The Flaw in the Benedict Option

Last updated on: March 29, 2017 at 9:20 am by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

The Flaw in the Benedict Option 2017-03-29T09:20:56-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

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.

Writing for The Federalist Luma Simms offers her own stark critique of Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option. For those who are not in the know, Dreher’s recent book campaigns for Christians to beat a retreat in the culture wars. He doesn’t exactly call for us to hunker down, pull up the drawbridges and man the battlements, but there is a definite fortress mentality in his approach.

I have reviewed Dreher’s book positively here at The Imaginative Conservative, and I think it is a good analysis of the present situation in the religion-culture wars. However, Simms article makes an interesting point. She observes that the appeal of Christian communalism has been around for a long time, and she relates her own bad experience of opting out of contemporary American life and opting in to a Christian alternative, communal lifestyle.

She and her family left the zippy life of Southern California to associate with a Protestant group of alternative lifestyle folks.

We were particularly captivated by two of these Benedict-like communities, both deliberately founded in smallish cities in rural states with easy access to land for member families. We listened to recordings of their pastors and preeminent community members espousing the glories of life together in their churches and neighborhoods. We were hooked. We were convinced we had to go this route to survive degenerated American culture and raise godly children.

This was part of the impetus that drove us to flee Southern California, not to join one of these seemingly exemplary Benedict-like communities, but to at least be closer to other sympathizers, to join a community that affirmed the same creed and stood in solidarity with the brave agrarian vanguard of authentic Christianity. This was conveniently facilitated by the leaders of these exemplary communities having founded their own Protestant denominations, whose member churches could easily be identified online.

So for a time we found our solidarity and quasi-Benedictine community in this little corner of Christendom, but didn’t yet realize what a little corner it was. Church authority was held in high regard, but it gradually became clear that few could agree on what that meant. Everyone (inspired by genuine Christian motives, I concede) believed a countercultural lifestyle was of primary importance. This left matters of church governance to be of secondary importance at best, and through a series of events, the church and community fell apart.

Simms goes on to explain the core problem. She doesn’t specify it, but the fact of the matter is that these alternative Christian communities were Protestant. That is to say, they were do it yourself Christian communities. To be harsher, they were schismatic and fissiparous.

For anyone who is familiar at all with the history of Protestantism, this is the genetic code of the movement. The first Protestants were iconoclastic utopianists. The Anabaptists, Quakers, Shakers, Zwinglians, Mennonites, Amish etc. etc. etc. were all going to head to the hills, farm their farms, mind their own business and create a little Protestant Nirvana. Their legacy extended to the religious communities of the new world with the Puritans, the various Protestant sects in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

In every generation, this independent, individualistic Christianity continued to spawn new sects, congregations and denominations. Every generation threw up a new breed of church leaders, and every one sooner or later ended up with disillusioned, disgusted and disbelieving followers.

I was brought up in this kind of religion. The little independent Bible church in Pennsylvania was founded by enthusiastic Evangelical Christians in the 1960s who were reacting against the liberal trends in the mainstream Protestant churches. It soon came apart. Leaders quarreled, questions about finances simmered, pastors were caught with their trousers down, youth leaders turned out to be stinkers and the experiment soured. In her article Simms pushes at the same problem.

Here, then is the fatal flaw in Dreher’s Benedict Option: it’s not Catholic. I understand Dreher’s reasons for leaving the Catholic faith because I have discussed them with him personally. I respect his integrity and I share his dismay with many of the human failures of the Catholic Church. I happen to like Eastern Orthodoxy and admire the liturgy, faithfulness in suffering, spirituality and much of the wisdom from the East.

I also admire much of the zeal, relevance and drive of the Evangelicals.

However, when it comes to the Benedict Option the Catholic Church offers a few correctives that the Protestants in their zeal cannot replicate.

And that is discipline and order.

Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting Clear Creek monastery in Oklahoma. I am here conducting a parish mission and some good folks drove the three hours from Edmond to the wilderness on the other side of Tulsa to visit the increasingly famous Benedictine Abbey.

This is the authentic “Benedict Option”. Continue Reading

Image Mount Angel Abbey

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 13, 2017

The Circles of Sin - 2 - The Wrathful

Next Post

March 29, 2017 Is California's Attorney General A Holocaust Denier?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Matters Apologetics Architecture Blobble Study Book Reviews Brideshead Caitlin O'Rourke Catholic Art Catholic Culture Church Politics Chust for Nice Contemporary Culture Duane Mandible Ed Blanch Film Reviews Fr Harvey Nicolaitan Frank Viola Mantilla the Hon More Christianity Mrs Brady Catholic Old Lady Mystery of the Magi Norman Anderson Queen Hillary Saints and Supernatural Spirituality The Inklings The Vicar Theology Todd Unctuous Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 August 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 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz