The Morning Brew Book Review: THE BENEDICT OPTION by Rod Dreher

This recommended faith-based reading is not a pleasant perusal to go to bed by, but it amounts to a necessary wake-up call.

The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher (published by Penguin Random House LLC, 2017) is not relaxing and certainly not escapism; in fact, I found it to be downright disturbing.  

But, that's the point.  

By reading this book, you will learn about how cultural fates have come full circle and the perfect social-political-corporational storm has amassed to bring America to the brink of what the author calls "the Post-Christian Era".  Page after page, Dreher builds his case to prove that the diminishing Christian presence and practice here in the West is gasping from its greatest existential threat--one that even surpasses the Dark Ages.  

When I read this book last year, it was the first time I had seen such a harsh description of the state of Christianity in America today.  But instead of losing heart and abandoning the book, I found it all very relatable--not only now the dwindling of church attendance, but also the headlines of the growing legal and corporate threats to anyone trying to live by biblical standards in our schools and at the workplace.  And for what I hadn't understood before, the alliance of the social-political-corporational forces at work against Christianity, the author provided useful analysis and context.  

Dreher describes this Christian crisis in time and what it means for those of us who care.  His candor is refreshing and even relieving.  He further dives into how we blindly arrived at this point, causes that even predate America's existence as a nation.  Dreher identifies and expounds upon the following turning points:

* The 14th century's loss of belief in the integral connection between God & creation
* The 16th century's collapse of religious unity/authority in the Protestant Reformation
* The 18th century's Enlightenment, displacing the Christian religion with the cult of Reason
* The 18th-20th century's Industrial Revolution 
* The 20th century to present's Sexual Revolution

Dreher's historic research is impressive and vast.  All of it leads to the climatic question: Where do we go from here?

Dreher then lays out his book's namesake strategy for rebounding (or shall we say, reinventing) our position in society for the sake of the survival of practicing our beliefs.  Not surprisingly, it calls for the formation of isolated societies which instantly brought to my mind how the Amish have endured for so long.

It is that strategy, one that the author calls the Benedict Option, for which the book is titled and that is named for St. Benedict who during the Dark Ages incorporated this same idea for the survival of Christianity during that period.  In fact, Dreher reports on his visits to the monastery of St. Benedict in Norcia and interviewing the monks there to add to this blueprint.

As the reader starts to mull over this new yet ancient theory on using counter-culture and what form it would even take in present day America, Dreher offers up certain examples of efforts already underway in this country but which are on a much smaller scale; scattered seeds bearing some blossoms as proof of the ideology's possibility and viability.

But can such seeds be enough to eventually take root to grow into the force needed to save Christianity in America?  

Either the last chapter has yet to be written to confirm its call for action, or there is an entire sequel waiting to unfold in response.  In either case, The Benedict Option is a must-read to explore how course-changing historical events have pooled together to produce waves that threaten to reach beyond us and well into the future to completely drown out Christianity.  This book is the tsunami warning.  The take-away for each reader is to decide which option represents the highest and firmest ground to grab onto.   

AFTER MOST CELEBRATE "NEW CHRISTMAS", OTHERS AWAIT "OLD CHRISTMAS"

The Bible does not specifically
reveal the date of Jesus' birth

For Christians worldwide, a celebratory date does not always match the celebrated day.  This is why there is so much confusion with what has come to be known as the “New Christmas” as opposed to the “Old Christmas”.  

Not until the 4th century was
Christmas officially celebrated
on December 25th

The Bible does not specifically reveal the date or even time of year when Jesus Christ was born.  It wasn’t until the 4th century when Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on December 25th.

There is debate as to why he chose that particular date.  Some believe it was because of the celebration of Annunciation,

Orthodox Icon of Annunciation

which is when the Angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to give birth to God’s son, which was on March 25th.  Factor in nine of months of pregnancy brings us to the date of December 25th.  Additionally and of special spiritual significance, some early Christians were of the understanding that March 25th was also the date when Jesus died.  This was a calculation based on the 14th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. 

Others believe that Pope Julius I chose December 25th because pagans at that time were already holding midwinter festivals during this month, and since people were already accustomed to celebrating things at that time it was convenient to work in Christmas.   One such pagan festival was called the “Saturnalia”, it honored the Roman god Saturn and was held between December 17th and 23rd.  Another celebration was “Dies Natalis Solis Invicti”, this celebrated the birthday of the Roman sun god Mithra and was held on December 25th.  The Romans thought that on this date the Winter Solstice was occurring, which is the day that has the shortest time between sunrise and sunset, which bolstered their belief that with the days that followed becoming longer that this was proof that their sun god was unconquered.  In their religion of Mithraism, the holy day was Sunday which is the origin of our word for this day of the week.

Pagans already worshiped Winter Solstice on Dec. 25th,
the sun winning over winter darkness.
Christians saw Jesus as "light of the world",
and chose same date with their different
focus on "light".

For these pagans, the Winter Solstice was especially sacred because it meant winter was over and spring was coming; they worshiped the sun winning over the darkness of winter.  But for Christians, it has instead always been Jesus who represents the light of the world, so it made sense to match the theme but hold their own celebration of Jesus on this same date.  These early Christians even borrowed some of the customs of the pagan celebration, such as Holly, Mistletoe, and even singing Carols, and gave these Christian meanings.

The Julian calendar was used during this period.  But it was flawed, not correctly matching the solar elapse of time.  It wasn’t until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII established the “Gregorian Calendar”, which is what we use today, adjusting the now new date of December 25th and causing Christmas to come 10 days earlier than the December 25th date on the Julian calendar.  Many in the world were not happy with this adjustment at first.  Only gradually over the period of the next few centuries did this change become accepted and adopted by most of the world.  But there remained some who continued to refuse the Gregorian calendar, and they persisted in celebrating their December 25th date of Christmas on the Julian calendar which was a full 10 days behind the Gregorian calendar.  These different celebrations came to be known as the Gregorian’s “New Christmas” and the Julian’s “Old Christmas”.

Orthodox Icon of Epiphany

By the 19th century, due to its flawed measurement of time, the Julian Christmas ended up falling on January 6th which not only is the date for Epiphany (the celebration of Jesus’ baptism by St. John the Baptist), but it was also believed to be the same date when the Wise Men finally arrived in Bethlehem to worship the baby Jesus.  This duality lent itself to the Julian Calendar’s Christians to not only celebrate Epiphany but to do so in a way that mirrored their celebration of Christmas.  

As time went on, many of those who continued to follow the Julian calendar began to want a separate day from Epiphany to celebrate Jesus’ birth.  This caused most of them to adopt the Gregorian’s December 25th date for Christmas.

But, to this day, there remains many of the Orthodox and Coptic Churches that never accepted the Gregorian calendar.  Due to their continued Julian calendar reference, not only do these churches still celebrate the “Old Christmas” (which is December 25th on their Julian calendar compared to January 7th on the Gregorian), they also celebrate other Christian festivals, such as Pascha (Easter), on different dates than most of the Western Christians.

While Christmas dates may still vary for different Christians, nevertheless all believers everywhere equally pour out their own expression of devout and joyous worship to celebrate the day that their  Savior, Jesus Christ, came into the world as a newborn baby.