Thursday, June 9, 2016

In, but not of...

Responding to critics of what is known as the "BenOp" Alan Jacobs asks those critics "to pretend that they’ve never heard the phrase 'Benedict Option' or the name Rod Dreher" and then consider his (Jacobs') summary of the idea:
  1. The dominant media of our technological society are powerful forces for socializing people into modes of thought and action that are often inconsistent with, if not absolutely hostile to, Christian faith and practice.
  2. In America today, churches and other Christian institutions (schools at all levels, parachurch organizations with various missions) are comparatively very weak at socializing people, if for no other reason than that they have access to comparatively little mindspace.
  3. Healthy Christian communities are made up of people who have been thoroughly grounded in, thoroughly socialized into, the historic practices and beliefs of the Christian church.
Therefore: If we are to form strong Christians, people with robust commitment to and robust understanding of the Christian life, then we need to shift the balance of ideological power towards Christian formation, and that means investing more of our time and attention than we have been spending on strengthening our Christian institutions.
Now: What there do you disagree with?

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