Audio only
The Benedict Option
A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian NationBy Rod DreherNarrated by Adam VernerLength8h 23m
About this audiobook
The light of the Christian faith is flickering out all over the West, and only the willfully blind refuse to see it. From the outside, American churches are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. From the inside, they are being hollowed out by the departure of young people and a watered-down pseudospirituality. Political solutions have failed, as the triumph of gay marriage and the self-destruction of the Republican Party indicate, and the future of religious freedom has never been in greater doubt. The center is not holding. The West, cut off from its Christian roots, is falling into a new Dark Age.
The bad news is that the roots of religious decline run deeper than most Americans realize. The good news is that the blueprint for a time-tested Christian response to this decline is older still. In The Benedict Option, Dreher calls on traditional Christians to learn from the example of St. Benedict of Nursia, a sixth-century monk who turned from the chaos and decadence of the collapsing Roman Empire and found a new way to live out the faith in community. For five difficult centuries, Benedict’s monks kept the faith alive through the Dark Ages, and prepared the way for the rebirth of civilization. What do ordinary twenty-first century Christians—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—have to learn from the teaching and example of this great spiritual father? That they must read the signs of the times, abandon hope for a political solution to our civilization’s problems, and turn their attention to creating resilient spiritual centers that can survive the coming storm. Whatever their Christian tradition, they must draw on the secrets of Benedictine wisdom to build up the local church, create countercultural schools based on the classical tradition, rebuild family life, thicken communal bonds, and develop survival strategies for doctors, teachers, and others on the front lines of persecution.
Now is a time of testing, when believers will learn the difference between shallow optimism and Christian hope. However dark the shadow falling over the West, the light of Christianity need not flicker out. It will not be easy, but Christians who are brave enough to face the religious decline reject trendy solutions and return to ancient traditions will find the strength not only to survive, but to thrive joyfully in the post-Christian West. The Benedict Option shows believers how to build the resistance and resilience to face a hostile modern world with the confidence and fervor of the early church. Christians face a time of choosing, with the fate of Christianity in Western civilization hanging in the balance. In this powerful challenge to the complacency of contemporary Christianity, Dreher shows why those in all churches who fail to take the Benedict Option aren’t going to make it.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (9.9K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreSpirituality and Religion, Politics and Government
Length8 hrs 23 mins
Narrated byAdam Verner
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMar 14, 2017
LanguageEnglish
Prayers from the Throne RoomBrian Simmons8h 55m4.9 (256)$10 · $0.00
31 Decrees of Blessing for Your LifePatricia King2h 38m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
Loved BabySarah Philpott4h 51m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
The QuranAllah23h 7m4.7 (136.1K)$1 · $0.00
The Secret of the RosaryLouis de Montfort6h 1m4.7 (16K)$2 · $0.00
The Holy Qur-an: Text, Translation and CommentaryAbdullah Yusuf Ali22h 16m4.7 (133K)$1 · $0.00
All of Grace (Annotated)Charles Spurgeon5h 1m4.7 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Steps to ChristEllen G. White3h 12m4.7 (13.8K)$2 · $0.00
The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Annotated)Joseph Smith13h 57m4.7 (575)$2 · $0.00
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God & Other Sermons (Annotated)Jonathan Edwards7h 51m4.7 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
Swayam Ki AwaazPrem Rawat8h 34m4.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
Behind the BadgeAdam Davis10h 18m4.7 (2.7K)$10 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
Praying GraceDavid A. Holland3h 2m4.7 (658)$10 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Christ KeyChad Bird, Chad Bird7h 33m4.7 (592)$17.40 · $0.00
Your Body Already KnowsNidhi Pandya Bhanshali9h 7m4.7 (360)$16 · $0.00
The Complete WorksFlorence Scovel Shinn7h 59m4.6 (6.6K)$2 · $0.00
Driven by EternityJohn Bevere3h 50m4.6 (3.2K)$10 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
KrantikariSanjeev Sanyal11h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$16 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 42m4.6 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
To Rescue the RepublicBret Baier, Catherine Whitney11h 42m4.5 (8.6K)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
A Voice from the SouthAnna J. Cooper6h 46m4.4 (365)$2.30
Capital (Das Kapital)Karl Marx111h 17m4.4 (40.9K)$2 · $0.00
A Description of Millenium Hall (Annotated)Sarah Scott6h 37m3.7 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
Black like MeJohn Howard Griffin7h 10m4.3 (91.3K)$20
The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx1h 36m3.9 (239.6K)$5 · $0.00
The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx1h 42m3.9 (247.1K)$2 · $0.00
The State Must ProvideAdam Harris7h 15m4.5 (775)$24 · $0.00
Angela DavisAngela Davis19h 29m4.5 (14.8K)$30
The Soul of ManOscar Wilde2h4.1 (14.3K)$1 · $0.00
Black BuckMateo Askaripour11h 13m3.8 (34.1K)$29 · $0.00
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (a feminist literature classic)Mary Wollstonecraft9h 32m4.1 (90.6K)$2 · $0.00
Art Under PlutocracyWilliam Morris2h 19m4.1 (21)$1 · $0.00
Two Cities, Two LovesJames Montgomery Boice10h 10m4.4 (172)$20 · $0.00
Don't Go to CollegeMichael Robillard, MA, MA, PhD, Timothy Gordon MA, PhL, JD6h 46m3.9 (35)$17 · $0.00
A Crack in the Spirals of PowerRodrigo Bahia2h$11 · $0.00
Defining Womanhood: 14 Classic Books on Women's Roles and SocietyMagdeleine Marx, Marietta Holley, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Virginia Tatnall Peacock, Elizabeth Cooper, Charles Sainte-Foi, Max O'Rell, Suzanne La Follette, Alfred Brittain, William Hard, William J. Robinson, Selina A. Bower, Benjamin Griffith Brawley, Pierre de Bourdeille Brantà ́me92h 14m$1.99 · $0.00
American GraffitiMargo Thompson5h 56m4.1 (33)$18 · $0.00
"Colony,"--or "Free State"? "Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"? "Empire,"--or "Union"?Alpheus Henry Snow59m$2 · $0.00
Loom and spindleHarriet Jane Hanson Robinson5h 13m3.9 (209)$1 · $0.00
This Earthly FrameDavid Sehat10h 24m4.3 (15)$20