In Search of the New Monasticism

Obsculta Volume 4 Issue 1 Article 9 5-1-2010 Something Old, Something New: In Search of the New Monasticism Julian Collette College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/obsculta Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons ISSN: 2472-2596 (print) ISSN: 2472-260X (online) Recommended Citation Collette, Julian. 2011. Something Old, Something New: In Search of the New Monasticism. Obsculta 4, (1) : 22-28. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/obsculta/vol4/iss1/9. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Obsculta by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Something Old, Something New: Julian Collette In Search of the New Monasticism Julian Collette is a student of monastic studies and pastoral ministry. He has lived in various intentional communities such as New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, and an Ecovillage and Zen Buddhist Meditation Center in Massachusetts. In June 2011, as part of his academic program at Saint John’s Theology•Seminary, Julian will embark on a 14 month bicycle tour of the United Stated, visiting various intentional communities including those identified with the New Monasticism movement. Along the way he will conduct interviews which will be made available in a podcast. Julian’s journey can be followed by visiting: www.emerging-communities.com. In June of 2004, with the help of a grant the church. In the course of this exploration, I will from the Fund for Theological Education, more compare and contrast these marks with reflections than sixty people gathered together in Durham, from the ‘old monasticism’—that is, from men and North Carolina, in an effort to discern the distinc- women, past and present, reflecting upon or writ- tive marks of a burgeoning contemporary move- ing from within the classical patterns of Christian ment of intentional Christian communities across monasticism—on what essential attributes consti- North America. The outcome of the discernment tute an authentic monastic way of life. The fruit of process is now codified in the “12 Marks of the this exploration will be brought into conversation New Monasticism.”1 Composed largely of Prot- with what some contemporary ‘old monastics’ are estants but ecumenical in scope and deliberately proposing as a monastic vision for the future. My open to learning from the whole Christian tradition, intention is to point to the possibility of a con- members of these so-called new monastic commu- vergence between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ in their nities are “[relocating] to the abandoned places of mutual searching and living into an unknown future Empire,” to “[share] economic resources” among amidst unprecedented change and uncertainty. In themselves and the poor of their surrounding com- the context of this convergence, what emerges into munities; offer “hospitality to the stranger”; work view is perhaps the first green shoots of a new to overcome racism; “[submit] to Christ’s body, the paradigm of religious life that cuts across denomi- church”; provide “intentional formation” for new national lines and transcends familiar boundaries members; foster “community” and “support for between celibate and family life, contemplation and celibate singles alongside monogamous married social action, and the cloister and the world. couples and their children”; live within “geographi- In the introduction to School(s) for Conver- cal proximity” of one another, often in the same sion: 12 Marks of the New Monasticism, Jonathan R. household; engage in ecological stewardship and Wilson (father-in-law of author and ‘new monastic’ “support…local economies”; practice “peacemak- Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove) situates the emergence ing…and conflict resolution”; and “[commit] to a of a new monasticism in the context of contem- disciplined contemplative life”2 (for the 12 marks porary philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre’s cultural in their entirety, see Appendix). In this essay, I will analysis. Citing “fragmentation of culture, the examine more closely the historical narrative within failure of the Enlightenment project” to provide a which this movement locates itself, and what the universal common ground through human reason, marks themselves entail, with special attention to and the rise of a Nietzschean ethic of the glorifica- relocation, resource sharing, healing of racial divi- tion of power, Wilson concludes with MacIntyre sions, contemplative prayer, and commitment to that what is urgently needed at this time in history is “another St. Benedict”—or more precisely, “the 3 1 Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, New Monasticism: What it has to Say formation of a new monasticism.” In the book’s to Today’s Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008), 36-39, preface, the editors draw a quick, revealing sketch and The Rutba House, ed., School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of the of the history of monasticism up to our own New Monasticism (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, A Division of precarious moment. Keeping in mind their loca- Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005), x-xiii. 2 The Rutba House, ed., xii-xiii. 3 Ibid., 1-2. 22 obsculta tion within a largely Protestant movement, perhaps ecclesial and historical contexts.7 The third risk, one it is not so surprising that this historical narrative that arises for any group or movement seeking its takes a rather novel trajectory. Beginning where historical origins, is of merely impressing one’s own the classical monastic tradition generally situates self-image onto the complex and often elusive con- its origins, with the “4th century Desert Fathers tours of history.8 In articulating its own emerging and Mothers,” the story then leaps ahead and takes self-understanding, the new monasticism is highly a detour in the twelfth century with St. Francis vulnerable to all three of these risks in its attempt and the mendicant movement he inspired. Now, a to insinuate itself as part of the historical tradition Catholic reader might already be disoriented by this of monasticism; hence, the need for careful, ongo- account so far, considering that the rise of mendi- ing scholarship in dialogue with those close to the cant Orders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries heart of the classical monastic tradition. is itself generally considered a departure from the The positive, creative aspect of this histori- monastic model. Yet the story continues to wander cal narrative is perhaps best understood in light of further afield (and well out of the Catholic sphere a more generic “monastic impulse,” a concept Jona- altogether) with its next turn—“the Anabaptists than Wilson-Hartgrove borrows from theologian of the 16th century.”4 From there it is no great leap Walter Capps. For both Capps and Wilson-Hart- at last to land in North America several centuries grove, “monasticism” as a countercultural move- later, with “the Catholic Worker…the Bruderhof,” ment “is more powerful [author’s emphasis] than any and a plethora of communities and communitarian other form of resistance we’ve seen to mainstream movements in the twentieth century that reflect the society.”9 While this assertion may prompt some authors’ understanding of monasticism, culminat- raising of the eyebrows from those accustomed ing in the contemporary emerging phenomenon of to more sober, less enthusiastic treatments of the the ‘new monasticism.’5 classical monastic tradition, appealing to the evoca- Having been led along a different trail than tive concept of a revolutionary impulse asserting what those more familiar with the classical tradition itself in times of crisis from the periphery of both of monasticism would expect, one is now better church and culture, constituting itself time and situated to reflect on its consequences. On the one again in communal form, has its advantages. For in- hand, the horizon of ‘monasticism’ suddenly broad- stance, such a perspective posits monasticism less as ens to allow for unforeseen creativity in understand- a specific institutional form of life than as a dynam- ing its past, assessing its present, and charting its fu- ic charism that transcends the particular cultural ture. On the other hand, there is at least a three-fold and religious forms through which it is embodied. risk in such a broad definition. The first risk is that This approach compliments the assertion made by the definition of monasticism itself becomes so Catholic religious philosopher Raimundo Panikkar diffuse as to lose any specific meaning or integrity. that there is a “[monastic] archetype which is a con- This is the charge Alan Jacobs lays at the feet of stitutive dimension of human life [author’s emphasis].”10 the new monasticism when he quips, in a review of While Panikkar identifies this archetype as “a deep Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s New Monasticism: What anthropological urge,” a single-minded pursuit of it has to Say to Today’s Church: “Set the bar for monasti- the Absolute that must be integrated with the whole cism [author’s emphasis] as low as Wilson-Hartgrove of human life,11 the marks of the new monasti- sets it and you might as well call a Christian college cism tend more toward explicit social engagement. dormitory a monastic institution.”6 The second risk, Hence, to speak in terms of a monastic impulse or also addressed by Jacobs, is the risk of merely pick- ing and choosing aspects of tradition without refer- 7 Ibid., 31. ence to, or adequate understanding of, their actual 8 See Columba Stewart, “Early Monasticism and Community Movements Today,” in Mary Forman, ed., One Heart, One Soul: Many Communities (Collegeville, MN: Saint John’s University Press, 2009), 5. 4 Ibid., ix. 9 Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, New Monasticism: What it has to Say 5 Ibid., viii-x. For a fuller explication of this historical narrative, to Today’s Church, 42.

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