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The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation Paperback – 8 March 2019

by Rod Dreher (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,883 ratings
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Now in paperback -- the New York Times bestseller that sparked a nationwide debate about the future of American Christianity.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade."-David Brooks

In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life.

From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state's assault, but it will not stop the West's slide into decadence and dissolution.

Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actu-ally the way back-all the way to St. Benedict of Nur-sia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome's fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization.

Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal- to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture.

The Benedict Optionis both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Chris-tians-Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox-who can read the signs of the times. Neither false optimism nor fatalistic despair will do. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. These are the days for building strong arks for the long journey across a sea of night.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Sentinel
  4. Publication date
    8 March 2019
  5. Dimensions
    13.92 x 2.01 x 21.39 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0735213305
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0735213302
  8. See all details
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"The Trump era...has not made The Benedict Option...less timely, but more so....Conservative Christians active in politics have no choice but to do the best they can from that unsteady, wavering position. But only a robust counterculture, a healthy sense of their own freakishness and, yes, a few St. Benedicts will save them if they fall."
--Ross Douthat, The New York Times

"The Benedict Option is already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade."
--David Brooks, The New York Times

"I'm more missionary than monastery, but I think every Christian should read this book. Rod Dreher is brilliant, prophetic, and wise. Even if you don't agree with everything in this book, there are warnings here to heed, and habits here to practice."
--Russell Moore, president, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

"A terrific book: provocative in its content, shrewd in its insights, vivid and engaging in its style. The strength of The Benedict Option is not just its analysis of our culture's developing problems but its outline of practical ways Christians can survive and thrive in a dramatically different America. This is an invaluable tool for understanding our times and acting as faithful believers."
--Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia

"This is the kind of book I am going to use to get the thoughtful people in my congregation reading and discussing. It is going to be helpful to the very people who have to live on the front line."
--Carl R. Trueman, Westminster [PA] Theological Seminary; writer for First Things

"An insightful and optimistic plan of action for Christians who are starting to realize just how hostile American culture is to their faith."
--Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, senior editor, The Federalist

"Deeply convicting and motivating. This book will be a grounding force for the Church in the decades ahead."
--Gabe Lyons, author of Good Faith; president of Q Ideas

Book Description

Now in paperback-the New York Times bestseller that sparked a nationwide debate about the future of American Christianity.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sentinel; 1st edition (8 March 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735213305
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735213302
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.92 x 2.01 x 21.39 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,883 ratings

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Rod Dreher

Rod Dreher

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4.5 out of 5 stars
1,883 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

Eve
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful and uplifting
Reviewed in Australia on 8 May 2023
Verified Purchase
Filled me with inspiration - a great read to ponder on your own Benedictine way ❤️ especially like the examples of communities, and the focus on returning to the basics - prayer, fasting, almsgiving….in community.
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JohnA
5.0 out of 5 stars A book to not put down but read and read again
Reviewed in Australia on 31 January 2021
Verified Purchase
A sharp analysis of the Western culture which is crumbling under the weight of its past successes.
Then a series of reports from many places of the work of preserving the good and preparing for the inevitable collapse, so that there are people who can rebuild afterwards.
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JONUCHA
5.0 out of 5 stars ACTUALIDAD RELIGIOSA
Reviewed in Mexico on 16 October 2024
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DA OPCIONES ANTE LAS NUEVAS SITUACIONES SOCIALES, POLITICAS Y RELIGIOSAS.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars useful perspective
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2022
Verified Purchase
Reflective and prescriptive, rather than triumphalistic. Orthodox rather than compromising or tipid. He’s giving a sober assessment of where the west is and what we must do to preserve life and be in a position one day to rebuild.
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Stephanie Zee Fehler
5.0 out of 5 stars a thoughtful look at what society is like right there
Reviewed in Canada on 14 May 2018
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a thoughtful look at what society is like right there, and what choices i could make now and in the future, to be able to live a life, and raise my children according to my conscience and in accordance with the Bible...
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Estratégia para Igrejas
Reviewed in Brazil on 30 June 2017
Verified Purchase
Já havia ouvido sobre o livro e seu tema.
Ele tem uma análise histórica válida. Claro que há pontos em que discordo, mas cada um deve formar sua opinião.
Embora quem leia o começo possa pensar em algo muito ousado, na verdade o conteúdo é equilibrado.
Boa leitura!
Boa reflexão!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Dreher's Book is Thoughtful, Challenging, and Original! Worth putting at the Top of your Reading List! Superb!
Reviewed in the United States on 1 June 2017
Verified Purchase
I An incredible book, but one many Christians won’t be willing to accept. Dreher claims that Christianity in the West is on the verge of collapse and I can’t say that I disagree. You see, even in the heart of some of the Bible Belt, where I live, it is completely normal to go to football games, basketball games, and baseball games, and be exposed to some pretty vulgar music (as in songs like ‘Big Poppa’ blaring over the speakers before the game, halftime, in between innings, etc) to make the experience more ‘entertaining’ (it also interrupts your conversations so you ‘might as well’ go grab some concessions). Why would I mention this first in my review? Because sadly, the fans sitting in the stands are usually chock full of Christians with their children, many of whom think it is all in good fun and are singing right along with it. We have come to think of this as normal things for a Christian to do since we have all given up the ‘cultural war’ and we have all willingly exposed our children (or know they are exposed to it at school and at friends’ homes) consistently to a diseased culture. Sadly, there are any number of Christian men coaching or in the stands who may be pastors or deacons in their church who do nothing but shrug their shoulders and sigh - if it even bothers them at all.

