There are seats on the wings of the room who need a place to set. Sit. Youre welcome to see it of course. It is great to welcome everyone to this evening of conversation in discussion about our christian witness in the 21st century. The occasion is of course his new book on the benedict option. But before i introduce the imminent speaker i want to thank the cosponsors of this event. One of the sponsors is first things manganese magazine that i edit. And the other sponsor is plow and i would like to think peter munson for contributing so much for making this evening happen. It was really peters idea to have a big event like this to mark the publication of this important book. I would also like to thank the folks at the american conservative where he is a Senior Editor and a tireless blogger. And as we all know. In fact right now he is posting the folks at the american conservative in the folks at plow and i would like to thank those of us for trying to think about how to move forward in very Tumultuous Times of a very deep change not just in the political culture but i think also there is a spiritual earthquake abroad in the west in our society. And were trying to think about what that really means and how to live faithfully in the current context. So the plow magazine is on everybodys chair in american conservative i believe is on everybody chair and there are subscription cards and those magazines ready for you to fill out. And because we are cheap we didnt provide thats not true. We didnt provide everybody a cop because we were assuming given like an audience like this of so many wonderful people we assumed you were subscribers already. If perchance years was lost in the mail we would be happy to provide you with a copy in the entryway as well as an opportunity to subscribe. Enough of the promotion and sales pitch. Its really my honor to be able to introduce our speaker he is an accomplished author on little way. And how dante can save your life and then of course the book that we have before us for tonight the benedict option. I think more than an author hes really a teacher his blood is a place where not thousands but tens of thousands of people come regularly often daily to think about real questions that the only place probably online where you could be an eavesdropper or an active participant often people who make comments are responded to in his column and the ideas are developed more freely. Charles taylor. Serious ideas and serious people. Where else can you go and had some dimension them perhaps even in the same posting. Its really an ongoing seminar for many people throughout the United States and people as are trained to think about how their fate should be lived in the present age. Its really tonight i would like to introduce roger dreher. In his remarks this evening which we follow by a panel discussion. To help us think about how to live as christians in the 21st century. Its my pleasure enjoining roger dreher. Think you for that generous introduction. Im here to say that anybody who buys a copy of the book on the way out will get an a. Its so great to be back in new york thats probably the happiest years of my life. Im happy to see old friends here. A chance to say hello and friends from all over. Its a really important time they are small orthodox cushions. To come together and talk about what we do at this moment. The time we have. I want to thank so much the conservative response the benedict option for being alarmist the critics are right. I am alarmist about the state of our culture in our civilization. And the condition of the Church Within it. If you are a faithful christian and youre not alarmed i think you are feeling to read the signs of the times. I do not claim that the world is coming to an end no man knows the day or the hour what i am claiming indeed to me is that the world is coming to an end and that if christians dont take radical action in their own lives right now the faith that made western civilization will not survive for long into this civilizations quote post christian base. A few years ago noted public intellectual set quote it is obligatory to compare todays situation with the decline of the roman empire. It still functions on the great historical framework. It went on to lament the collapse of the spiritual forces. When the era of a global throne that has been existent for nearly 2000 years says that the west is facing its greatest spiritual crisis since the fall of the western global empire. What are the signs of the times. They hardly need to point out a sense of mounting political crisis throughout our civilization. And mind you i just came in this afternoon and whether on the left of the right people are pretty anxious about the future. But signs of our spiritual depletion are impossible to deny. And if we are spiritually depleted i will recite to a litany of statistics but i will focus on a few that particular interest i think in secular europe the United States has long been thought of as a counterexample to the secularization pieces. That is no longer cannibal scholars the data now shows that the u. S. Is on the same downward path to disbelief hiring id according to data from the Pew Research Center one in 318 to 29yearold americans have put religion aside if they ever picked it up in the first place. And those who do remain affiliated in some capacity with institutional churches had been formed by a pseudo religion that resembles christian and any name only. Noted sociologists call this moralistic therapeutic dm. They use the language and conceptual vocabulary of historical biblical christianity in fact it teaches feelgood jesus like philosophy perfectly suited to a consumers individualist post Christian Society that worships the self. Smith and his Research Found as the de facto religion of most Young Americans today. Smith found that among 18 to 23 years old only 40 said that their personal moral reliefs. Only 40 . Astonishing 61 percent of those emerging adults said that they have a moral problem at all with materialism and consumerism. And ended 30 expressed some qualms about consumerism but said its not