Mark Shea on the Benedict Option
Since my friend Joseph is always bringing up the somewhat relevant Catholic author Mark Shea, I thought I should check out what Mark Shea recently had to say about the Benedict Option:
Instead of withdrawal from the world, how about sharing the fruits of prayer and contemplation with the world? God did not so love the world that he hunkered down in Fortress Katolicus seeking the perfect liturgy, scrutinizing people for heresy, and repelling everybody who sought him as an invader.
The world is to be loved, not feared or worshiped. Father Dominic got this.
Seriously. Who at this point hears Benedict Option and doesn't think "bunker"? If the so-called Benedict Option was truly a strategic withdrawal then no one would even know about it as I've said before. Conceding defeat in the war of ideas isn't strategic. How can you even purport to be a standard-bearer for Burkean ideals and leave the fight?
Shea and I disagree on many things and his reflexive moral equivalency in the political sphere is tiresome, but we agree (along with Tom) that the so-called Benedict Option isn't to be considered either because it isn't really Christian or it doesn't really exist. Or... maybe a bit of both.
As I mentioned in one of the comments, along with others here I've been analyzing and critiquing what Pik has aptly designated as Dreher's "vaporware" so long that the root of this emperorography and its emperor have given way in my field of interest to those embracing it, or at least wanting to be seen as in the know to the extent of letting others know they've heard of it. I ran across one today who referred to Dreher as "this leader". I believe the SEO gurus refer to this as attempting to attract an "authority link".
ReplyDeleteIn reading them and their careful or simply reflexive absence of even the most rudimentary of testing questions, one gets the sense that this is what was originally meant by the contemporary term "meme".
Not the funny pictures of cats with a wacky phrase superimposed over them in a block font, but an idea, or, more properly, a rudimentary or defective idea fragment that has somehow achieved a self-replicating power, like a virus, and then simply gets passed from one susceptible Christian commentator to another like a cold.
There's no faith or reasoning involved in this process, just snork! (Dreher or previously infected), splat! (newest victim-host), and a new "What about this bab-bab-new Benedict Option-bab everyone is-bab talking about-bab-bab-bab?" infected and contagious host is born. Snork and repeat.
Dreher's BO, far from having a traditional gene to its name, is pure 21st Century internet spun sugar. To test that premise, simply try igniting a conversation about it face to face among real human groups in the real world, your church, neighborhood, poker table, woman's group, etc., etc., where ideas are forced to immediately entertain, not another idea, like a gibbon swinging with carefree abandon from idea branch to idea branch through the dream forest of Dreher's mind, but rather the first concrete step to actually be taken, and then the next, and then the next, and the self-sacrificial cost of each.
National Catholic Register just jumped aboard the Benedict Option search term bandwagon.
DeleteSeriously. Who at this point hears Benedict Option and doesn't think "bunker"?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, who at this point hears Benedict Option and doesn't thing "bunkum"? ;-)
Hey, I recognize your handle ("Song of Roland" reversed, n'cest pas? Don't answer in French, that's all I know) from previous Dreher blogs. Not from the current one, though. Um, residency problems with the authorities there? Welcome to EQE, whatever the case.
DeleteWell, Roland, Fr. Longnecker doesn't think it's bunkum if you read his latest piece, although it is obvious from the title that he does think it implies a sort of bunker mentality.
DeleteObviously we think the concept is bunkum over here (to put it nicely), and we think God agrees with us.
Keith, you are totally on to something pointing out that the Benedict Option is a near-perfect example of a true meme. I was just reading the wikipedia page: "memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts."
DeleteSo Benedict Option is a piece of a complete idea. We have long pointed out that people have used the Benedict Option as a sort of projector screen for their ideal Christian cultural project. For some it's home-schooling. For others it's turning off the television. For others it's living in a cabin out in the words with a makeshift church.
But here's the key to me: Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Someone thinking "Benedict Option, Benedict Option..." is not going to be joining the building committee at their own church, or the marriage prep group, or starting a Catholic publishing house or radio station. Or influence the secular world by merely being a good conscientious, productive Christian in whatever work they do. Others will be left to do this stuff who don't have this Benedict Option fixation.
...and that's the main problem I (and, I expect, we) have with the implicit mandate of the Benedict Option which is that every Christian follow it or else we're all doomed. The Benedict Option slices off a lot of pieces of the complete Gospel of Christ because these aspects of the Gospel are not to the taste of these people. So as Pikkumatti has pointed out many times in the past, we're back to matters of taste over matters of Truth.