The problem for most Christians is that they don’t have a clue what is necessary to get themselves out of the aimless, lost, and perverted culture of the world and into a community of people who value and honor the things of Christ. One of the things that Dreher makes clear is that, for our kids’ faith and for the future of Christian community, Christian children need to be pulled out of public schools and either home-schooled or Christian Schooled (Dreher’s children go to a half day Classical Christian school which, to me, is absolutely ideal) with a Classical Education which uses a medieval structure called the Trivium. Dreher stresses that there is no middle ground here. However, most of us, as Christians, don’t want to hear this at all. We want to continue to plod along while our children adopt secular perspectives about life and modern sexual mores. So many of us as parents keep on swearing that if ‘this or that’ were to happen at our child’s school, that we would then pull them out. The problem is that most of us don’t really mean it. When something happens at our child’s school that is truly awful or when policy changes are put in place that reflect some extreme concessions to the liberal agenda, we just shrug and continue to insist that everything will be okay.

At the heart of Dreher’s book is his call for Christians to adopt a ‘monastic way of thinking’ about the Christian home and the Christian community. According to Dreher, the Christian life needs to be full of rituals, prayers, fasts, and feasts. One key theme is the need for our daily lives to have a ‘sense of the Divine Order’. I agree with this wholeheartedly. As western Christians, we think very shallowly about our time. We basically work way too much so we can have lots of money to be consumers, eat as quickly as possible (and with as little preparation time as possible), then we entertain ourselves as much as possible with sports and media, then we go to church on Sunday morning and think that everything is fine as long as we, at least believe that we are living just a little bit ‘cleaner’ than the rest of the world. Dreher calls it “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. MTP is defined by the belief that there is a Creator God who watches over us, that He wants us all to be good, nice, and fair to each other, that our purpose is to be happy and feel good about ourselves, that God is only needed when we go through difficulties, and that people go to Heaven when they die. Regardless of the fact that many churches will deny teaching MTP, the sad reality is that most Christian children and adults have somehow adopted this mindset. I don’t know how a society’s government can dictate what children are taught day in and day out for most of their youth, while also taking a good chunk of a parent’s daily responsibilities ‘away from them’ and produce a culture that Christians can expect to remain dedicated to a healthy perspective of family and faith. Dreher makes it clear that creating a healthy Christian culture has to be a very intentional act. You can’t just live your life as you wish and spread some Christianity over it from time to time. What Dreher suggests, on the other hand, is for Christians to adopt a much more disciplined concept of time. It isn’t just that he thinks Christians should be spending less (if not, none) time watching TV, playing video games, or on their phones, but that they should be filling that time in a much more intentional, consistent, and thoughtful way with the Christian's’ faith in Christ at the center of it all.

One thing that I would add to this conversation is that the Christian church’s adoption of ‘income tithing’ as the method by which it supports its ministry, in my personal view, a big contributor to the shallow, unhealthy Western mindset about church. The majority of Biblical references to the faithful giving ten percent of their income to the church are based on newer translations that have consistently changed references about giving based on ‘possessions’ or ‘prosperity’ to giving based on income (based on a fiat currency). I’m here to tell you that these two concepts are by no means identical. For a person to accumulate possessions and wealth (to be truly prosperous) requires some very capable Christian stewardship. For a person to garner a high wage requires absolutely no Christian stewardship. All it requires is a strong addiction to consumerism and a devotion to being a workaholic. For income-tithe collecting churches, they are more than happy to see women working and embracing a career (thus bringing in another tithable income) than staying home to homeschool or even help with a half-day Classical Christian School that is working towards the integration of faith, education, and community.

The Sequitur Classical Academy in Baton Rouge and the Saint Constantine School in Houston are given as examples of these kinds of schools by Dreher. The bottom line is that for Christians to maintain a proper perspective on sexuality (which is a sacred act which should potentially be able to fulfill the purpose of procreation AND pleasure equally), Christian women must be prepared to have more than 1 or 2 children that can easily be stuck in a school system enabling them to get themselves back in the workforce and back to their careers. Instead, mothers must be ready to see the rearing of children as a valid vocation. Churches that zealously collect income tithes cannot possibly be well served by women fulfilling this vocation. The two are simply at cross-purposes. On the other hand, possession-tithing, (to be clear - this is not one of Dreher’s ideas) which is based on the Fair Market Value of all someone’s possessions subtracted from the remaining principal owed on those possessions, then divided by 12 or 52 (depending on how frequently the tithe is paid), is a much better reflection of someone’s prosperity (and stewardship of their finances, family, and faith) than a person’s income. Even if Christians adopt the increasingly popular stance that tithing is simply not required of New Testament Christians, it may still be a healthier perspective on giving for the church than a strict adherence to the materialistic and consumeristic centered income tithe.

Let me finish by getting back getting back to my conclusion of Dreher’s ‘Benedict Option’. This book deserves a higher rating than it has at the time that I am writing this review. It is so much more original, well researched, and interesting than most of the feel good, MTP drivel being published by many Christian authors. At least a few of the people who gave this book a one or two star rating must have not bothered to read the book’s subtitle because they claimed that they thought this book would be about something else entirely. One has to doubt the sincerity and validity of such ratings. What this very well written book does is present Christians with some very hard decisions that need to be made as well as outlining some very good ideas about what direction our Christian culture needs to go in. It is a book that eloquently says many of the things that I have been thinking for the last decade about the crisis that Christianity is facing. Dreher, who is not too fond of Trump, is probably right in claiming that Trump may (emphasis on the conditional here) give Christians a brief respite in a nation that is becoming increasingly hostile to their ability to practice their religion and maintain their beliefs in the business world. Christians could very soon find themselves in a nation whose government and businesses are ready to put their plans to eradicate the Christian faith into high gear. A time is likely soon coming where more and more Christians will be forced to choose between their faith and their employment or even their lives. For those that want to come down on the side of Christianity, you absolutely, positively need to read this book.
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