Dreher, Rod, The Benedict Option. A Strategy for
Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, New York:
Sentinel, 2017, 262pp
The Benedict Option,
1
-
tians who feel that “Western society is post-Christian and that absent a miracle,
-
2
politics—
3
Following Alasdair
-
tween two traditions of thought: emotivist
liberalism and Christian virtue
-
-
-
1
2
3
polis-
Dreher, however, never explains why these politics of resistance against totalitarian regimes are
“common sense”) it is by no means evident that that
For a discussion of emotivist ethics see After Virtue, -
-
diluting the once robust
Christian anthropology and leaving only a narcissistic and hedonistic culture
that convinces everyone that happiness is only achievable if we satisfy every
-
Christian schools based on a comprehensive view of human existence, the
-
Notwithstanding the strength and vitality of Dreher’s call for a renovated
Perhaps the most worrisome of them has to do with his understanding of our
religions, demanding a sharp distinction between the temporal and the trans-
-
against
Erasmus were Christians who tried to provide fresh answers to the questions
explanation -
-
not
In A Catholic Modernity?
Liquid Modernity,
modern
Fundamental
Speeches From Five Decades,
The Theological Origins of Modernity,
The Disenchantment of the World. A Political History of Religion, Princeton: Princeton University
A Secular Age,
Dreher, Rod, The Benedict Option. A Strategy for Christians
in a Post-Christian Nation. New York: Sentinel, 2017, 262pp
there are mingled together both authentic developments of the gospel, of an
-
and secular
10
-
tion, secular modernity and Christianity coexist in a complex, fertile relations-
Another problem is found in Dreher’s understanding of “faithful ortho-
dox Christians”, that is, “theological conservatives within the three main
to all
11
While he exhorts Christians not to water down doctrinal distinctiveness and
-
it possible to create a tight relationship between the community, education,
-
her insists in giving testimony to the truth, he sees no problem with the many
in the Eucharist, or the sacrament is rather a memorial? Has the Pope, in
of faith? What about the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception? Do we
what an exacerbated religious pluralism, which is, ironically, a product of the
that there are in gender ideology just and necessarily vindications of histori-
cally oppressed groups, and second, that there are important contradictions
-
Catholic Modernity? Charles Taylor’s Marianist Award Lecture, -
10
Fundamental Speeches From Five Decades,
11
Truth and Tolerance, -
ty gives the impression that the Christian teaching on sexuality has remained
Dreher’s The Benedict Option is an ambitious project to rejuvenate Christia-
-
to function as a catch-all strategy; and it also fails to engage modernity fairly
and properly, because of a too eager Manichean view of reality that dismisses
Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla
Bibliography
Liquid Modernity,
The Disenchantment of the World. A Political History of Religion, Prin-
The Theological Origins of Modernity,
Catholic Modernity? Charles Taylor’s Marianist Award Lecture, New
After Virtue,
Truth and Tolerance,
Fundamental Speeches From Five Decades,
A Secular Age,
