Incidentally, I frequently refer to Rod Dreher as the "prophet of the Benedict Option", but it seems Rod himself has already given someone that title.
This guy. Right church, right color, where the Benedict Option porridge is just right.
Added: I failed to mention that the most important sentence in this post previously linked above is this, the final one, because of its timelessness and universal applicability
Things are becoming ever clearer, by the day.
Give me a moment just to savor it.
Things are becoming ever clearer, by the day.
There's literally no one in any situation one could not deliver that line to without it having the same depth and impact that it would in any other one might randomly choose.
This is why I follow Rod Dreher, because, just as one is at a loss for what to say to the mailman, he delivers.
There is another commonality between Fr. Josiah and Mr. Dreher. It is one I think of often and often hesitate to say anything about online. Fr. Josiah, like Mr. Dreher, went through two previous denominations before settling on Orthodoxy. Unlike Mr. Dreher, he was a minister in all three. Everything I have observed in the English-language Orthodox Christian blogosphere the last three years that I've been paying attention to it tells me that the majority of its chief voices are converts. Fr. Josiah's path is not unusual either: I could name off the top of my head several other Orthodox priests who were ministers in other denominations first, at least one of whom also went through two previous churches.
ReplyDeleteI hesitate, because I don't want to offend converts. I don't think this is a phenomenon that must flow from conversion, and there are different ways that folk outside the Church come to it too. I also, however, do not think that it is a mere coincidence that the chief proponents of ideas that make no sense to me as a lifelong Orthodox Christian are searchers—searching, by the way, rather than, say, being converted by missionaries, is one of the ways that some come to join the Church. I am the chief of all sinners (and I mean that sincerely), but a huge amount of what I see from the chief voices of Orthodoxy on the Internet is not the Orthodox Church I have known since I was a baby. This whole thing is just surreal to me.
Virgil, as someone whose chief exposure to Orthodoxy has been via Online Convertodoxy, I must say I find your perspective very valuable and enlightening! It provides a necessary corrective IMHO.
DeleteI know you are hesitant to hurt anyone's feelings, and I appreciate that, but I think some of us outsiders could really benefit from a primer on "Ways in Which Convertodoxy Differs from The Real Thing." So many of us know only the former and not the latter, ans it gives us a rather warped view.
Thanks!!
As an "intellectual" Catholic convert, I see a parallel to what Virgil describes in Catholic blogging. Here's a theory: apologetics is a very verbose aspect of the Faith. Evangelical Protestantism can be seen -- at best -- as sort of an "expression" of the Christian faith using words. At its worst, it's a reduction of the faith into words. So the convert from protestantism feels very comfortable with the wordiness of religious blogging and discussion. It's how he expresses his faith most comfortably. Whereas many devout Catholics don't go on and on about their religious beliefs.
DeleteNear the beginning of my conversion I actually began to see this as a virtue in the life-long Catholics. They internalized their faith and didn't need to constantly chat about it and explain it. At the same time I admired the charismatic Catholics who weren't afraid to talk to strangers about the faith, although I can only take them myself in small doses -- it's a big church.
All I have time for at the moment.
When converts hoist the black flag.
ReplyDelete