BenOp Weekend

Numerous diagnoses have been put forward for the continued cultural decline of the West, and these diagnoses have led to various treatment plans being suggested and attempted. In Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreher focuses not merely on what went wrong, but — more importantly — on those communities which managed to cohere, and even thrive, in the midst of persecution and oppression. In this lecture, Richard argues that these communities function as a sort of “Canary in a coal mine” for purposes of understanding how to survive cultural decline, retain a sense of identity, and build durable communities. Finally, he looks at the way that storytelling has functioned in this way throughout history, and suggests some avenues of participatory storytelling by which we can pass on culture to our children and give them the gift of stable communities and identity.

The walls of Christendom lie in ruins. This nearly wholesale destruction of Christian culture has challenged our faith, affected our families, and fractured our communities. In this lecture, partly in response to the oft repeated claim that the Benedict Option does not include a “how to” manual, Travis presents the Old Testament figure of Nehemiah as an example of how we can go about rebuilding the walls of our faith, families, and communities in this time of upheaval through attending to the parts of the wall right in front of us. Only by focusing on the small parts—whatever that might be for each of us—can the walls of a Christian culture be rebuilt.