A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Benjamin J. Montoya
Editor’s Note:
Many of our readers will find areas of disagreement with this book, but we offer it in summary to acquaint you with a recent book important for its strong popularity among Christian readers broadly.
About the Author
Rod Dreher is a senior editor at The American Conservative and the author of various books, including the new Live Not By Lies.
Introduction
Our world has become and is becoming even more anti-Christian. How shall Christians respond to such an environment? This book offers what has become known as “the Benedict option.” Consider our summary to learn more!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Great Flood
Chapter 2: The Roots of the Crisis
Chapter 3: A Rule for Living
Chapter 4: A New Kind of Christian Politics
Chapter 5: A Church for All Seasons
Chapter 6: The Idea of a Christian Village
Chapter 7: Education as Christian Formation
Chapter 8: Preparing for Hard Labor
Chapter 9: Eros and the New Christian Counterculture
Chapter 10: Man and the Machine
Conclusion: The Benedict Decision
Summary
Chapter 1: The Great Flood
There has come upon the West a great flood that is thoroughly anti-Christian and does not seem to be going away as some had previously thought. Christian language has become almost foreign entirely, and people have begun to think primarily in very self-centered ways. What has happened?
There has been a dramatic, slow, but steady shift away from Christianity that religious leaders from all denominations have noted. People have gone away from Christian categories to those from moral therapeutic deism. This approach has at least five tenets:
- A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
Many of the cultural changes we see stem from the adoption of this religious perspective. For example, the trend towards acceptance and legalization of gay marriage is a focus on what makes people happy, regardless of its morality.
The approach advocated for in this book is the Benedict option, a kind of “exile in place” option for Christians. Christians have operated well in similar environments in history before, and “Benedict Option Christians look to Scripture and to Benedict’s Rule for ways to cultivate practices and communities.”
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