Did Rod Dreher Just “Get Saved?”

on January 21, 2014

Yesterday, many were talking about one of the latest posts by popular author and blogger Rod Dreher. In this courageous piece, Dreher reveals how pastoral care and counsel, therapy, medication for a physical ailment, and (of all things) Dante’s Divine Comedy have all wrought a great change in him. But it’s more than that. It would seem that, through various people in their vocations and throughout life’s winding pilgrim way, Christ has done the work of the Good Physician in Rod’s life. He writes,

This happened a lot. And without me quite realizing what was going on, God re-ordered my heart. It was confession, it was prayer, it was the liturgy, it was vespers, it was talking with my therapist, and it was, of course, reading Dante. One day I’ll write more about exactly how this came about; it’s why I am so on fire to talk to you readers about how Dante can save your life. Anyway, the point is, one day I woke up and knew that God the Father loved me. After that, everything fell into place. I could see clearly. The fear, the anxiety, the despair — all gone. And so was the chronic fatigue.

For my evangelical friends, this sounded a lot like a conversion experience. In a way, it is. But let’s not see this through purely Protestant American eyes. Confession, regular prayer, liturgy: these are not the staples for gettin’ saved language. Dreher was already in the faith. It’s not like he wasn’t a Christian beforehand (for evangelicals after the Great Awakening, the conversion experience marks the entrance into the Christian life).

But Dreher has turned a corner, as many often do, and there is cause to rejoice with him. Those who have read the Little Way of Ruthie Leming are quick to reply that this is a fitting conclusion or postscript to that book. Whereas childlike faith came “easy” for his sister Ruthie (even in her debilitating illness), Dreher has always struggled with a doubtful restlessness. One of my friends said that it appears “this is one additional step toward peace and trust in the mysteries of God, but mysteries he submitted himself to and has believed in for quite some time.” It is a time of profound realization, in which one sees all of memory through a completely different lens. The spiritual life, often characterized by particularities and quiet habits, can suddenly take bounds and strides. In addition, there are moments when everything simply seems to “click” in place.

I strongly resonate with Dreher’s mention of the Divine Comedy. I knew friends who already had “salvation experiences” in evangelical homes that were shot to new heights and really spiritually matured by reading the same work (it helps to read the western canon up to Dante’s point and after you’ve lived some life). Suddenly, faith and reason get along beautifully. Grace and nature–in the way we experience them in our life–make sense. My friends lost a lot of their anxieties and confusion, fears and insecurities. They didn’t feel alone or poorly equipped to meet the world. Many changed their church homes and settled there. As was the case with reading Augustine for me, there’s a point at which you stop judging the text, and instead the good, the true, and the beautiful begin to judge you.

Il Sommo Poeta seems to bring great transformation wherever he goes. He has a sort of everlasting quality, as well as a “quick now, here, now, always” significance (like Eliot referred to in “Little Gidding”). In other words, by being so permanent, he’s perpetually relevant. Dreher has mentioned that he will explore more of Dante’s influence in practical life. I look forward to what comes forth from his admirable mind and pen.

I speak as an outside observer to what has happened in Rod Dreher’s life. But I’ll echo the sentiments of Denny Burk: “I am not even sure what it all means, but it sure looks good to me.”

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