Rod Dreher

Rod Dreher (born February 14, 1967) is an American writer and editor. He is a senior editor and blogger at The American Conservative and author of several books, including How Dante Can Save Your Life.

He has written about religion, politics, film and culture in National Review and National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, Touchstone, Men's Health, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He was a film reviewer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and chief film critic for The New York Post. His commentaries have been broadcast on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV and other television networks.^[1]

Early life

Rod Dreher was born on February 14, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was raised in the small town of St. Francisville. He graduated wth a BA in journalism from Louisiana State University.

Career

In 2002, Dreher wrote an essay in National Review that explored a subcategory of American conservatism he defined as "granola conservatism", whose adherents he described as "crunchy cons."^[2] He defined these individuals as traditionalist conservatives who believed in environmental conservation, frugal living, and the preservation of traditional family values. They also express skepticism about aspects of free market capitalism and they are usually religious (typically traditionalist Roman Catholics or conservative Protestants). Four years later, Dreher published a book that expanded upon the themes of this manifesto, Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or At Least the Republican Party).^[3] He later wrote a blog at beliefnet.com with an emphasis on cultural rather than political topics.^[1][4]

He was an editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, but left in late 2009 to become the publications director for the John Templeton Foundation.^[5] On August 20, 2011, Dreher announced on Twitter that he was leaving the Templeton Foundation in order to return to full-time writing.^[6] In 2013, Dreher published a book titled The Little Way of Ruthie Leming about his childhood in Louisiana and his sister's battle with cancer.^[7] In 2015, Dreher published How Dante Can Save Your Life, a memoir about how reading Dante's Divine Comedy helped him after his sister's death.^[8]

Benedict Option

Dreher has written extensively about the "Benedict Option," the idea that Christians who want to maintain their faith should segregate themselves to some degree from mainstream society and try to live in intentional communities such as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, the Bruderhof,^[9] or the School for Conversion.^{[10][11][12][13]} (The phrase comes from Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 book After Virtue, referencing Benedict of Nursia.) His book The Benedict Option was published in March 2017 and was described by David Brooks, in the Times, as “the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.”^[14] The book was widely reviewed, including by Rowan Williams, who said "The book is worth reading because it poses some helpfully tough questions to a socially liberal majority, as well as to believers of a more traditional colour."^[15]

Personal life

Dreher is married and the father of three children.^[1]

Raised a Methodist, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993. He wrote widely in the Catholic press, but covering the Roman Catholic Church's child sex abuse scandal, starting in 2002, led him to question his Catholicism,^[1] and on October 12, 2006, he announced his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy.^[16] At the time, Dreher had argued that the scandal was not so much a "pedophile problem", but that the "sexual abuse of minors is facilitated by a secret, powerful network of gay priests" referred to as the Lavender Mafia.^[17]

Bibliography

• Dreher, Rod (2006). Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or at least the Republican Party). New York: Crown Forum. ISBN 9781400050642. OCLC 501338224. 
• Dreher, Rod (2013). The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781455521913. OCLC 980453515. 
• Dreher, Rod (2015). How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem. New York: Regan Arts. ISBN 9781941393321. OCLC 955673884. 
• Dreher, Rod (2017). The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. New York: Sentinel. ISBN 9780735213319. OCLC 968346200. 

References

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Moosewood Republicans New York Times Book Review
• God, Guts, and Granola A review of Dreher's Crunchy Cons by Robert Stacy McCain
• Hold the Granola A review of Crunchy Cons in First Things
• Has neoconservatism passed its 'Best-Before' date? A review of Crunchy Cons
• What Is a Crunchy Conservative? National Public Radio Commentary
• A Christian Counterculture in a Post-Christian Age KFUO_(AM) Issues Etc. Interview