worth worrying about. They say smith and the team all that society is as a collection of autonomous individuals out to enjoy life. America has lived a long time off of the veneer partly necessitated by the cold war. They told me in the interview for the benedict option. Thats all finally been stripped away by the combination of mass consumer capitalism and liberal individualism he said. The sociologist quite a phrase that perfectly captured the revolutionary spirit of our time and place. As we know it is characterized by a conscious break with the authority of the path and institutions. It describes the first stage. It have notably quickened from the path but it was still slow enough for most people to adjust. Things still seemed more or less solid. But now we have moved into liquid a time in which the pace of change is so rapid that nothing no new institutions of no habits or customs has time to solidify. The most successful person is the one who has no allegiance blot dash beyond himself. He can change loyalties and in belief at well. Two suit his own preferences. And that world is there is no solid ground anymore. From a christian perspective i likened it to the great flood of the bible. All of the familiar landmarks of our faith are very quickly been submerged and slipped away. When i go to an evangelical college to talk about about the benedict option im often shocked should not be surprised but i am shocked i carried from professors who say thats a very few of their students even those that come out of Christian Homes and churches and schools they know so very little about the basic facts in the narrative of the Christian Faith. This flood cannot in my view be turned back. The best we can do is to construct arts which we can ride it out. Make it across the dark sea of time to a future when we do find dryland and can start the rebuilding and receding in renewal. So what is the benedict option and what does it have to do with his tire scenario i paint. The term comes from the famous final paragraph of the 1981 book after virtue. In that book the philosopher explained how enlightenment overthrew the old source of moral order rooted in christianity in classical philosophy. But the enlightened and could alignment cannot produce an authoritative replacement for an interview it is reaching a point of reckoning. Liberalism is not sufficient to do the necessary work of Binding Society together and give it its members purpose. In his books conclusions mcintyre compared our present time to collapse. Our wealth obscures for my eyes how fragile we are on the inside. Some men and women of virtue quit trying to shore up the 16 order and focus on building new forms of Community Within they can live out the moral traditions very uncertain future. Today we await a new and doubtless saint benedict. They are known today as the founder of the patron saint of europe. Four years after the long lost emperor advocated. He was sent down to the city of rome as a pious young man to complete his education. What they saw their disgusted them. To see gods well for his life mentally before he died he found the 12 monasteries called the rule of saint benedict. It is a thin very plain pamphlet which he calls a school for the lords service. As a book that sets out the order for living for the sake of trading monastics if you read this as i certainly had you maybe shocked by how plain it is. I really thought it was can be the mystical saints. You would never guess from reading the key role that this little book played in saving western civilization. They spread out all over europe. They taught them how to play pray but they to them how to grow things and make things skills i had been lost in the catastrophe that was in the fall the fall of rome. They kept alive the cultural memory of christian rome. Because he took a they took a bow of stability until the end of their lives peasants would gather around as citadels of light in order in this way they were like art carried the faith and cultural memory across the stormy waters it all happened not because they had set out to make rome great again but because he sought to figure out how to best serve the lord in community. When every good thing that came after followed from the decision. I write about the snow today. I interviewed the monks there how the core values and practices can be applied to everyday Christian Life prayer, work hospitality. In the daily life all of these things Work Together and balance to lead monks into it sense of lifegiving order who at the time of my visit last year they told me that the monastery in its life of christ focused prayer is a sign of contradiction to the modern world who told me the guardrails have disappeared we are so captured by the lights and emotions of modern life that we dont recognize the danger. The forces of dissolution are too great. We need to embed ourselves. And stable communities of faith. Theyre called to live in the world. Not at all. We have to evangelize or we fail to fulfill the great commission. We fail to serve our lord. But all thoughts of total withdrawal out of your mind. We have to erect some virtual wall for the sake of the spiritual formation. Outside culture is overwhelming. Keep it lit anymore i have dinner when i was in washington with the great early Church Historian and member of the first things family. An essay he wrote in first things in 2004. About the loss of cultural memory. And how vitally important it is for the church today to tell itself its own story. They have read in the benedict option. We in the church should do. Its all there in the book. Take that book and go out and do what it says there. And to get the endorsement from somebody i respected and admired her as admire as much as him is quite an honor. Here is a paradox. Of the church is going to be the blessing for the world that god means for it to be in the churches can have to spend more time away from the world deepening its commitment to god to scripture to the christian history and tradition into each other. We cannot get to the world what we do not had yes we should engage with the world but not at the