Today we review the book �The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation,� by Rod Dreher.

In summary, Dreher is extracting many of the principles you would find in a monastery, and projecting that on to the larger Christian community and using that as a model to follow. While he is not opposed to those who join a monastery, he is not prescribing that for Christians in general. At first reading you may think he is advocating entire separation form the world and a conviction of extreme pessimism. Our guest comments about that.

He does a good job in diagnosing our world and its problems.

His concern is that of protecting ourselves from the extreme secular, ungodly environment that we find ourselves in, in the western world. The disciplines seen in monastery life can be applied to our own lives in terms of limiting constant entertainment, prayer, fasting, and learning to take a break from the enslaving onslaught of technological devices. We are continually distracted and this has the effect of alienating us from the Christian life.

Some areas of the book are overstated, i.e., stretched a bit. Our guest points those out. One area is the fact that there never was an ideal Christian civilization. Nevertheless some of his prescriptions indeed should have interest to us today. Participants: Dr. John Vance, Dan Elmendorf