Should Christians Take The Benedict Option? An Interview with Rod Dreher

What is the Benedict Option? What can we lay Christians in the 21st century learn from the lifestyle pioneered by the monks in the 6th century? Are our Christian young people being well prepared to understand the basic Christian doctrines? How can we help Christians in this post Christian culture to better engaged with these ideas? How do we order our lives to prioritize the habits and spiritual disciplines in a chaotic culture? Does this mean we need to withdraw like a monk? If not, what implications does this impose on our lives in today’s culture? How can we disciple ourselves so that our whole lives can be a work of evangelism to a world that desperately needs Christ? We will discuss these questions and more with Rod Dreher. Rod Dreher is a senior editor at The American Conservative. He has written and edited for the New York Post, The Dallas Morning News, National Review, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Washington Times, and the Baton Rouge Advocate. Rod’s commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, the Weekly Standard, Beliefnet, and Real Simple, among other publications, and he has appeared on NPR, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the BBC. He lives in St. Francisville, Louisiana, with his wife Julie and their three children. In addition to his new book, The Benedict Option, Dreher has also written two books, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming and Crunchy Cons.