Religion

From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state's assault, but it will not stop the West's slide into decadence and dissolution.

Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actu-ally the way back--all the way to St. Benedict of Nur-sia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome's fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization.

Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture.

The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Chris-tians--Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox--who can read the signs of the times. Neither false optimism nor fatalistic despair will do. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. These are the days for building strong arks for the long journey across a sea of night.

The people who met Jesus Christ in person faced the same big life questions we face today. Like most of us, the answers handed down to them didn't seem to work in the real world. But when they met Jesus, things immediately started to change for them. It seems he not only had the answers--he was the answer. In Encounters with Jesus, Timothy Keller shows how the central events and meetings in Jesus' life can change our own lives forever.

"Keller's work belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Bible student." --Examiner

"Keller has mined the gold from these texts of Scripture, and any Christian is bound to have their minds expanded and hearts stirred." --Grace for Sinners