{"id":7199,"date":"2017-07-25T13:56:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T18:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=7199"},"modified":"2017-07-25T13:58:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T18:58:57","slug":"not-heading-for-the-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=7199","title":{"rendered":"NOT HEADING FOR THE HILLS!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scholars are rarely prophets and prophets are rarely scholars.\u00a0 I was reminded of this in reading the much debated, The Benedict Option<\/em> by Rod Dreher. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rod Dreher, journalist and outspoken Christian, is decidedly on the prophetic side of the scholar-prophet spectrum. This, however, does not mean that he is incapable of helping us better understand the far-reaching and practical ramifications of something as arcane as nominalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We must say right out of the blocks that Dreher\u2019s book is not a jeremiad screed to head for the hills.\u00a0 Rather, Dreher advocates for \u201cexile in place.\u201d\u00a0 The preposition is key.\u00a0 We are to cultivate faithfulness with other like-minded folks not simply to hunker down in our religious enclaves.\u00a0 We should form these counter-cultural communities to strengthen our capacity to engage, not escape, our world.\u00a0 This is a clarion call by a gifted writer to let the church be the church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have my disagreements with some of Dreher\u2019s analysis and antidotes.\u00a0 With respect to the former, Dreher is insufficiently aware of what the Protestant Reformers meant by sola Scriptura.\u00a0 As Keith Mathison memorably puts it, sola Scpritura does not mean solo Scriptura.\u00a0 Among other things, leaning on the thesis in Brad Gregory\u2019s Unintended Reformation<\/em> made for a potted history.\u00a0 Dreher would have been greatly helped if he had availed himself of the work of either Mathison or D.H. Williams, especially his Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: a Primer of Suspicious Protestants<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As to antidotes, I don\u2019t share Dreher\u2019s sweeping denunciation of public schools.\u00a0 For the record, our two sons attended Christian schools, had a few years of homeschooling, and went to public high schools.\u00a0 All three have their strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 Sure, public schools can be a mess.\u00a0 I saw incompetent teachers and weak administrators, but I also saw bogus rules, unprincipled administrators and mean teachers at the Christian school.\u00a0 My experience, it needs to be noted, was both as a parent and a part-time teacher.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dreher is rightly concerned about the corrosive effects of \u201cmoralistic, therapeutic, Deism.\u201d\u00a0 I share his concerns.\u00a0 I also share Dreher\u2019s conviction that \u201closing political power might just be the thing that saves the church\u2019s soul.\u201d\u00a0 As many have said, the church seems the most vital (and prophetic) when it works from the margins of power.\u00a0 Notwithstanding its shortcomings, Dreher\u2019s book is a good reminder of that reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scholars are rarely prophets and prophets are rarely scholars.\u00a0 I was reminded of this in reading the much debated, The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher. Rod Dreher, journalist and outspoken Christian, is decidedly on the prophetic side of the scholar-prophet spectrum. This, however, does not mean that he is incapable of helping us better understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,43,88,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-christianity","category-culture","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7201,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions\/7201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}