The Benedict Option and Yale

It is no secret that I am a big fan of Rod Dreher and his “Benedict Option.” Covenant contributor Hannah Matis recently wrote a wonderful piece here about our need to add nuance to it. I am mulling over my own way of describing life in post-Christendom, with stabs at it here and here. If you have never heard of the Benedict Option or its variants, I would recommend you start with this. A simple search will then reveal many dozens of additional reflections. Dreher’s basic premise is that just as St. Benedict responded to the chaos of post-imperial Rome with life in Christian community, Christian community is the only defense against an increasingly hostile post-Christian world today. Dreher is heavily influenced by Alasdair MacIntyre’s book After Virtue (1981), noting: