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# Mere Fidelity: The Benedict Option - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/mere-fidelity-benedict-option/
- Published: 2014-09-17T05:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-18T16:56:04.000Z
- Description: Rod Dreher has coined the Benedict Option as a response to modernity. The Mere Fidelity guys discuss what it means and what to make of it.
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Lee Anderson

“Is there a lesson here for Christians? Should they take what might be called the “Benedict Option”: communal withdrawal from the mainstream, for the sake of sheltering one’s faith and family from corrosive modernity and cultivating a more traditional way of life?”

That’s how [Rod Dreher has defined the “Benedict Option,”](http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/benedict-option/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) which he has been discussing over the past few years. In this episode, we take up the question of how Christians should respond to modernity: should we withdraw or not, and in what way?

We’re joined by special guests Jake Meador (of Mere-O Notes fame!) and Matthew Loftus, both of whom have contributed regularly here at Mere-O. Give it a listen.

[The iTunes feed for Mere Fidelity is here](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mere-fidelity/id885758537?mt=2&ref=mereorthodoxy.com) if you’d like to subscribe (thanks to everyone who has reviewed us so kindly), and [an RSS feed for the show lives here](http://feeds.podtrac.com/9Q4MSGuK6Gj1?ref=mereorthodoxy.com).

Special thanks to [MK Creative Arts](http://www.mkcreativearts.com/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) for the audio editing.

Finally, as always, follow [Derek](https://twitter.com/DZRishmawy?ref=mereorthodoxy.com), [Jake](http://www.twitter.com/jake%5Fmeador?ref=mereorthodoxy.com), and [Matthew](https://twitter.com/matthew%5Floftus?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) for more tweet-sized brilliance.