Edinburgh Reading Group relaunches
Last year’s poll produced two books that participants were eager to read together. Having worked through Vanhoozer’s Biblical Authority after Babel in the Spring, we now move on to Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (Sentinel, 2017).
Dreher’s book grapples with the current forms of “dissolution and decadence” facing the church in the West, arguing that
the way forward is actually the way back—all the way to St. Benedict of Nursia. 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. … Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. … 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.
(From the publisher’s website.) We begin our fortnightly Thursday afternoon sessions towards the end of November:
- Nov 22 | Introduction + Chapter 1
- Dec 6 | Chapter 2
After the holiday period, our schedule is as follows:
- Jan 17 | Chs. 3-4
- Jan 31 | Chs. 5-6
- Feb 21 | Ch. 7
- Mar 7 | Ch. 8
- Mar 21 | Chs. 9, 10 + Conclusion | (= Last meeting)
UPDATE + Thursday 4 April | “Wrap-up” session responding to the book as a whole. See also this Padlet page for further resources for that meeting.
Our venue for all sessions is, as ever, in Room 8 of the Free Church building (15 North Bank Street, The Mound, Edinburgh, EH1 2LS), and we meet from 5:00-6:00 p.m.
There is a mailing list for the Edinburgh SETS reading group. If you would like to be added to it, please visit the Google Group page, and send your email address via the “contact the owner” link.
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