expense of the fidelity in the sense of ourselves as a people set apart. Let me use a couple of examples from the hebrew rival to illustrate what i mean. In jeremiah chapter 29 the lord speaks through a letter and tells us people to settle down in the city and to integrate into its life. He brought them into exile for his own purpose and he planned to deliver them one day but for the time being he wanted them to settle their but the lord also warns do not let profits deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies you in my name. In the Exile Community there were would be profits who get the jewish people exactly what they wanted. Jeremiah though it was a true prophet of the lord. We might even say that because jeremiah lived outside the Exile Community in babylon he could hear the lords voice more clearly. They have to figure out how to obey gods command to integrate into babylonian society want the same time not been assimilated. In the book of daniel we read the story of shadrach, me check and a bend to show a bendigo. Those three men refused even on pain of death. As we know from the story the king threw them into a Fiery Furnace in the fire did not consume them. They restored it to their position. How did they live lives that were integrated. They were state officials but also at the same time developed develop such a strong faith that they were willing to lose everything even their own lives before the train their god by bowing down to that title. That is a question facing cushions today. We have to somehow walk a middle path between crystal fundamentalists and the accommodations who loved the world so much that they rationalize idle work. Engaging in the culture is something we have to do but it must never become an excuse to bring the incense to caesar. It must never be availed. There must have been something about the daily lives in the daily practices in babylon that changed them spiritually so that when they were put to the ultimate test they passed. It has to be that way to us also. We are feeling badly. Those numbers i said it earlier in the top tell a tale primarily of christian infidelity. If we dont change our way of living by way of praying we are necklace survive as a church. We will be assimilated. There is no middle way. In the benedict option i talk about the various ways that we can and should do this i walk i read about education in the workplace family and community in the way we use technology and the way we think and approach and sexuality. I do want to say a few words about one area that is on the minds of a lot of people right now. Politics. As i was writing the book i bet almost everybody in this room i expected Hillary Clinton to win at the presidency. Have that happened in the future of religious liberty wouldve been very bleak. It did not happen though. Today i hear some conservative christians breathing a sigh of relief. Dont believe it. Not for one second. Im as pleased as a Supreme CourtJustice Nominee as anybody. We have not seen yet we may not see the executive order that we wanted to see from this president. Nor do we see much enthusiasm in the Republican Congress to pass the religious liberty. The conservative christians may end up having been played for. By this administration. I desperately hope im wrong. But lets get serious. Even if donald trump were estate. That is because this is far beyond the power of politics to do. If america had elected a cross between those two. We would still need that i was writing about that and addict option before the decision. It seemed to have shocked a lot of christians into realization about where we actually stand in this culture. If it did not exist we would still need the benedict option. The core problem we face is not gay people or liberal a democrat or democrats or muslim immigrants or anybody else. The core problem is a culture into civilization that has turned its back on christian orthodoxy. The problem is us. In the Divine Comedy for me one of the great cantors when they find themselves on the terrace of anger. And they tell them tells him hes come from tuscany and everybody is at each others throats. What can we do. How can we turn it around marco looks at him and says the world is blind and you to come from the world. He goes on to tell the pilgrim and dante if you want to know how to change the world and turn things around start with yourself. Look inside your own heart. Because the problem starts right there. That is good advice for us. Recovery and rebuilding of the world we have lost i think its can be the work of centuries i believe that christians have to stay active conventional politics working as we are able for the common good and especially fighting to protect religious liberty but we cannot afford to make the same mistake as a prior generation of conservatives. They thought the problem was that American Culture was fundamentally moral and they just could capture the offices we could restore the republic to its moral footing. They were wrong. The republicans kept winning. The fact that obscured the long steady loss of the culture. I think the benedict option should be local us in a small seed catholic at its scope. Its more important for us to strengthen churches and start schools in both of the local community than it is to short up the imperium. I want america to prosper but it is far more important to be a faithful christian than is to be a good american. The two should not conflict but when they do and i think they will more and more weve got to know on whose side we are on. Do i worry about persecution to an extent yes. You cannot talked a lot professors or doctors or educators or others who are living on the frontline of that religious liberty debate and remain sanguine about its future. People who do not prepare those under their authority for that kind of future are failing in their duty. Has i see the greater problem right now is a steady erosion of authentic christianity by the restlessness of individualism hedonism and consumerism. We have to also face the fact that in some quarters on our own conservative side we are seen the rise of an ungodl