What Benedict Option?
"This is life as it ought to be lived."
Grimly pursuing the Benedict Option in post-Christian America? That isn't life as it ought to be lived - well, for you maybe, but not for Rod Dreher, impresario of that black hole of meaning.
While you try to make sense of it, maybe even deform your life and values in pursuit of it, Rod might end up writing a book about it, or he might not, but "life as it ought to be lived" won't include any Benedict Option he gulls you into for him. Instead, "life as it ought to be lived" for him will be vacationing in Italy for the Palio, then on to Lyon for a palate-cleanser of French cuisine, and then later - who knows?
Rod's having the time of his life. You? You're the mark that makes it all possible, BOpper.
That post and statement point out the fraud not only in the upcoming Benedict Option book, but also in the now-in-your-bookstores Dante book.
ReplyDeleteIn that Dante book, Dreher claims that all his woes (including his Epstein-Barr virus disease and, as he points out, the heightened risk of fatal cancer that comes with it) stem from his making an idol of family and place ("place" being where his family lived). I guess one way to look at these buddy-movie Siena posts would be that it sure looks like he's gotten past that "idol of family and place" issue, at least as it relates to his own family and place.
But then we recall that this is hardly the first volume of glorious European vacation posts he's given us over the years, of course with each trip away from his "idol of place" having been taken without the "idol of family" tagging along. Those VFYT meals with "TNC" and the rest of the virtual lost generation just wouldn't have been the same with one of the little ones asking where the kids' menu was.
So yeah, the BOp will be all crap too. As always, it just comes down to what Dreher likes on any given day, nothing more. And of course a festival time in a foreign city can't help but be a grand time, as long as you can get out of town before next week when everyone goes back to trying to earn a living for the next 51 weeks.
P.S. At least the Mrs got a shout-out this time. It's not exactly "having a great time - wish you were here", but more like someone got a talking-to when he called home yesterday.
Christianity Today magazine did a book review on the RD's HDCSYL
ReplyDeleteTheir reading of the book was so superficially fly-by as to consistently get the place names wrong. As long as there is no down side to Christians giving such gratuitous handies to one another solely to maintain an artificial face among one another, why should they? Kiss, kiss, .38, .39, whatever it takes.
DeleteRemember, emperorography depends upon the collaborative vectoring of delusion among its marks. I wonder how many modern Christians have the personal resources to resist the combination of simple shaming and Madison Avenue psyops Dreher and his promoters routinely employ.
DeleteKeith: "I wonder how many modern Christians have the personal resources to resist the combination of simple shaming and Madison Avenue psyops Dreher and his promoters routinely employ."
ReplyDeleteI guess "these are the times that try men's souls."
Shorter Keith: The closer Christians hew to Christ's commandments, the more susceptible they become to any insidiousness passive-aggressive manipulation of their good will by others to those others' own venal ends.
DeleteAs we grow closer to Jesus, yes, we should be more willing to take what we see as charitably as possible. But we should also grow in prudence, and the Holy Spirit's gift of counsel (by which God counsels us in our daily lives) should bear fruit too.
DeleteThe innocence of doves does sometimes outrun the wisdom of serpents, but the Christian disciple is commanded to have both.
What Tom said. The parable of the dishonest steward came to mind: "“For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light."
DeleteAs I mentioned, the casual ignorance of the correct place names cues one to recognize that what CT is offering in lieu of any sort of real in-depth review of the book is instead a favor tendered to the author by a supportive, kindred spirit in the form of just another publisher's release. The difference between what CT offers and the routine ones for HDCSYL on Amazon - "Great book! Very moving!" - may only lie in the number of words expended.
DeleteThere's absolutely nothing wrong at all with CT doing such a good turn for someone it considers its supportive friend in Christ - except that, as what it's represented to be, an actual book review, it remains suspect.
And is logrolling for Christ even really a sin? Only a teensy, weensy one? Worse? I'd hardly be the one to adjudicate.
I can't speak to CT's editorial policy. Of the reviews I can find online without too much trouble, I see 2 5-star reviews, 1 4-star, and 2 3-star. That tiny sample is consistent with a bias toward positive reviews, but doesn't much suggest systematic fawning out of an excess of Christian boosterism.
DeleteFrom the little bit of CT's review of HDCSYL that I read, it looks more the work of a fanboy than a generic "Christians write good" oversell.
For what it's worth, I have written book reviews off and on for thirty years, for amateur and semi-pro markets (mostly off, and when on mostly amateur). That doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about, but it does mean I'm likely to talk about it. Outside the egghead or egghead-wannabee forums, intended to be as much criticism or response to a book as description, there is a common view that the purpose of a review is to help potential readers decide whether they might want to read a particular book. A corollary to this view is that you don't write or publish negative reviews, at least not of books people aren't likely to hear much of otherwise. I don't know that this view is driven by Christian charity rather than a general desire to be helpful and pleasant.
(There's also the school of thought that positive reviews are written in order to get more free review copies. This happens too, I suppose, though the sheer number of review copies available means both that there are usually enough books you like that you don't have to pretend and that, you know what, I actually have enough free books for right now, thanks.)
DeleteLooks to me that the Christianity Today review of HDCSYL is by Ralph C. Wood, who is in the Dreher symbiotic system. Indeed, the "great Ralph C. Wood" as Dreher calls him. Another Dreher piece on a piece by Ralph C. Wood is here. Dr. Wood even showed up at the Walker Percy Weekend this year.
ReplyDeleteThis is not to demean Dr. Wood or his work. But merely to point out that Dr. Wood is in the Dreher sphere, and so will be pre-disposed to appreciate an autobiography about Dreher and his struggles, as suggested by that Amazon review pointed out by Anon in another thread here.
So I'd think the review doesn't necessarily reflect CT's editorial policy or thinking as much as it shows that a scholar that they trust offered a review suitable for publication. (But I'm not a reader of CT so I can't offer any insight into their leanings.)
Look on the bright side. Dreher doesn't vacation in Greece or Russia, just like he doesn't hang out with ethnic Orthodox at home. He goes to France and Italy. You don't have to like the man to wish what's best for him. I think he'll eventually come home to Catholicism because he obviously can't turn his back on us. If he stays outside the church he runs the risk of wigging out like Franky Schaeffer.
ReplyDeleteWell he makes it really difficult to like him. But yes, I've written different places over here about how Catholic the guy is. He's haunted by the Catholic church. Different Orthodox who dislike him have pointed out how basically he is still a Catholic.
DeleteOTOH I've always argued that to someone raised Protestant (like myself & Dreher) Catholicism and Orthodoxy are relatively identical. Obviously it's because they are both seen at a distance. Once you get closer, differences appear. But it is possible that trying to see things from a distance might be a beneficial exercise.
Catholicism and Orthodoxy are relatively identical.
DeleteWhich is what Catholicism teaches. The Orthodox are the ones making a big deal about really being a different faith.
I still maintain that Dreher is, above all, a stylist, and that he was really driven from the Catholic Church by such things as ugly modern church buildings and icky music ("On Eagle's Wings") . It sure looked like that at the time, and his output since then, which continues to conflate matters of taste with matters of Truth, backs that up. Orthodoxy has pretty old-fashioned buildings with icons and no contemporary show-tune music. It's close enough doctrinally for Dreher, so he'll go with it for now.
DeleteI still maintain that Dreher is, above all, a stylist...
DeleteYep.
Let's imagine a teleportation experiment gone horribly wrong in which the output is a common housefly with the head of Rod Dreher.
"Hmmm, kale (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, Medieval Catholic architecture (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, backyard chickens (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, Catholicism as a faith (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, French cassoulets (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, the oh-so-human sense of place (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, oysters (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, Orthodoxy (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, horse dung in Italian churches (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, Dante (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
"Hmmm, macaroons (vomit, slurp, slurp). Interesting taste!"
Now, let's examine the real Rod Dreher. But I repeat myself.
Orthodoxy has pretty old-fashioned buildings with icons and no contemporary show-tune music.
DeleteAnd all that's great. The problem is they think their culture IS the church, to the exclusion of our traditional culture. That's idolatry.
Orthodoxy has pretty old-fashioned buildings with icons and no contemporary show-tune music.
ReplyDeleteOur local Greek Orthodox church, which boasts contemporary architecture, looks like a space station from the outside.
But yeah, it's really pretty on the inside. :)