Coming soon: The Original BenOp Guidebook
“What they set themselves out to achieve... was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us..." —Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
WHAT IS THE BENEDICT OPTION?
When Rod Dreher published his book The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation in 2017, he had already been speaking about the concept of the Benedict Option (or BenOp, for short) for a number of years. Dreher’s original articulation of the Benedict Option took its inspiration not only from a 6th century holy monk from Nursia, Italy, but also in part from the highly influential work of Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue. Both MacIntyre and Dreher (and many others in between and since) have called out the fact that modern society in the secular global West is no longer conducive to the Christian way of life in any meaningful sense of the term—and that this has in fact been the case for quite some time. Dreher describes the essence of the Benedict Option as referring to “Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefor are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the empire represents.”
The Benedict Option was proposed by Rod Dreher as a strategy for Christians living in a post-Christian world, but that strategy has been around for over 1,500 years, and there are great models to follow and learn from, not least of all the original monk from 6th century central Italy, from whom the Benedict Option takes its name. This book you right now hold in your hands is the original guidebook (the OG, if you will) from Benedict himself, giving us timeless wisdom on how to live this out. Let us be bold and follow where Christ our Master is leading us and, following this way, we will come to the wellsprings of new and everlasting life.
Published by Marchese di Carabàs, the book is scheduled to become available March 14th.