Responding to 'The Benedict Option'
- James Collazo
- Aug 1, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Introduction
In a world marked by moral fragmentation and growing secularism, Christians must return to the truths that have withstood the test of time. The Benedict Option (Sentinel, 2017) by Rod Dreher calls believers to form morally distinct communities, following the example of the monk Benedict of Nursia (480–547). Dreher warns that mainstream society has drifted far from God's ways, and that Christians must separate to protect their witness and uphold the faith. Benedict himself did not abandon the church's mission; rather, he sought to preserve Christian formation through communities of prayer and disciplined living amid social collapse.
Drawing on philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, Dreher argues that the moral fragmentation of modern Western society requires Christians to recover communities capable of forming virtuous disciples. Looking to the example of Benedict, he suggested that small communities devoted to preserving moral and intellectual traditions might again become the seedbeds of cultural renewal. Benedict's monasteries became centers of learning, worship, and moral formation during the instability that followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
MacIntyre declares, "If the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without hope . . . We are waiting not for a Godot [i.e., a hoped-for rescuer who never comes] but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict" [i.e., a faithful leader who rebuilds civilization]. Dreher rightly recognizes the danger of cultural assimilation, yet Scripture consistently presents God's people as a people sent into the world rather than separated from it. Christian communities exist not merely to preserve the faith but to form disciples who proclaim it. Therefore, while intentional Christian formation is essential, engagement—not withdrawal—remains the church's primary mission. Jesus prayed not that his disciples would be taken out of the world, but that they would be protected from the evil one as he sent them into the world (John 17:15–18).
Wesley: Personal and Social Holiness
Where MacIntyre and Dreher seek the preservation of Christian virtue through intentional communities, the Wesleyan tradition seeks its renewal through holy lives of active engagement with the world. The Wesleyan tradition offers a distinctive vision of Christian life that contrasts with Dreher's focus on withdrawal. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, championed both personal and social holiness, insisting that sanctification must extend beyond private devotion into engagement with society. He famously declared, "There is no holiness but social holiness." For Wesley, holiness is not simply a matter of individual piety but a transformative way of life that seeks to uplift and reform the world around us. While Dreher advocates a retreat into isolated communities to preserve faith, the Wesleyan perspective emphasizes engaging directly with society, demonstrating that Christians can amplify their impact through integrity and service. In this view, stepping back from cultural entanglements does not mean abandonment but rather a strategic pause to strengthen one's influence, allowing holiness to radiate and reshape the world from within.
From this perspective, Wesleyan believers do not aim to create self-contained virtuous enclaves. Our mission extends outward: to foster spiritual and social revival that spreads the love of Christ. Just as Wesley preached in open fields, bringing the gospel to those in need, evangelicals can adopt elements of Dreher's proposal without embracing cultural withdrawal. Communities centered on spiritual disciplines serve as platforms for nurturing individuals into messengers of grace and truth. Holiness, in this view, is not about retreat but about transforming hearts and society. Wesleyan theology calls us to ask: How can our communities shine as beacons of love, justice, and truth in a world yearning for hope?
Rather than forming isolated communities, Wesleyans can act as leaven within the broader culture, embodying and promoting moral excellence through everyday life. A Wesleyan response to cultural challenges emphasizes engagement rather than withdrawal—through ethical integrity, compassionate service, and social reform. By bringing faith into public, familial, and vocational spheres, Wesleyans witness holiness within a culture they seek to transform from within, fulfilling Christ's call to be "salt and light" (Matt. 5:13–16). Wesleyan theology remains relevant to the pursuit of first-century faith because it aims to restore the doctrines and spirit of the early church, primarily through the lens of paleo-orthodoxy.
Evangelical Witness to Transform Culture
Personal holiness naturally overflows into public witness, compelling believers to proclaim Christ and serve their neighbors. The Great Commission ultimately sends the church outward. While seasons of withdrawal may strengthen believers, they cannot become the church's permanent posture (Matt. 28:18–20). The Holy Spirit sends us into the streets, marketplaces, schools—into the world itself—to make disciples and proclaim Christ without compromise. We cannot shrink from culture; we must confront it with courage, wisdom, and bold witness.
Dreher's focus on sacred community, though not without merit, must not overshadow the divine charge to seek the lost. From the very beginning, the followers of Jesus carried the message into hostile lands, proclaiming the gospel, even at the cost of life. Today, the pressures of a fallen world are not a summons to withdraw, but a clarion call to fearless witness. God calls us to stand in marketplaces, halls of power, and homes of the weary, demonstrating the love of Christ and declaring the good news with clarity.
Scripture repeatedly presents God's people as servants within societies that did not share their convictions. Even during exile, the prophet Jeremiah instructed God's people to "seek the welfare of the city" (Jer. 29:7), demonstrating that faithfulness did not require abandoning society but blessing it without adopting its idols. Daniel served faithfully in Babylon without compromising his devotion to God (Dan. 1; 6), Joseph preserved Egypt during famine while remaining loyal to the Lord (Gen. 41–47), Esther used her position to protect God's people (Esth. 4–8), and Nehemiah worked within the Persian Empire to rebuild Jerusalem (Neh. 1–6).
These examples illustrate that engagement, rather than permanent withdrawal, has long characterized God's people living in hostile cultures. The New Testament reflects this same rhythm of formation and mission. The early believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42–47), strengthening one another in the faith. Yet their gathering was never an end in itself. As persecution scattered the church, "those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went" (Acts 8:4). Christian community exists not merely to preserve believers, but to prepare and send them into the world as witnesses of Jesus Christ.
Capitalism and The Benedict Option
From humanity's original mandate to cultivate creation (Gen. 1:28) to Paul's exhortation to "work with your hands" to bless others (1 Thess. 4:11–12; Eph. 4:28), Scripture presents productive labor as a vocation through which believers glorify God and serve their neighbors. From this biblical foundation, Dreher's proposal invites Christians to reconsider their place in capitalism today. From a conservative, pro-capitalist perspective, economic engagement is not a temptation to retreat from but an opportunity to shape culture through integrity, stewardship, productive labor, and charity. Participation in the marketplace becomes a testimony to Christ's lordship (see "Christian Case for Capitalism").
In a free-market economy, Christians must rise as builders, not bystanders. We showcase integrity in our labor, generosity in our wealth, and service in our influence. Retreating into closed enclaves wastes the opportunity God has placed in our hands. Instead, we enter the marketplace with purpose—funding missions, creating jobs, and establishing institutions that magnify Christ. Economic engagement is not retreat; it is stewardship lived out in the heart of culture, where every transaction becomes an act of stewardship that proclaims that Jesus is Lord (see "Money, Mammon & Tithe").
Populism, Values, and Engagement
From a conservative populist perspective, America's cultural heritage is not something to abandon but something to defend and renew. Ordinary people, more than elites, have carried the torch of faith, family, and freedom across generations. This perspective encourages Christians to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyday Americans in protecting religious liberty, strengthening families, honoring patriotism, and upholding the Constitution. These ideals resonate with many Americans, and they provide fertile ground for believers to shape society with moral courage.
Rather than retreating into isolated enclaves, Christians should stand alongside like-minded Americans who long for a return to traditional values. Scripture calls God's people to "seek the welfare of the city" where they live (Jer. 29:7) and to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matt. 5:13–16). Within the democratic framework, believers can work for policies that promote the common good, safeguard religious freedom, strengthen families, and encourage moral responsibility. By participating in political and civic life, Christians have opportunities to love their neighbors and seek the welfare of their communities. In doing so, they can help shape the nation's future with truth and conviction rather than abandon it.
