Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

PaterFamilias Today

Home
Evangelical
The Anthony Option

The Anthony Option

Last updated on: April 29, 2016 at 9:38 am by C. R. Wiley

The Anthony Option 2016-04-29T09:38:16-04:00 C. R. Wiley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Piero_di_Cosimo_025.jpg

The time may be near when we can greet a new Anthony as a deliverer–an ascetic whose conspicuous self-denial holds a mirror up to us and makes us loathe ourselves.

That’s an odd thing for a Presbyterian to say. We’re known for warning people about the dangers of asceticism. Just yesterday I read a jeremiad on the subject. But it felt a little like a warning to moles on the dangers of hang-gliding. I confess, I wouldn’t mind seeing some excessive self-denial every now and then.

Are We Ready for the Benedict Option?

Rod Dreher has coined the term, The Benedict Option. It’s a call for a parallel Christian culture embodied in semi-independent, smallish communities that can serve as arks for the best things in western culture as we prepare for the deluge.

He’s taken some heat for it; some have called him a defeatist. But I wonder about our ability to even pull it off. We lack the needed virility. It would require too much: too much sacrifice, too much suffering, too much shame.

It occurs to me we need an Anthony first–just like Benedict did.

Anthony preceded Benedict by two hundred years or so. And Anthony was an inspiration for Augustine too. When comes to saving things, you have to lose something first. Augustine plundered the Egyptians and Benedict built the fortress to hide the treasure, but Anthony came long before. He renounced the Egyptians with his very life. He actually was a wealthy Egyptian, but he turned away from all that and hardened himself to it.

Such a renunciation must be made with a life. Words are not enough. You need a Baptist in a hair shirt, whose conspicuous hardness makes you feel slug-like and contemptible. You need an athlete of God, an exemplar. This isn’t the sort of thing that you can mass produce. It’s irreducibly elitist.

It must be real, no book tours or Youtube videos. No playing to the crowd. He’ll need an Athanasius for a publicist, because self-promotion is a betrayal.

What got me thinking along this line is a class on fasting I’m preparing to teach. I’m reading up on it. Most of it justifies the practice as a way to strengthen prayer, or stir up a longing for God, or even to help with self-discipline.

Those are all right and good, and Anthony would nod his approval, I’m sure. But I think there’s more to it. Fasting has something defiant about it. It is a renunciation of the world, a liberation.

Christianity cannot be reduced to love. “Do not love the world…” John says. Because, “…the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father but from the world.” Fasting, that school of self-denial, spits on all of that.

Until we can do that, don’t talk about a Benedict Option, or even a Augustine Option. We don’t have the right. We don’t have what it takes.

Previous Post

April 27, 2016

Writing Good Character

Next Post

May 2, 2016 Thinking about Sex

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advising a Daughter Aristotle Art Atheism Author and Speaking Appearances Beauty Building Working Houses C R Wiley Children Community Creativity Cultural Apologetics Fatherhood Fiction Fidelity in marriage Film Freedom Gravitas H. P. Lovecraft Happiness Household Economy Infant Baptism Inklings Interpreting the Bible Interviews Jack Donovan Liturgy Localism Man of the House Manliness Martial Virtue Medieval Cosmology Metaphysics Mortimus Clay NecronomiCon New Left New Testament Household Codes Nietzsche Nominalism/Realism Politics Poverty Preaching Productive Property Reaching men Science Self-Sufficiency Side Hustles Social Ethics Social Security Spiritual Disciplines Sublime Techno-gnosticism The Pastor's Survival Guide Theology of the Family Tradition Uncategorized Virtue Weird Fiction

Select a Month February 2019 November 2018 October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who told God, "I am slow of speech and of tongue"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Aaron Samuel Moses

Books by This Author Books by PaterFamilias Today

See All Titles »

Books by C. R. Wiley

The Purloined Boy (The Weirdling Cycle #1)

C. R. Wiley

Man of the House: A Handbook for Building a Shelter That Will Last in a World That Is Falling Apart

C. R. Wiley