More on the Benedict Option

Rod Dreher explains the ‘Benedict Option’
BreakPoint This Week: The Benedict Option

Rod Dreher: Babylon and the Benedict Option

There are the critics; the program has not been well-defined yet; Dreher undoubtedly intends to give a better explanation in his proposed book on the topic. How does the rebuilding of the political community relate to the reform of the local Church? If the hierarchy of the Church should not hold political power or coercive force, then what sort of political power should Christians try to attain? Or should there merely do what they can for the Church while submitting to the temporal power? Is political reform a realistic goal for Christians?

The good of communion with God (and other Christians) is distinct from civic friendship; the Christian laity should be aiming at both goods in their life with one another; the latter good is possible with their non-Christian neighbors of good will and who share their localism. The second is less possible with those Christians who are statists and support the usurpation of local authority by the national government.

How does the attempt to shore up their Christian faith relate to inculturation and evangelization? Should they uphold some older or more traditional form of culture at the risk of alienating potential converts? If Christians seek to uphold English and standards of Anglo culture, they may be accused of being "uncharitable" to members of other ethnic groups. Can they provide a coherent defense for seeking to pass on their culture? See What is to be Done? Samizdat Classical Education, for example.

Nor should we require a sort of uniformity in the culture of American Churches, certainly not Yankee Roman Catholicism.

William Cavanaugh has talked about the Church becoming a locus of politics or political life; I'll have to reread what he says but one must be careful to circumscribe ecclesial life and community even if the external actions of its members coincide with those of political or civic life. One can help a Christian neighbor fix his roof out of charity and civic friendship, for example. But the Church will never have the authority to legislate for the sake of the local community (and enforce it through punishment). And while Christian laymen are still subject to the current temporal (dis-)order they lack the power to do this, though they can excommunicate and shun.


Responding to this article by Dreher: Benedict Option--
The Benedict Option and the Lay Vocation by John T. Goerke
The Benedict Option: What Does It Really Mean? by R. Jared Staudt

More responses to Dreher:
The Jeremiah Option vs. the Benedict Option
The Benedict Option: Why the religious right is considering an all-out withdrawal from politics by Damon Linker
Benedict Option Reading Suggestions by Peter Blair
What Do We Make of the Benedict Option? by Steve Wedgeworth