The Benedict Option
by Rod Dreher, Sentinel, £20
This is the age of the New Low. The Benedict Option is the latest in a string of books coming out of America arguing that the status of Christian civilisation in the United States (and, by extension, the West) has sunk to unprecedented depths. It takes its place alongside Out of the Ashes by Anthony Esolen, Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society by RR Reno, and Strangers in a Strange Land by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.
Familiar foes swarm across the pages of The Benedict Option: secularism, materialism, hedonism, relativism and the rest. Traditional Christianity is being overrun and the consequences are industrial-scale commodification of embryos, the ubiquity of hardcore pornography, a rising tide of unbelief and countless other evils. Things could hardly be bleaker for a once proud and secure Christian nation. Yet Dreher’s book is laced with warnings of even darker times to come. This isn’t going to blow over. The arrival of Donald Trump should fool no one. He is not the cavalry.
