ALTERNATIVES | PART 1
Before I dive into the “12 marks,” I’ve decided to share something I wrote to further lay the ground for the topic of new old monasticism. And I will do this in a 2 part series. This again reads more like a paper but this is not a mere exercise of my mind, detached from our life. Instead, it is a life reflection of where we are in our Kingdom journey. Bon voyage!
Divided No More: A Movement Approach to Educational Reform[1] , written by Parker J. Palmer in 1992, is a timeless thought-provoking article that reaches beyond the discipline of education. I find this article extremely relevant for creation of movements of alternative communities with alternative consciousness. I am indebted to Walter Brueggemann’s classic, The Prophetic Imagination, for the phrase and vision of alternative communities with alternative consciousness. Additionally, Richard Rohr’s Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi adds layers and depth to the alternative way of seeing, living, and organizing new communities as in the case of the Franciscans. Notice the word alternative in all three works (it is the last of 4 stages in Palmer’s thinking).
First, let’s consider Palmer. Palmer proposes four stages of movements. Palmer gives the overview:
“What is the logic of a movement? How does a movement unfold and progress? I see four definable stages in the movements I have studied-stages that do not unfold as neatly as this list suggests, but often overlap and circle back on each other:
· Isolated individuals decide to stop leading “divided lives.”
· These people discover each other and form groups for mutual support.
· Empowered by community, they learn to translate “private problems” into public issues.
· Alternative rewards emerge to sustain the movement’s vision, which may force the conventional reward system to change.
Palmer coins the first stage simply as “choosing integrity” where isolated individuals “make an inner choice to stop leading ‘divided lives.’” Palmer quotes Rosa Parks who refused to sit in the back, but rather sat in front of the bus. Years later Rosa Parks spoke of her decision, “I sat down because my feet were tired.” Palmer argues that Rosa Parks’ decision was more than mere physical tiredness, rather the action was taken out of inner integrity and wholeness as a human being. Palmer’s closing remark is deft and on point. “These people have seized the personal insight from which all movements begin: No punishment can possibly be more severe than the punishment that comes from conspiring in the denial of one’s own integrity.”
The second stage is titled “corporate support” where it is no longer a few random individuals but a group of people who come out of the woodwork, discover each other and support each other. It is no longer a “lone nut” anymore but an emerging group of crazy misfits who have stayed true to their integrity and inner wholeness. My soul echoes with Palmer. “Perhaps they have heard and heeded the admonition of Margaret Mead: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’”
The third stage is called “going public” which is a natural segue from the second stage. People start to discover that their problems are no longer private but “have been occasioned by public conditions and therefore require public remedies.” This is a transition from private pain to articulation of public pain. Palmer is wise when he writes, “Instead, to ‘go public’ is to enter one’s convictions into the mix of communal discourse. It is to project one’s ideas so that others can hear them, respond to them, and be influenced by them and so that one’s ideas can be tested and refined in the public crucible.” Palmer concludes this stage, “When the language of change becomes available in the common culture, people are better able to name their yearnings for change, to explore them with others, to claim membership in a great movement and to overcome the disabling effects of feeling isolated and half-mad.”
Finally, “alternative rewards” is the last stage. While Palmer acknowledges that there are tangible rewards in all previous stages, the last stage’s rewards are more systematically prevalent and that “it comes with the capacity to challenge the dominance of existing organizations.” Ultimately, the alternative rewards are used as incentives to create alternative norms, systems, and organizations.
You might say I am trying to further set the stage for “new old monasticism”[2] by weaving why alternative communities are needed, to use Brueggemann, Rohr, and Palmer’s language. It is yet another way of saying why new old monasticism is needed.
Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination is an extremely helpful construct because he describes the biblical pattern of creation of alternative communities with alternative consciousness from the story of Exodus to the Old Testament prophets, especially Jeremiah and Isaiah, to finally Jesus. The creation of such alternative communities assumes that there is disintegration and the end of what Brueggemann calls the “dominant or royal communities.” This biblical pattern is repeated throughout human history, ever inviting Christ’s followers to not succumb to the encrustations of dominant consciousness of our days but to criticize and dismantle the old and dominant and create alternative consciousness. Brueggemann expounds on criticism, “I believe that grief and mourning, that crying in pathos, is the ultimate form of criticism, for it announces the sure end of the whole royal arrangement.” Toward the end of his book, Brueggemann writes, “The purpose of the alternative community is to enable a new human beginning to be made. . . . with the religion of God’s freedom and the politics of justice and compassion.” The above statement sounds strikingly similar to Jesus’ first sermon recorded in Luke 4: 18-19 (which is a direct quotation from Isaiah 61:1-2).
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
To the hearers, what must have been shocking was that Jesus left out the very next phrase of Isaiah 61:2 where it read, “and the day of vengeance of our God.” Devout religious leaders would not have missed that!
Brueggemann goes on, “Rather, prophetic ministry consists of offering an alternative perception of reality and in letting people see their own history in the light of God’s freedom and his will for justice.” Prophetic ministry starts with seeing, a certain kind of seeing which is seeing the invisible or seeing what is Real. Then moves onto finding internal congruency (or to use Palmer’s language, choosing integrity) to discern what to say and how to say it. Then the prophets declare against what is not real, enslaving, and blasphemous.
[1] Change Magazine, Vol. 24, Issue #2, pp. 10-17, Mar/Apr 1992. Reprinted with Permission of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. Published by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-1802, 1-800-365-9753, Copyright 1992. http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/divided-no-more/
[2] While the contexts and expressions may be new, there is a long perennial tradition of monasticism that is good, honorable, and helpful.