The Boutique Option

The next chapter in The Benedict Option is well written, and makes many pertinent observations. A lot of true and necessary things are said, largely concerning the need for older doctrine and need for a liturgical worship that shapes cultures. But there is still a problem, and it is largely architectonic. The chapter has a …

“Retreat to Commitment” Writ Large

I begin by noting something by Samuel Johnson in The Vanity of Human Wishes, a little something for us to keep in reserve. How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. In this next chapter, Rod Dreher says many good and pertinent things, but these …

Renewal and Reformation

In the next chapter, Rod Dreher outlines a modern description of and rationale for the Benedictine order. And in the particulars, he says a number of wise and good things. Dreher sees one of the most essential things. “We need to embed ourselves in stable communities of faith” (Loc. 760). And living by rule is …

Finding the Seven Thousand

The second chapter of Dreher’s The Benedict Option is really quite good overall. I found myself agreeing with much of it, and agreeing also with the various qualifications Dreher made as he went along. What he does in this chapter is give a brief intellectual history of the West’s apostasy, and in the main, he …

Catacombs or Cloister?

So I would like to invite you to read through The Benedict Option with me. For the most part we will go a chapter at a time, although this first time out we will take the Introduction and Chapter One together. For various reasons this is an important book, and how we respond to it …

Where Credit Is Due

Some readers may recall the periodic clashes I have had with some of Russell Moore’s public stances on how we should be best resisting the ongoing sexual revolution. At issue has been my concern that Moore was too prepared to cede ground in the realm of same sex mirage, in order to continue to fight …

Surrounded With Beer Cans

If, under the new covenant, the promises of Deuteronomy can legitimately be applied to a nation today, then it is possible for us to sort out what we should think about immigration biblically. If the promises of Deuteronomy do not apply, then we (and the refugees) are cast upon our own resources. The whole subject …

Pauline, Not Paula

A few days ago, Michael Horton wrote a piece for The Washington Post headlined as “Evangelicals should be deeply troubled by Donald Trump’s attempt to mainstream heresy.” This is certainly true, and I am troubled by it. On top of that, I appreciated the historical sketch of the Word of Faith movement that Horton laid …

Jesus Is Not Our Ethanol

The Germans frequently have just the word for it. Taking joy in the misfortunate of another is schadenfreude. That feeling of embarrassment you get on behalf of another who ought to be embarrassed himself but somehow isn’t is fremdschämen. I bring this up because we either need to coin or find another word for another …

The ERLC Downstream From the Trump Victory

I have been wondering for a few months now if there was going to be some kind of Southern Baptist backlash against Russell Moore, and it looks like it may now be happening. For example, The Wall Street Journal has a story on it here, and NPR here. And in the aftermath of the election, …