America is facing a spiritual Dark Age, and Christians need to do something radical to preserve the faith.
This is the overview of "The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation," a book written by Christian author Rod Dreher.
Dreher, 50, told The Christian Post in an interview last week that evil times are ahead as the spiritual crisis in America continues to worsen.
To stop the moral decline, he proposes that Christians withdraw from politics and form communities patterned after the one formed by St. Benedict, a monk born in 480 A.D.
St. Benedict, who was named patron protector of Europe by Pope Paul VI in 1964, organised monks into a single monastic community to preserve the faith amid the moral crisis that was sweeping Europe at that time following the collapse of the Roman Empire. He is best remembered for writing his famous "Rule" book that prescribed common sense, a life of moderate asceticism, prayer, study, and work, and community life under one superior, according to Catholic Online.
Because of the action taken by St. Benedict, the Church not only preserved the faith but became the Christians' only refuge, Dreher said. The monastic movements that were formed in the subsequent centuries after St. Benedict's death ultimately paved the way for the rebirth of civilisation, he added.
"So, I asked myself, 'What would a Benedict of our time have to say to us, to Christians today?" Dreher said.
This was the driving force that compelled Dreher to write "The Benedict Option," which has been described as a multi-faceted formula for Christianity's renewal in modern times.
Dreher observed that both the Left and major cultural institutions are continuing to move aggressively against conservative Christians and their freedoms—with no signs of stopping.
He noted that even some churches and groups nowadays promote distortions of the Gospel, thus undermining Orthodox Christianity's core tenets. American culture and politics have captured the Church, he said.
Churches have ceased being salt and light and the Gospel message, including how it is to be lived, has been "hollowed out from within," he lamented.
Dreher said Christians in the United States will inevitably experience an "internal exile" in a country they thought was their own.
To counter this, Dreher called for an intentional separation from culture for a time to enable Christians to build thriving communities where members devote prayer and time alone with God.