DeleteWhat you said, Pauli. That last comment nails it so perfectly it should be matted and framed.
DeleteThere's a related dimension which is probably already obvious: Rod Dreher's Benedict Option (TM) is a factional political campaign within conservative Christianity:
DeleteFather Dwight endorses the Benedict Option:
One doesn't "endorse" the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Nicean Creed, one believes them. What one endorses is Hillary's political position on executive action on immigration, or hot new consumer product Shimmer (it's a floor wax and a dessert topping), or a factional cult political movement among cyber-Christians: "Father Dwight endorses the Benedict Option. Vote the Benedict Option ticket, today!".
Is your family Benedict Option ready? Have you assembled and stored the 19 things every Benedict Option family must have? Have you identified those persons with whom you will be building your Benedict Option community of faith during these dark times ahead and, more importantly, those with whom you will not? For example, Jor-El, that black kid always smoking weed in the stairwell. Probably not worth the trouble, is he. Face it, fellow BOppers, in dark woods with limited resources there is no room for magical thinking. Hard choices about who is to be saved must be made, but we who have endorsed the Benedict Option have proven we are ready and willing to make them.
Forward, and may God bless our holy and righteous cause!
Bravo, Mark Shea!! This is why I can never share Joe's animus toward the guy. I may disagree with him about a lot, but his heart is in the right place, and he knows what it means to be a Catholic Christian, as opposed to a quasi-cultist.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, Diane, you know nothing about Shea. He is a bully who is addicted to his own venom. If he's such a "good Catholic," then why doesn't he treat people with a minimum of respect? Not only does he block people who have the temerity to disagree with him (a la Dreher). He routinely engages in campaigns to destroy anyone -- even priests -- who dares to disagree. Such campaigns rise (or sink) to the level of Internet stalking. I speak from personal experience, and I'm not the only one. There's a Facebook group, "Banished By Mark Shea," whose members can tell you similar stories.
DeleteThe fact that Shea might be right about the Benedict Option does not give him automatic credibility. Remember, the demons believe in God and tremble. Do not become so infatuated with someone's opinions or world view that you ignore his lack of character.
Dreher might be a narcissistic, pseudo-intellectual poseur but that's nothing compared to Shea. He is downright evil. He does Satan's work. He would be the perfect candidate to be a demon incarnate, if any Catholic could be such a candidate.
If you really want to know what a dolt Shea is (BO or no BO), just read the following:
Deletehttp://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-hippolito/a-catholic-writers-propaganda-for-iran/
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-hippolito/the-propagandist-strikes-back%E2%80%A6and-strikes-out/
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/mark-sheas-economic-inquisition
Thanks, Keith. Good blog you guys have here.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am evidently persona non grata there. You don't criticize a "prophet" (love the Prophet Dreher meme!) and not be cast out among the weepers and teeth gnashers.
I've forgotten what specifically got me the boot - probably excoriating the Prophet for trashing his mother re the 9/11 bombings. But that was probably just the final straw.
I may have used the term "narcissistic" once too often. He edits comments ruthlessly (even short ones) but cannot restrain his own pathological logorrhea.
So I'm trying to survive. I'll be OK. If I could just stop my teeth from gnashing.
"He edits comments ruthlessly (even short ones) but cannot restrain his own pathological logorrhea."
DeleteHa. Last time he edited one of my comments, he simply replaced it entirely with his NFR. Didn't publish a word of my comment, but published his scolding of me for writing it in the NFR.
I have a feeling that not too long from now many of those currently bedazzled like Father Longenecker will be just as thoughtfully arguing among themselves and others that, no, they had not been dupes of a Christian-social conservative equivalent of Scientology, only of a Christian-social conservative equivalent of the Shake Weight.
DeleteWhat a silly power trip. Wonder if he sticks out his chest when he types an NFR.
DeletePower trip indeed! When the only way you can feel like Somebody is by mashing the delete button, then I guess that's what you do. It's the bully's way.
DeleteI don't get Fr. Longenecker's post. The evidence he offers that it might be time to hunker down is... that some people aren't coming to his parish any more?
ReplyDeleteWell, okay, it's not inconceivable that Catholics might change churches because they don't want to hear Catholic sexual morality preached at Mass. But hasn't that been the case for fifty years?
But let's grant that he's noticed something (other than Dreher and Linker fretting in public) that calls for a response. What response does he think is called for? For "those who wish to affirm the fullness of the Catholic faith" to commit "to a strong community that builds up that faith for them and their families."
