Book Review: The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher

Full disclosure: the title of this book caught my attention because I thought it would help me decide between breakfast options at Denny's.

Just kidding. Actually, I heard the author, Rod Dreher, interviewed on a podcast I listen to regularly. I was compelled by Dreher's comments about our culture's hostility to Christianity, and the need for Christians to take drastic measures to protect our families and communities. Without doing a great deal of additional reasearch about the book, I decided to take a read.

I found this book an easy read, and appreciated Dreher's obvious passion and conviction for his topic. I agree with many of Dreher's observations about the culture and it's growing antipathy toward, and incongruity with, Christianity. I especially agree that we should prepare ourselves and our children for the possibility of greater restrictions/attacks on our religious liberty. I also agree that Christians should form close knit ties with other believers, and seriously contemplate things like classical education and homeschooling. I think, too, that many Christians are not as vigilant as we should be (and are perhaps not even aware) of the corrosive influence of our culture upon our children and ourselves. I thought chapters seven, on education, and ten, on technology were especially good. 

Since reading the book, I've read a few reviews that others in the Reformed community have written, including this one which was published to the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church) website. Unlike the author of this article, I didn't really get the sense that Dreher goes out of his way to disparage conservative Protestantism. Throughout the book he seems to labor to convey a sense of solidarity and ecumenism among what he refers to as "orthodox" (small "o") Christians - basically, theologically orthodox/conservative Christians. Several positive examples Dreher gives actually involve PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) churches, and I felt most his negative examples of mainstream evangelical Christianity appropriately illustrate his points about the downgrade of Christianity in America. 

I disagreed with Dreher's inclusion of the Protestant Reformation as one of the "five landmark events that rocked Western Christianity and stripped it of its ancestral faith." Also, he has conspicuously few bad things to say about Eastern Orthodox Christianity. I wasn't really surprised, since Dreher converted to that church in adulthood and was presumably drawn toward it for a reason. 

I'm not sure that Dreher does a good job taking the Holy Spirit into account, or of acknowledging the role that Providence plays in any Christian undertaking. Though he is manifestly not of the "seeker sensitive" persuasion, I thought some passages seemed to suggest we can/should solve the church's problems under our own power; that by looking to 6th century monastic practices, we can "preserve" Christianity. Which brings me to my main trouble with the book: I kept wondering why it is necessary to use St. Benedict, and monasticism in general, as a paradigm by which to understand our present situation or search for solutions.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. Many of Dreher's observations are astute and, despite some disagreements, I found myself on the same page with him much of the time.

Book Review: Alexander the Corrector by Julia Keay

Years ago, while in a used book store, I came across a copy of Cruden's Concordance. I had wanted a concordance for some time, and was happy to have found one for just $6. I remember thinking that my only complaint was that the concordance was based on the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. At the time I was not a fan of the KJV, though with the passage of time I would grow to love it. The concordance contained a brief biography of the author, Alexander Cruden, who single-handedly composed it. I remember being struck to find that the concordance was written in the 18th century by a man who spent time in and out of insane asylums. The author of the short biographical introduction was unequivocal in his conclusion: Alexander Cruden was mad.

Over the years my copy of Cruden's Concordance saw a lot of use. I was increasingly impressed that one person -let alone a "madman"- was able to compile such an amazing and useful reference tool all alone. But recently a friend at church gave me a copy of Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Whose Cruden's Concordance Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay (Overlook Hardcover, 2005). Always eager to read a well-written biography, and interested to learn more about the enigmatic Alexander Cruden, I read it as soon as I could.

Alexander the Corrector documents Cruden's whole life, from his humble beginning in Aberdeen, Scotland, through the stormy years in which his sanity was repeatedly called into question, to his ultimate (and gradual) rise to fame by virtue of his magnum opus -his remarkable concordance. In several instances Cruden was, indeed, involuntarily committed into madhouses. However, as Keay notes, in each case where details are known (there was a possible brief internment at London's infamous Bedlam Hospital, about which there seems to be no extant details), Cruden was accused of insanity in close connection with some romantic relationship. In one case, for instance, a rival in one of these romantic affairs managed to have him committed for several weeks without any predicate psychiatric evaluation, and on the basis of virtually no evidence. In an incredible series of events, Cruden managed to escape -but he was not immediately returned to the madhouse as one might expect. The reason is, apparently, that no one else seems to have believed he was mad. Though Cruden was unsuccessful in the subsequent lawsuit he brought against his rival and several others, the court and numerous witnesses seem to have concluded that Cruden was perfectly sane.

Nevertheless, even given Keay's sympathetic portrayal of him, it is hard not to conclude that Cruden was an unusual individual. He was, for example, almost inhumanly determined and persistent. In addition to helping him complete the concordance, his tenacity seems to have been largely responsible for his remarkable and successful attempt, in his later career, to intercede on behalf of a young man sentenced to death over a relatively minor infraction. But it is not difficult to imagine how his eccentricity might also have added perceived credibility to the intermittent claims that he was insane.

