On “Benedict option”

So 26 září 2015

(originally started as a comment on the article on First Things, but seriously extended).

If the point of this article is that the Protestant evangelicals and Catholics should put down their war axes and unite against the common enemy, that is consumerism, atheism and the culture of death, I like it very much.

I am not sure what actually “The Benedict Option” means exactly. Of course, the work of St. Benedict and ability of Christian to rebuild civilization on ruins of the Roman Empire is admirable. I am just getting more and more worried by the talks about the Benedict option, because it feels to me more and more like supporting the idea of the isolation of us, nice Christians, from the awful world surrounding us. Actually I believe that “the holy huddle” of Christians isolating themselves from the world is one of the biggest dangers for the propagation of Gospel. I see St. Benedict and his followers (and even more St. Francis, of course) as being passionately involved in the world around them.

Yes, monasteries provided much needed back office for the movement; yes, the current Church desperately needs better and more Christian education, because the level of ignorance among Christians about their own faith, history etc. is alarming. However, as a general principle, I believe we need to get more involved in the world, not less, we should have more non-Christian friends, not less, we should learn more about the secular non-Christian thinking not less, etc.

For the answer what to do, I really like the concept of Creative Minorities As a Czech (and even worse as a Czech Protestant) living as member of the "hopeless" Christian minority in otherwise agnostic nation, I believe the creative minority, participating but faithful, is the only solution.

I had a sermon on this explaining the first chapter of Daniel (the notes and very poor audio record are available).

Category: faith Tagged: cultureWar catholic BenedictOption FirstThings blogComment