A recent post over at ChurchPOP about the conversion to Catholicism of famed actor Alec Guinness (a.k.a Obi-Wan “Ben” Kanobi) got me thinking about the monastic dimension of the whole Star Wars saga. The picture at the top of the post shows the enrobed Kanobi with the desert planet of Tatooine behind him. This congers up images of the Christian monks…
Welcome to the third installment of the Fuga Mundi Series. Christians have always been faced with the challenge of how to be “in the world, but not of the world.” The Latin phrase for this is fuga mundi, which literally translates as “flight from the world.” This series explores how famous monastic persons or groups lived out the fuga mundi. …
Welcome to the second installment of the Fuga Mundi Series. Christians have always been faced with the challenge of how to be “in the world, but not of the world.” The Latin phrase for this is fuga mundi, which literally translates as “flight from the world.” This series explores how famous monastic persons or groups lived out the fuga mundi.…
Welcome to the first installment of the Fuga Mundi Series with St. Antony the Great. Here and over the next few weeks I’ll be reflecting on the paradox that withdrawal from the world is what allows us as Christians to be authentically Christ to the world. Page references below in parentheses are from the biography of St. Antony by St.…
I’ve been mulling over the Benedict Option and Evangelicals ever since video of Rod Dreher’s talk at UVA’s Center for Christian Study posted a couple of weeks ago. As a Catholic, I find Evangelical interest in the Benedict Option fascinating. My own Benedict Option journey has involved nearly 20 years of Catholic churches, countless trips to monasteries in the U.S. and abroad,…
Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option Reading List post today was the perfect response to the recent barrage of critics of the Benedict Option (most recently here, today). It inspired me to post my own list. Note the whole left stack is monastic sources dating back to St. Athanasius’ biography of St. Antony of the Desert, one of the biggest influences on the…