What really struck me, however, was the amazing depth of Cruden's faith in Christ and his lifelong love and knowledge of God's Word. In a day when even many professed Christians have little knowledge of the Bible's content, Cruden's familiarity with the biblical text seems almost inconceivable (for instance, he committed the entire book of Psalms to memory). As a devoted Scottish Presbyterian, Cruden was fervently committed to the gospel and to living in accordance with its implications, even in the face of a British culture which, as Keay points out, had largely shunned what had become know as "religious enthusiasm". In fact, to the extent that at least some of Cruden's suffering was exacerbated by his outspokeness regarding his religious convictions (in at least one instance, labeling him an "enthusiast" apparently provided some basis for keeping him in a madhouse), he may justly be seen as suffering for Christ's sake (Matthew 5:11-12). The hand of Providence is also clearly visible throughout Cruden's life. For instance, his experiences in insane asylums empowered his later efforts to educate the public regarding the disgraceful manner in which the mentally ill were treated in 18th century England. What others meant for evil, God clearly meant for good (Genesis 50:20).

Keay certainly had her work cut out: Writing an engaging book about a man who wrote a reference work might have been a daunting task. Though she was certainly assisted by the fact that Cruden's life was anything but bland, Keay deserves praise for producing such an enjoyably readable work on the life of a truly remarkable man.

On Being a Dad

Many years ago, when I was single, I remember a married friend telling me that having children was the hardest and the best thing he'd ever done. I took him at his word, but obviously I had no way of relating. In large measure, everything I had experienced until that point in my life had been either hard or great. I had personally experienced few examples of something being both difficult and wonderful at the same time.

Years later,as I anxiously awaited the birth of our first child, our daughter, I thought back to my friend's words. I was so full of doubts about my ability to be a good, godly father, to bear up under the stress of having a family, even to simply handle and take care of a tiny, new-born baby. But "his strength is made perfect in weakness" (1 Cor. 12:9), and God gave me the grace I required.

Suddenly, not four years later, we have a daughter and a son, and another son due in September. I don't hesitate to now repeat what my friend once said to me -it has been the hardest and best thing I've ever done. In spite of the lack of sleep, the frustrations, the worry, the added pressure of providing for little ones, I am happier and more fulfilled now than ever before in my life.

Having children is a sanctifying experience. Because it requires you to attend to the needs of someone else in such a complete way, you become more selfless without trying. To the extent that fatherhood has forced me to become more of a servant, it has made me more Christ-like. But being a father has given me even deeper insight into new dimensions of my faith. Christ became a servant, humbling himself to wash me, and is, at the same time, my Lord and Master. My relationship to my children is reflective of my relationship with Christ in many ways.

For example, I am my daughter's master, but must also constantly serve her and prioritize her needs above my own. Just as God, out of his love for me, has called me to obey his law, I require my daughter to obey rules that are designed for her protection and nurture. As God is pained when I break his law and he must discipline me, I am also pained when my daughter disobeys -I never understood that it is possible to feel at once angry, heart-broken, and deeply in love with someone. And as Christ willingly laid down his life for mine, I would happily lay down mine for my daughter. Truly, being a father has helped me better understand the heart of God.

God has used my marriage to teach me about Christ and his love for the church; he has used fatherhood to teach me about his providence, his discipline, and his inestimable love for me.

Grace Abounding

My God is true; each morn anew I’ll trust His grace unending, my life to Him commending.

God has blessed me beyond measure.

It would have been enough if he had forgiven my sin and promised that I could spend eternity with him. But, in spite of me, he has seen fit to demonstrate the "exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward" me (Ephesians 2:7) here and now by blessing me with countless temporal blessings.

John Bunyan, the Puritan preacher and author of Pilgrim's Progress, entitled his autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners -a reference to 1 Timothy 1:5. I read Grace Abounding about ten years ago, and the title left a deep impression upon me. Like Bunyan and the Apostle Paul, I have no reservations about identifying with the moniker "chief of sinners". In fact, I am convicted that if I were willing to settle for any nicer a perception of myself, I would be greatly underestimating the depth and gravity of my sin. My sin does more that separate me from God. It makes me his enemy and, justly, invites his wrath (Hebrews 10:31).

Question 82 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?" The answer is: "No mere man, since the fall, is able, in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God; but doth daily break them, in thought, word, and deed" (emphasis added). I am a daily commandment-breaker. More specifically, like Adam, I am a covenant-breaker (Hosea 6:7).

But when God looks at me, he only sees the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus -who kept every commandment perfectly, and died on my behalf (Romans 4:24-25; 5:19). I'm reconciled to God, and through no merit whatsoever of my own. If that were all he did for me, it would have been more than enough.

Yet he has also blessed me with so many other good things. He has blessed me beyond what I ever hoped, or could ever ask. He has blessed me beyond measure.

The second verse of one of my favorite hymns reads:

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Amen.