The Gregory Option: St. Benedict in the World
Alasdair MacIntyre’s 1981 manifesto After Virtue famously ends with the argument that we are “waiting for another St. Benedict.” At some point, the old Roman Empire was lost. “Men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium.” As they were led by the abbot Benedict of Nursia, so we too must turn to “the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.”
The election in 2005 of Pope Benedict XVI, who often cited Arnold Toynbee’s thesis that history is shaped by “creative minorities,” even as the culture around them crumbles, generated new enthusiasm for this thesis—though those who read medieval history might debate whether Benedict or Francis is the more fitting parallel for a post-Christian culture running on steam.
We can get better insight into the “Benedict option,” however, by thinking about St. Gregory the Great. He died in 604, just over half a century after St. Benedict in 543. Gregory was the first Benedictine Pope and the popularizer of the life of St. Benedict, and he seems to be the primary reason that Benedict’s Rule prevailed over other early forms of monasticism in the West.
The role of St. Benedict in the West is perhaps misconstrued by an over-focus on his previous life as a hermit. The creative-minority, “Benedict Option,” it might seem, is to withdraw from the culture, head for the hills, and give up on the world.
But St. Gregory complicates the picture. To be sure, Gregory was radically Christian: a monk, a master of spirituality (perhaps the most important for the Middle Ages), profoundly invested in Scripture and the liturgy. But he was no recluse.
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The Benedict Option:
What Does It Really Mean?
“Seeking his workman in a multitude of people, the Lord calls out to him and lifts his voice again: ‘Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?’” (Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict, quoting Psalm 34:14-15).
The Benedict Option—what does it really mean? In my mind, it is quite simple: taking St. Benedict and his Rule as a model for the Christian life within the context of our culture.
The term Benedict Option was coined recently by Rod Dreher. He initially defined it in somewhat negative terms as “pioneering forms of dropping out of a barbaric mainstream culture that has grown hostile to our fundamental values.” It is not surprising to think of St. Benedict in this light, as he himself withdrew in disgust from late fifth century Rome in favor of a cave in Subiaco. However, Benedict did not stay in isolation long, and quickly became an Abbot, gathering large numbers of men to himself.
Dreher points to a “community of Catholic laity” growing around Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma as an example of the Benedict Option. It is important to note, however, that there is not a formal lay community there. People simply want to live near the monastery, many have become oblates and participate in the liturgical life of the monastery, and they live in friendship and fellowship with one another.
Dreher’s articulation of the Benedict Option has recently been criticized by John Goerke on Crisis. He fundamentally questions the legitimacy of the term in relation to lay people seeking to emulate monastic life:
The question is: Is this the Benedict Option? The answer is: no. First and foremost there is the obvious point. The members of Clear Creek and Eagle River are not monks. Their lack of organized prayer life betrays this fact…. If taking the Benedict Option means a strict imitation of Benedict’s move to the wilderness, then it is an option to be taken only by monks.Goerke then concludes that we need to look at Benedict more deeply in order to emulate his life andRule:
To find out what God wants, and to truly imitate St. Benedict, we must go to the substance and not the accidents of his life. The true Benedict Option is not a flight but a fight. It is a fight to be waged in the heart of every Catholic. It is a fight to undertake two strenuous tasks with humility and love: Ora et labora. Pray and work.
I think that Goerke’s argument is somewhat incongruous in that he claims that those who are striving to unite themselves to St. Benedict by associating with a monastery are not part of the Benedict option, but then argues that Benedict is nonetheless a model for us. Do we not need to soak in St. Benedict’s spirituality by learning from monks, precisely so that we can fight for Catholic culture?
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