NEW OLD MONASTICISM

This blog entry reads more like a short paper. The idea of “new monasticism” is something I’ve been thinking much about in recent years. Though I am not drawing as much from my life, this undoubtedly captures the essence of where my wife and I are headed in the next chapter of our life. We are not bent on starting a new monastic order, but we are serious about building a community. Obviously, the attempt to create (recreate to be more precise) a community is nothing new (to me, this is both an invitation and challenge for every single generation!) and we certainly are not saying we know exactly what needs to happen. However, I do have certain sets of convictions (albeit held loosely.) This is an attempt to capture some of my latest ponderings and musings.

One other comment. You might have noticed that I began to write more on communities (how we relate and love one another) for the last few weeks. My intention is to probe further on what it means to “love our neighbors as ourselves” in the months to come.

Historically, monasticism began as a stern refusal to propagate and continue the vain pursuit of societies that have gone awry. Monasticism stood its ground as a quiet and passive rejection and a recalibrating force of humanity’s divine calling. Thomas Merton wrote sometime in the early 1960s, “The monk does not build his monastic city ‘on the margin’ of the world, but instead of it. This is important. The monastic consciousness of today in America is simply a marginal worldly consciousness. It won’t do.” (Italicized are his, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 341) This instead of-ness is true for the ascetic Desert Fathers and Mothers who became hermits to monks who fearlessly converted the “barbarians” during the early middle ages to mendicant and wandering monks who traversed the world to seek converts. This firm refusal has also been a creative force, not merely opposition to something destructive or unhelpful. Jesus’ teachings that are recorded in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5: 38-42) are subversive but radical teachings of how we would need creative retaliation and criticism of the dominant society. This was true in Jesus’ day as well as in our day. 

Additionally, monasticism, by and large, not only stood outside the societies but also stood outside the established Church as a significant criticizing force of the dominant religious paradigm and consciousness. They deliberately chose to stand on the edge of the inside of the Church, maintaining the relationship with the Church but reforming and revolutionizing the Church from the edges. This second position allowed the monastic orders to be traditional and revolutionary at the same time. Richard Rohr’s book, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, poignantly describes the tension of being on the edge of the inside—on the edge but on the edge of the inside. Rohr’s handling of Francis of Assisi and Clare (and the subsequent Franciscan Order as well as the Order of Poor Ladies) and their impact drips with superb applications for our time. Rohr notes in the preface.

It is ironic that you must go to the edge to find the center. But that is what the prophets, hermits, and mystics invariably know. Only there were they able to live at the edges of their own lives too, not grasping at the superficial or protecting the surfaces of things, but falling into the core and center of their own souls and their own experiences.

Jesus’ examples of stern criticism of the dominant religious paradigm of his day are ample. In the end, Jesus was “led” to the cross by both the co-opting political and the religious leaders of his day.

In broad strokes, monasticism often served both as a criticizing and renewing surge both within the decaying societies as well as the institutional and encrusted churches and religious traditions. Monasticism has been a counter-cultural community/structure that has tried to renew the consciousness of its day toward a closer reality of the Kingdom of God.

I believe the emergence of similar fresh expressions of monasticism in our generation is desperately needed. Globally. Since the turn of a new millennium, we’ve witnessed some of these fresh expressions emerge combined with the upside and blessings of the postmodern outlook (I am certainly not saying that post-modernity is all good. It does have serious limitations as well.). Not to mention multiple volumes of books[1] on this topic in recent years. . .

Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw the need for a new type of monasticism that was captured in his letter to his brother in 1935.

The restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this.

Notice the year 1935. It’s the same year Hitler mobilized to rearm Germany against the treaty with other European nations. Notice also the subversive and radical counter-cultural ways of Jesus working through Bonhoeffer in stark contrast with Hitler. The exhortation above is worth our attention and focused energy.

I have found the “12 marks” of new monasticism helpful (see below). In 2004, a group of diverse new monastic communities came together to articulate a working version of the “rule of life” and 12 of the common threads of principles and practices. Every single point below requires a deeper look and explanation (which I won’t do here). I will attempt to highlight and unpack in-depth one or two “marks” at a time. In addition, I will expound, tweak, add, or subtract certain phrases and words. One brief comment I will make has to do with mark 5, where it said, “humble submission to Christ’s body, the Church.” Notice it says the Church (capital letter C) which means it is referring to Christ’s body that is much bigger than the institutionalized churches. Additionally, I would interpret the mark as humble submission to the Perennial Tradition (as Richard Rohr would say), meaning it is the Tradition that is repeated throughout history thus proving its validity as truths.

The Twelve Marks of New Monasticism[2] express the common thread of many new monastic communities. These "marks" are:

1. Relocation to the "abandoned places of Empire" [at the margins of society]

2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us

3. Hospitality to the stranger

4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation

5. Humble submission to Christ’s body, the Church

6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate

7. Nurturing common life among members of an intentional community

8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children

9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life

10. Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies

11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18, 25

12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life

[1] A few I’d mention are Punk Monk: New Monasticism and the Ancient Art of Breathing by Andy Freeman, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation by Rod Dreher, The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor by Scott A. Bessenecker.

[2] Values and “Twelve Marks” cited from the New Monasticism website (http://www.newmonasticism.org/12marks.php)