Richard Rohlin - That Our Hearts May Beat as One - BenOp Weekend 2021

Numerous diagnoses have been put forward for the continued cultural decline of the West, and these diagnoses have led to various treatment plans being suggested and attempted. In Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreher focuses not merely on what went wrong, but — more importantly — on those communities which managed to cohere, and even thrive, in the midst of persecution and oppression. In this lecture, Richard argues that these communities function as a sort of “Canary in a coal mine” for purposes of understanding how to survive cultural decline, retain a sense of identity, and build durable communities. Finally, he looks at the way that storytelling has functioned in this way throughout history, and suggests some avenues of participatory storytelling by which we can pass on culture to our children and give them the gift of stable communities and identity.