook<\/a>\u201d for monks, St. Benedict wrote:<\/p>\n

The monastery should, if possible, be so constructed that within it all necessities, such as water, mill and garden are contained, and the various crafts are practiced. Then there will be no need for the monks to roam outside, because this is not at all good for their souls.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the next chapter, St. Benedict wrote of monks whom the abbot has for some reason sent on a journey:<\/p>\n

When they come back from a journey, they should, on the very day of their return, lie face down on the floor of the oratory at the conclusion of each of the customary hours of the Work of God. They ask the prayers of all for their faults, in case they may have been caught off guard on the way by seeing some evil thing or hearing some idle talk. No one should presume to relate to anyone else what he saw or heard outside the monastery, because that causes the greatest harm. If anyone does so presume, he shall be subjected to the punishment of the rule.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

St. Benedict clearly wanted his monks to have little knowledge of and influence from the world outside the physical enclosure of the monastery. This restriction is a legitimate aspect of the monastic charism, but it is not something appropriate for laypersons in general or the entire Church.<\/p>\n

Here is Christ\u2019s option for the Church as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the salt of the earth\u2026 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.\u201d (Mt 5:13a,14-16<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.\u201d (Mt 28:19-20a<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cGo into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.\u201d(Mk 16:15<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would be exceedingly difficult for the Church to obey Christ in these matters if the Church as a whole were to live as St. Benedict wanted monks to live.<\/p>\n

During his public ministry\u2014 and I emphasize the word \u201cpublic\u201d\u2014 Christ withdrew frequently for solitude and prayer, but he didn\u2019t live as a Benedictine monk. Christ did grow up and live within the relative \u201ccloister\u201d of Nazareth for about three decades, but then he left it to serve the world. His return visit to Nazareth ended disastrously.<\/p>\n

Christian monasticism existed before St. Benedict, and in his lifetime was not yet governed by Church law. There were no \u201creligious orders\u201d as we know them today. Anyone with the means and will to do so could start a monastery. Like others before him, St. Benedict wrote a \u201crulebook\u201d for his own monastery. He did not believe he was starting something new, but referred deferentially to earlier monastic regulations, writers, and leaders. He expressed no intentions of renewing culture or civilization.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, within a few centuries after St. Benedict\u2019s death in A.D. 547, the Church began to send teams of monks and laity into pagan regions to collaborate in building monasteries with adjacent villages as somewhat prefabricated, \u201cpop-up\u201d Christian communities for the sake of evangelization. Dreher himself describes it: \u201cThe monasteries were incubators of Christian and classical culture, and outposts of evangelization in the barbarian kingdoms.\u201d However, there is no provision for this missionary-monastic venture in the regulations of St. Benedict. The broader Church developed it for the sake of evangelizing pagans, not for the \u201cintramural\u201d renewal and strengthening of Christian culture and civilization.<\/p>\n

St. Francis of Assisi (AD 1181\/2 \u2013 1226) consciously started a new religious order, the \u201cOrder of Friars Minor,\u201d and wrote a set of regulations for it. In his own lifetime he inspired and drew many married men and women wanting to live like his friars. For these laypersons he also wrote a distinct set of regulations. Something similar for laypersons wanting to be associated with the Order of St. Benedict did not develop until several centuries after the death of St. Benedict. Today these laypersons who are spiritual associates of Benedictine monasteries go by the title \u201coblates.\u201d They continue with their own lives, families, and jobs anywhere in the world, but adapt and adopt suitable elements of Benedictine spirituality. They are spiritual associates of the monasteries, but are not members governed or mentioned by Church law.<\/p>\n

A few modern Benedictine monasteries have attracted groups of laypersons and their families who have chosen to colonize or homestead land surrounding those monasteries. These laypersons may collaborate in some of the agricultural or other physical labors of the monasteries, and participate in the liturgical life of the monks, but without being admitted into the \u201ccloister\u201d (that part of a monastery\u2019s land and buildings restricted to the monks alone), and without residing on the monastery land itself. This phenomenon\u2014 not a formal or organized movement\u2014 extends to laypersons some degree of St. Benedict\u2019s intentional, legislatively governed flight from the world.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure this phenomenon benefits the laypersons and monasteries involved. However, calling it the \u201cBenedict Option\u201d perplexes me because St. Benedict did not intend or provide for such an option.<\/p>\n

Dreher\u2019s proposed option does not limit itself to laypersons who could live in the actual neighborhood of a Benedictine monastery. He foresees participants in his option as living also to salt and light up the world with what they have learned and imbibed by living his option. Is there anything Benedictine about Dreher\u2019s option? Yes and no. Dreher openly borrows principles drawn from St. Benedict\u2019s regulations. However, quoting MacIntyre, Dreher admits: \u201cWe are waiting not for a Godot, but for another\u2014 doubtless very different\u2014 St Benedict.\u201d A \u201cvery different\u201d one from the historical one!<\/p>\n

Dreher repeats the question of Baptist theologian Jonathan Wilson: \u201cWhat must the church do in order to live and witness faithfully as a minority in a culture in which we were once the majority?\u201d Then Dreher continues:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we try to determine which forms of community, which institutions, and which ways of life, can answer that question, we should draw on the wisdom of St. Benedict and his Rule. We should innovate ways to adapt it to forms of non-monastic living in the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note \u201cnon-monastic\u201d and \u201cliving in the world.\u201d Drehers\u2019 option cannot be the \u201cBenedict Option\u201d if it is \u201cnon-monastic\u201d and \u201cliving in the world.\u201d That is what has me perplexed. Dreher\u2019s option is really not Benedict\u2019s severe option of strict separation from the world. Dreher proposes instead to \u201cinnovate.\u201d But then it is no longer a \u201cBenedict\u201d option, but some innovation. I\u2019m sure that some benefit could come of it for its participants and the rest of the Church. Attempts at such an innovation have existed and do exist\u2014 some with good results, and some with bad. At various points in his article, Dreher shows awareness that the innovation he proposes can result in unhealthy, unwise, even vicious distortion or disorder within groups striving to create a way of life along the lines of his proposed option.<\/p>\n

But what precisely should Dreher call his option? That puzzles this particular Benedictine.<\/p>\n

Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, O.S.B.
\nPrince of Peace Abbey
\nOceanside, California<\/p>\n

(Fr. Pedrano previously published a version of this article on his personal Facebook profile.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Image of St. Benedict via Pixabay.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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