Well, a) when wasn't that called for; and b) in what sense is that "hunkering down"?
Tom, I see in an update to this post that Father Longenecker has endorsed the Benedict Option. I believe this may be a smart move for many an online Christian leader concerned with his SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings, that is, endorsing the Benedict Option. Doing so immediately reveals to the online consumer of Christian word writings that the endorser is not only irenic and a team player, he is also aware of the latest developments in online Christian ideas and their discussion and is capable of making a committed online decision when encountering any of them.
DeleteBy way of full disclosure to all our readers, let me explain here right now that I, Keith, endorse puppies. I don't happen to own one right now, nor do plan to actually acquire one any time soon, much less feed, clean up after, train, provide veterinary service for, or otherwise alter my life to accommodate one. But I can tell you here now unequivocally that not only are puppies adorable, they are said to often grow into some of the most loyal companions a person could hope for.
This is why I, Keith, endorse puppies and why I am not only proud to do so but also why I am equally proud to explicitly endorse that endorsement right here on EQE.
These may be the key words in Fr. Longenecker's post: "those who wish to affirm the fullness of the Catholic faith are expressing an increasing desire to belong"
DeleteYou've got a certain set-apart mentality, a common nervous temperament (this part I infer), and a safety-in-numbers prospect. Those who are terrified by anarchy are noticing each other as they skitter around, and telling each other they've got to do something. Maybe?
Tom, I couldn't make sense of the words you excerpted, so I went back to Father Longenecker's post for the full sentence(s):
DeleteAt the same time those who wish to affirm the fullness of the Catholic faith are expressing an increasing desire to belong to a strong community that builds up that faith for them and their families.
Is it time to hunker down and be committed to such communities?
I think so.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the abbreviated term for " a strong community that builds up that faith for them and their families" "Father Longenecker's Catholic parish"?
Is it time for Father Longenecker to hunker down and be committed to such a community?
Is it time for Father Longenecker to begin earning his pay check?
I think so.
But of course if he's already doing so, there's no Benedict Option to either endorse or be taken, it's already being done, and those that aren't just need to start doing their jobs.
Here's a way to look at it. The Benedict Option (let's assume we know what it is in general) is certainly something to try AFTER we've tried everything else.
DeleteBut have we?
Examination of conscience: Have I started going to daily mass each day? Have I started going frequently to confession? Have I made time for contemplative prayer each day? Do I say the Rosary often? Do I try to bring others who have fallen away back to church? Do I attempt to be Christ-like in my family life? Am I trying to root out my dominant defect? Etc.
I could throw out 10 more of these easily. Unfortunately I am not doing that great on these. If I was doing all this stuff perfectly and I still didn't feel like I was part of the Mystical Body of Christ, then I'd say "Gee, I'd better try the Benedict Option."
But here's the thing: as crappy as I am at being a good Catholic, I do feel like a belong to a strong community, and a community which is more than the sum of its (rather imperfect parts). And it's a community which I could make much better by simply being better myself.
Benedict Option preachers need to get the logs out of their own eyes.
Bingo, Keith and Pauli!! Yes, indeedy, as y'all say, we already have such a "community." It's called a parish.
DeleteOf course, at a parish, you have to rub elbows with the "lukewarm" hoi polloi -- all those souls Dreher can read oh so so accurately, which in turn entitles him to look down at them disdainfully.
But, in my experience and those of my friends -- especially my goddaughter's 23-year experience with a Catholic Charismatic Covenant Community -- parishes, for all their faults, may prove less spiritually dangerous than extra-parochial intentional communities.
Obviously, there is a place for convents, monasteries, and lay associations. These are part of a venerable tradition -- a tried-and-true tradition -- and they are always under some sort of official Church oversight, whether via the local diocese or a religious congregation.
But these lay-led para-church communities are often a recipe for trouble -- creepy-culty trouble. And, with the BO, the warning signs are all there. Exclusivism? Check. Attitude of superiority toward other ("ordinary, lukewarm") Christians? Check. Inordinate fear of the Big Bad World, leading potentially to isolation and insularity? Check.
Sorry, but I'll take my chances with my territorial parish, thank you very much. Even though we're a motley crew from all walks of life, and even though the choir occasionally sings "On Eagles' Wings," we're still a heck of a lot healthier than most of the "intentional communities" I've seen.
