Is the Benedict Option the Best Option for Today’s Church?
by David Robertson, theweeflea:
There is a new ‘cool’ book in town! It’s a New York Times bestseller, endorsed by Russell Moore, Archbishop Charles J.Chaput, and, the ultimate accolade, Carl R.Trueman! How could I resist? Especially as it is subtitled “A strategy for Christians in a post-Christian nation”. With such endorsements, and always wanting to stay up with what’s ‘cool’ in the Christian world – I rushed out to buy Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option.
And I was not disappointed. This is a superb book, well written, stimulating, insightful, and full of challenges and ideas for the church in the West today. I loved it. And yet… I think it is a book that in some areas is profoundly flawed, in such a way that it could be harmful to the church. There are so many excellent things in it, that I hesitate to critique it, and like Carl Trueman, it is the kind of book that I would give to thoughtful people in my own congregation – (by thoughtful I mean those who can exercise a degree of discernment because they are deeply grounded in Scripture). For new Christians, and those who don’t have such a deep grounding I think this book could actually be quite misleading.
In this review I intend to go through it chapter by chapter – identifying some of the key issues, great suggestions and major concerns – and using as much as possible Dreher’s own words.
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