The “Benedict Option” refers to Christians in the contemporary West who accept MacIntyre’s (and others) critique of modernity, and who also recognize that forming Christians who live out Christianity according to Great Tradition requires embedding within communities and institutions dedicated to that formation. (from Rod Dreher's 2015 FAQ blog post) The Benedict Option calls Christians wherever they live and work to “form a vibrant counterculture” by cultivating practices and communities that are only trying to build a Christian way of life that stands as an island of sanctity and stability amid the high tide of liquid modernity. We are not looking to create heaven on earth; we are simply looking for a way to live Christian community in a concrete and sustainable way.

Rod Dreher's book, "The Benedict Option" highlights some of the core principles of the BenOp: Order: recognizing and establishing inner order that is in harmony with the natural limits and ultimate reality created by God Prayer: making communication with God through prayer and scripture the basis of daily life Work: recognizing that work is not separated from the spiritual life and that in all things God be glorified Asceticism: resisting the materialism, individualism, and consumerism that drive modern secular culture and inhibit the spiritual life Stability: putting down deep roots where we live, work and worship Community: prioritizing fellowship with others over individual interests and freedoms Hospitality: being as open to the world as is possible without compromising orthodox faith Balance: practicing the prudence necessary to balance not only right and wrong, but competing goods As one BenOp-er has pointed out, “This strategy is not a new thing at all; it only seems so because we have forgotten how to act like a community instead of a random collection of individuals.” Essentially, It’s just the church being what the church is supposed to be, in concrete localized forms.

Nope! (Tempting as it may be some times...) "While I wouldn’t necessarily fault people who sought geographical isolation, that will be neither possible nor desirable for most of us. The early Church lived in cities, and formed its distinct life there. Most of the Ben Op communities that come to mind today are not radically isolated, in geography or otherwise, from the broader community. It’s simply nonsense to say that BenOppers want to hide from the world and live in some sort of fundamentalist enclave. Some do, and it’s not hard to find examples of how this sort of thing has gone bad. But that is not what we should aim for. In fact, I think it’s all too easy for people to paint the Benedict Option as utopian escapism so they can safely wall it off and not have to think about it." From - https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/benedict-option-faq/

Well that depends what you mean? Rómenna is primarily designed to be a central location online where BenOp-minded folks can connect with one another and find resources, tools, and collaborators to help them start/build/find/live the Benedcit Option wherever they are all around the world. We will soon be hosting (God willing, February 2021) an online "Benedict Option School" to serve the urgent needs of individual Christians and the many nascent communities that are springing up around the globe. That said, we hope that Rómenna can also be a space (free from big-tech oversight and social-media powers that be) to build a beautiful "virtual community" to connect orthodox (small o) Christians separated from one another by often vast distances. You can think of Rómenna as kind of a "parallel polis" (as Vaclav Benda wrote about).

Simply create a membership account on the Forum page (from the menu at the top of this page), and join in the conversation! In the future we will also be adding the "Virtual School" which will provide access to the increasingly growing body of materials and resources for a small annual enrollment fee. In the meantime, head on over to the Forum and join in the conversation!