Tom, I wouldn't worry about anything Fr. Longenecker says. He's not all that insightful or, really, all that intelligent. He's basically a poseur who fancies himself as another Chesterton when he's nothing but a Chesterton "wanna-be."
DeleteThe mere fact that Patheos publishes him should tell you all you need to know about his lack of intellectual depth.
"I see in an update to this post that Father Longenecker has endorsed the Benedict Option. I believe this may be a smart move for many an online Christian leader concerned with his SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings, that is, endorsing the Benedict Option. Doing so immediately reveals to the online consumer of Christian word writings that the endorser is not only irenic and a team player, he is also aware of the latest developments in online Christian ideas and their discussion and is capable of making a committed online decision when encountering any of them."
DeleteKeith, that's the most intelligent thing anybody on this thread has said.
Joseph, just so you realize I was being sardonic.
DeleteAs I pointed out in my most recent comment to Oengus, the great honking irony of a Rod Dreher is that he is the least traditionalist of Christians personally; by his own admission the bulk of his connections with others is online rather than real world and organically communal. OTOH, beyond where it may proscribe against a hermit pulling his own willy, Christianity is overwhelmingly and organically a communal enterprise. These days, we tend to think of the Internet as an integral part of our lives, but it is really just a glorified version of the old telephone party line. Rather than the age-old organically embedded human concerns about man, woman, birth, death, and the eternal soul, Dreher's Christiany-flavored Internet para-gospel traffics overwhelmingly in things like gossip about trannies, passive-aggressive attacks on his family and others, scorekeeping the sins of others, maintaining a public catalog of the slights he suffers and the burdens he must carry, and lately Always Be Closing.
Granted, we here at EQE use the Internet ourselves, but hardly in the same way a Dreher uses it, as a substitute for the human institutions of family and organic community and as a para-ecclesiastical psychological pulpit and time share seminar; I think it's safe to say that, as much as many of us here are online buds, our relationships here pale with respect to the real relationships of family and community we are inextricably bound up with in the real world offline.
By contrast, Dreher's online escapades and BO becomes more like clandestine message traffic beamed from Fearless Leader to Boris and Natasha far afield, secretly embedded in the real, organic communities of Christians and others, with the strength of those signals solely a function of the extent to which the great god Big G little double o recognizes Boris and Natasha hollering back in turn.
Sorry to be so longwinded, but I wanted to make it clear I was criticizing and mocking this brave new rarified world of watery, Christian-flavored Internet BO online ramen soup, not celebrating it.
Keith, I know you were being sardonic. That's why I wrote what I wrote. Longenecker is nothing but a poseur, just like his comrades at Patheos. Like them and Dreher, his stock in trade is the cheap, quick and dirty Internet hit; truth left his stable a loooonnnnnnnnnnng time ago. In fact, I think it's running in the Belmont this weekend. ;)
DeleteBy "lay-led para-church," I mean communities that arise more or less spontaneously and remain outside official ecclesial supervision. Sorry; should have made that clear. A monastic order that has been around for over 1,000 years is one thing. A little self-organized intentional community that owes allegiance to no one church is another matter altogether.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as y'all point out, the BO is so nebulous that it may never be realized in concrete form as an actual community. OTOH, while Dreher would never stick his neck out to found an actual community, his fanboys might. And that would not be good IMHO. Just ask the Mother of God Community in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Assuming it's still around.
Further clarification: New religious orders and lay associations like Focolare and Communion and Liberation seek out canonical status and official church oversight. That's the key, in my book. That's what keeps most canonically approved associations from going too far off the deep end into creepy-culty. (Obviously there are exceptions -- Regnum Christi, anyone? -- but overall I think church oversight is a life preserver.)
DeleteAm having a hard time articulating my concerns here. But, if you google the Mother of God mess, as covered by the Washington Post many moons ago, well, you'll see what I'm talking about WRT the dangers of extra-parochial non-canonical communities that set themselves up as Better Than Those Unwashed Slobs in the Local Parish.
Diane, wit respect to the BO, I think the ragged broken bone of cynical mutual online back scratching is beginning to pretty clearly rupture through the pretentious skin of any sort of serious movement formulation, the main evidence being that the only voices making an effort to engage the BO ultimately end up rejecting it. OTOH, those embracing it are, to a person, offering nothing more than the sort of tautologically chopped word salad Father Longenecker serves up.
