Bluegrass Preaching

A few years ago, I wrote a piece for First Things titled “The Dominican Option”—a response to percolating debates over Rod Dreher's “Benedict Option.” By turning to the Dominicans, I thought, critics could embrace all the salutary points Dreher had made about the need to withdraw from the world in order to form Christian communities, while also giving greater emphasis to the dominical command to make missionary disciples of all nations. The Dominican Option was a way of talking about how Christians could both “strategically withdraw” for properly ecclesial formation, and be sent to proclaim truth, both natural and supernatural, in the public square. I also noted how attractive it was to see those white-habited Dominican friars with banjos on subways as a kind of counter-sign of pilgrim joy amidst the world. And so the image most often associated with the Dominican Option is a friar with a banjo on the subway.