Not Retreat, but Renewal
While The Benedict Option highlights a world overshadowed by unbelief, the gospel shines brilliantly. A Wesleyan, evangelical, free-market, and populist vision urges us not to retreat but to move forward. The earliest disciples did not seclude themselves; they brought holiness into public spaces, proclaiming Christ and beacons of hope in challenging environments. We must do the same. We are called to embody holiness in our lives, share the good news, engage in the economy with integrity and generosity, and stand united with our neighbors to uphold truth and freedom. The church does not withdraw from the world—it engages it with love, truth, and the power of the resurrection. Our mission is not to create enclaves of fear but to ignite communities of passion, bearing witness until the day every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:9–11).
In these days of confusion and decay, we do not cower, for the apostle Peter admonishes us, "In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" (1 Pet. 3:15). Our hope does not rise and fall with the world's shifting ideologies; it rests in Christ's promise. Jesus has promised, and his word cannot fail: "The gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matt. 16:18).
MacIntyre referenced a "very different St. Benedict," a figure capable of providing stability in times of division. His concern was not simply political decline but the loss of a shared moral tradition capable of sustaining a virtuous society. In Benedict, he saw communities that preserved wisdom through an age of cultural collapse. Dreher rightly asks whether Christians today must undertake a similar task. MacIntyre was correct; however, this figure is not a monk retreating into silence, but rather a church radiating a sacred presence in society. Nevertheless, this approach carries a genuine danger: when Christians pursue political victories and reflect the world's corruption, they betray the cross they uphold.
In this respect, Dreher performs an important service by reminding the church that engagement without holiness quickly becomes assimilation. Dreher's call for withdrawal serves as a caution against this danger. While he rightly warns against cultural assimilation, the primary Christian response is not withdrawal but engagement. Christians remain faithful as they bear witness to Christ through Wesleyan holiness, evangelistic witness, stewardship, and civic responsibility. The "Benedict" our age requires is not another monk retreating from civilization, but a church filled with the Holy Spirit, steadfast in holiness, and sent into the world as Christ's ambassadors. The apostles themselves embodied this paradox. Matthew—called from his work as a tax collector (Matt. 9:9)—and Simon the Zealot (Matt. 10:2–4), whose very title evoked a radically different social and political outlook, stood united as brothers in Christ. Following their example, the church's greatest witness is found not in political withdrawal or ideological conformity, but in discipleship under the lordship of Jesus Christ, whose grace empowers believers to pursue personal and social holiness for God's glory.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Dreher, Rod. "Benedict Option FAQ."↗ The American Conservative. October 6, 2015.
Dreher, Rod. "Benedict Option Omnibus."↗ The American Conservative. January 6, 2016.
Dreher, Rod. "The Benedict Option's Vision for a Christian Village."↗ Christianity Today. February 17, 2017.
Renn, Aaron M., and John Hirschauer. "Christians in the Moral Minority."↗ Produced by 10 Blocks, August 21, 2024. Podcast, MP3 audio, 20:45.
Monographs
Dreher, Rod. The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. New York: Sentinel, 2017.
Dreher, Rod. Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots. New York: Crown, 2010.
Jones, Scott J., and Arthur D. Jones. The Wesleyan Way: A Faith That Matters. Nashville: Abingdon, 2018.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. 3rd ed. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
Miller, Darrow W. Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures. Seattle: YWAM, 2018.
Putnam, Robert D., and David E. Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
Schneider, John R. The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Edited Volumes
Black, Amy E., ed. Five Views on the Church and Politics. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015.
Chilcote, Paul W., ed. The Wesleyan Tradition: A Paradigm for Renewal. Nashville: Abingdon, 2002.
Online Resources
Bruenig, Elizabeth. "City of Rod."↗ Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. March 1, 2017.
Meador, Jake. "Reviewing Rod Dreher's 'The Benedict Option.'"↗ Mere Orthodoxy. March 14, 2017.
Gordon, Mark. "Getting Practical with the Benedict Option."↗ Plough. August 10, 2018.
Wax, Trevin. "The Benedict Option: Good Strategy, Bad Posture."↗ Kingdom People (blog). The Gospel Coalition. March 20, 2017.