DeleteAs two raging liberals put it
Their idea of the Benedict Option doesn't seem to include any actual leaving, just talking about leaving, selling books about leaving, and going to conferences where everyone talks about selling books about leaving.
and
Oh, its like the Frugal Movement, or a Bridal Magazine. Its all about selling the fantasy of a kind of moment. You can get people to sign up to buy your newsletter if you peddle the fantasy hard enough, and before you know it you are that Kimball guy writing folksy claptrap about a Vermont that never was to weekend cooks who never taste the crap they cobble together from your detailed recipes. Its an empire, if only reigning over weak minds.
When liberals and socons and atheists and Catholics all agree on the same thing using identical language, this common perspective on the BO as cult vaporware undeniably becomes an objective reality repeatedly tested and repeatedly found wanting regardless of ideology or faith, like simply not being able to tie a towel around one's neck and soar away off the garage roof no matter how much one wants to talk about doing so.
Just ain't no there there, townspeople. The children, to a tot, stubbornly keep finding the emperor naked.
LOL. "cult vaporware" -- perfect.
DeleteYep. There ain't no there there.
But Rod can wring some more Pharisaical -Bashing-of-Lesser-Christians-Especially-Catholics out of it before the dust settles, I'll betcha. And maybe a few book sales.
Dittos for what y'all have been saying. Yes, our parish is that kind of community.
DeleteAnd in response to the children seeing the emperor as naked, the Emperor strikes back, in that if you don't think you need the Benedict Option, He considers you thusly:
...it’s hard to think of anything stupider and more depressing than someone who pretends that the bad thing happening right in front of our eyes isn’t really happening, because the truth is inconvenient to our presuppositions.
I think we're starting to see an exposed nerve on this subject...
P.S. In that same post, Dreher treats us with a fancy explanation of his temperament:
Lamentation leavened by a keen sense of absurdist humor is my standard mode of engagement.
Scrape away the pomposity and there's not much left to that thought.
P.P.S. In case I needed another reason not to visit Dreher's blog, now it gives me automatic audio ads that I can't turn off.
"Lamentation leavened by a keen sense of absurdist humor is my standard mode of engagement."
DeleteSounds like a very bad line some college sophomore uses trying to pick up goth girls.
Pik, one of the ways we can chart Dreher's increasingly becoming unglued is the increasing frequency of his interminably long screeds such as the ironically titled 2,900-word-plus rambler The Dis-Integrating of Reality.
DeleteFor those needing perspective, the typical full length syndicated opinion piece might hit 800 words; this latest Leviathan could swallow 7 of those babies with a tasty snack left over.
This begins to reach into extemporaneously raving and ad hoc-thought-linking Fidel on May Day territory and, remember, this is just one more blog post. An endless parade of these anacondas are poised to come looping out at any moment.
This is the Dear Thought Leader of the Benedict Option Cult movement: rambling logorrhea, no internal editor, an artificially crafted, world-removed blog cyber-nest and friendship circle that brooks no dissent, whose currently published book celebrates his dealing with his most recent bout of clinical mental illness.
You betcha, sign me up for some of that.
Ooops, bad math: 3 of those babies.
DeleteNot to mention, Keith, that when you're spewing out that kind of volume per piece, it's a whole lot easier to respond to criticism with something like this:
Delete[NFR: Good grief, did you even read what I wrote?! This is so frustrating to me....
P.S. BTW, that's was in Dreher's response to the first comment on a 3748-word piece. I know somewhere I had a writing instructor tell me that if you can't get your point across in 3748 words, you're doing it wrong.
Lol. At least he wrote "Good grief" and not "Holy Moley, Batman".
DeleteBy the way, I submitted Note From Rod to Acronymfinder's NFR page but they haven't listed it yet.
"Lamentation leavened by a keen sense of absurdist humor is my standard mode of engagement."
DeleteSounds like a very bad line some college sophomore uses trying to pick up goth girls.
Very good, Anonymous! BTW, could you throw a tag at the bottom of your posts so we can distinguish you from other Anonymites? Muchos gracias.
Keith proposes a good test for vapor when a parish priest talks about "the Benedict Option": Are you proposing you do something other than your job?
ReplyDeleteIt may be even more of a challenge for Catholic pastors, since they are (de jure, at least) responsible for the care of every soul who lives within the geographic boundary of their parish, Catholic or not. In what way is this duty consistent with "hunkering down"? (That's not asked rhetorically. He could, for example, be using "hunker down" to mean something like "get serious about your ministry and stop watching so much TV.")