The Autonomous Christian

I have been doing a lot of thinking in the past about what I have discovered is actually a thing – the Benedict Option, a term perhaps first coined by Rod Dreher,  In essence it is the idea that Christians need to follow the lead of St. Benedict of Nursia and find ways of living in community that will foster the growth and development of a deeper Christian character and culture.  It comes out of the conviction that we are facing a culture that is increasingly hostile to the exercise robust, orthodox Christian belief and practice.

At the same time, much of the Church is becoming ever more accommodating to the culture.  In our efforts to reach out and attract people to Christian faith, we have soft-peddled much of the doctrine of the Church that is Unattractive to the convictions of the Zeitgeist.

St. Benedict saw a pagan culture hostile to Christian belief and practice and did two things.  He, with a community of others, withdrew to live their life of prayer, teaching and devotion that fostered the growth of Christian virtue.  And he and that community served the pagan culture around them in acts of charity and mercy.

Withdraw to grow in virtue as a community and engage in works of charity (in the Latin caritas sense of that word).  This is a much more radical expression of Christian faith than what we have understood to be Church in the West in the past 50 or more years.  It is radical because this kind of community necessarily means giving up some of our autonomy.  And radical autonomy is just one of the aspects of the current culture that has infected the church.

Let me think about that autonomy in the sense of making career decisions.  As an autonomous secularist I think about a job offer and decide if I want to take it.  As a Christian I “prayerfully consider” the option and then make my decision.  I am wondering, in practice, what is the difference between the secularist and the Christian in the above example.  One is impious and one pious but each reaches his own conclusion autonomously because, after all, what job I take is nobody’s business but my own.  That may be true for the secularist but it is not for the Christian.  Are you uncomfortable yet?  I am.

A number of months ago I was in that very situation.  A job offer came to me unexpectedly. I wasn’t even looking for a job.  I “prayerfully considered” it but I also did something else.  I sought the counsel and direction of the community to which I am subject.  In conversation with close brothers and sisters in the faith as well as with my Bishop and the council of Canons of our diocese of which I am part, I looked for discernment.

Now here is what was remarkable about this.   First, I freely gave myself to this process of discernment and (I think) was quite willing to be subject to any direction that might come out of this.  Part of the reason for this is that these are people I trust (one definition of community, if you think about it) but another part is because I am subject to the Church. 

Second, no one took this as an opportunity to tell me what to do or to get me to follow his or her agenda.  (It in not always only the Lord who “has a wonderful plan for my life.)  This was a process of mutual submission out of reverence for Christ.   The truth is, as a servant of Christ, what job I take is, in fact, the business of people other than me.

I am not here proposing some sick authoritarian Church community organization that has more to do with controlling people than seeing them fulfilling God’s purpose for them in their generation.  There is plenty of that.  That is authority and submission enforced.  I am talking about something freely chosen.  I was under no obligation to seek the counsel of any of these people.  I would certainly be under the obligation to inform my Bishop of any decision I had taken.  Informing and seeking direction are two very different things.

We all of us knew that, in the end, I was responsible for my decision, that whatever counsel or direction given I would do the choosing and reap the fruit, good or bad, of that decision.  That never goes away.  We all remain accountable for our individual decisions.  But as Christians we discern decisions in community – not decisions as to what socks to wear today, but the big ones.

What I am proposing for radical community of discernment and for growth in virtue is open to abuses of power and authority.  And it will always be because we are sinners.  But the “nobody’s business but my own” Christian model, where church community means shaking hands at coffee hour* has not produced the kind of Christian character which is needed for Christians today.  And it isn’t going to.

*This may be a simplistic and even uncharitable depiction of the Church in North America but as a whole I think we are shallow believers who are unlikely to remain constant in the faith if it gets uncomfortable.  Please note I use the pronoun “we”.  I take myself to be part of this failure.