The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture, Yesterday & Today

The Beer Option proposes a renewal of Catholic culture by attending to the small things of life and ordering them toward the glory of God and the good of the community. Beer has played a surprising role in the history of Catholic culture, spurred on by the prayer and work of brewing monks. As we confront the many challenges of our time, beer can play a role in refermenting a local and home economy, drawing people together in festivity and friendship in the warm beauty of lost traditions. Consumed in moderation, beer can contribute to healthy, holy, and happy living. This book offers a tour through Catholic history and Benedictine spirituality, illustrating how beer fits within a robustly Catholic culture. Imitating the monks in the art of brewing, Christians may come to serve others through hospitality and evangelization, contributing in this perhaps unexpected way to the larger task of restoring relationships and reshaping society. “An excellent resource for understanding the crucial task of rebuilding Catholic culture with our families. At a time when the prevailing culture promotes excess as the road to happiness, this valuable book helps cultivate a moderate enjoyment of God’s gifts—beer included!”—MOST REVEREND SAMUEL J. AQUILA, Archbishop of Denver “Before there were cocktails, there was beer—a perfect illustration of Christianity’s capacity to baptize the best of what is human. Invented by those heathen Babylonians, beer was taken up and perfected in the medieval monasteries, parishes, and homes of Europe, and continues to form a healthy part of Catholic culture around the world. Jared Staudt’s Beer Option brings out these basic truths, and more, showing us—with effervescent cheer and orthodox acumen—how beer can continue to be a blessing around the Catholic hearth.”—MICHAEL P. FOLEY, author of Drinking with the Saints “When H. G. Wells accused Chesterton and Belloc of placing a ‘boozy halo’ around Catholicism, his backhanded compliment backfired. The truth is that Belloc and Chesterton restored ‘laughter and the love of friends’ to their rightful place at the heart and hearth of Christendom. This being so, it is truly delightful that Jared Staudt offers us The Beer Option. My advice is that we take it as often as prudence and the love of friends dictates. I raise a glass to Dr. Staudt, wishing him all good things that Christendom brings, but especially barley brew!”—JOSEPH PEARCE, Senior Editor at the Augustine Institute “Everyone seems to be about the business of ‘renewing culture,’ but Jared Staudt shows us how our rich and vibrant traditions can inform and transform us now, and how, in the case of The Beer Option, such a renewal of culture is right under our noses. Exploring the role of monks in rebuilding western culture—in part through beer—this book happily inspires us to join the renewal through our own ora et labora.”—JASON CRAIG, Vice President of Program for Fraternus

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Staudt, R. Jared

Beverages & Wine

Angelico Press

The Beer Option proposes a renewal of Catholic culture by attending to the small things of life and ordering them toward the glory of God and the good of the community. Beer has played a surprising role in the history of Catholic culture, spurred on by the prayer and work of brewing monks. As we confront the many challenges of our time, beer can play a role in refermenting a local and home economy, drawing people together in festivity and friendship in the warm beauty of lost traditions. Consumed in moderation, beer can contribute to healthy, holy, and happy living. This book offers a tour through Catholic history and Benedictine spirituality, illustrating how beer fits within a robustly Catholic culture. Imitating the monks in the art of brewing, Christians may come to serve others through hospitality and evangelization, contributing in this perhaps unexpected way to the larger task of restoring relationships and reshaping society.

About the Author\nR. Jared Staudt, PhD serves as the Director of Formation for the Archdiocese of Denver and as Visiting Associate Professor at the Augustine Institute. He earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in Catholic Studies from the University of St. Thomas and his doctorate in systematic theology from Ave Maria University. He is the author of The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture Yesterday & Today, as well as the editor of The University and the Church; Don J. Briel's Essays on Education. He and his wife, Anne, have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate.\nRestoring Humanity weaves together a many-colored coat of cultural evangelization, centering on how the Christian faith renews all aspects of human life. The book lays out a vision of history and culture that flows from the Incarnation as a ground for a sacramental reality. In turn, the human person, who searches for tangible meaning, is torn by the tension between beauty and vanity, even as fallen humanity seeks redemption in the beauty of Christ. From these general principles, the book examines foundational elements of culture in the land, family life, and education. Land grounds the primordial cultural mission given to Adam and Eve and plays a crucial role in salvation history. The home serves as a central place to build a coherent Christian culture through familial prayer, work, leisure, and mission. Education builds upon the family’s primordial role by forming the mind in a coherent vision of life, as well as developing habits that will leaven the wider world. Finally, the Church seeks to renew all of society by restoring faith to its central and unifying role, which it accomplishes by engaging in the New Evangelization that St. John Paul II linked directly to the renewal of culture. R. Jared Staudt, PhD serves as the Director of Formation for the Archdiocese of Denver and as Visiting Associate Professor at the Augustine Institute. He earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in Catholic Studies from the University of St. Thomas and his doctorate in systematic theology from Ave Maria University. He is the author of the The Eucharist: What Every Catholic Should Know (forthcoming) and The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture Yesterday & Today, as well as the editor of The University and the Church; Don J. Briel's Essays on Education. He and his wife, Anne, have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate.

Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture

Christian Books & Bibles

Christian Living

Divine Providence Press

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Books by Staudt, R. Jared

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Staudt, R. Jared. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture, Yesterday & Today

The Beer Option: Brewing a Catholic Culture, Yesterday & Today

Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture