If the world is, as MacIntyre says, waiting for a new St. Benedict, some Evangelicals are doing their part to hasten his arrival:
There is now a growing movement to revive evangelicalism by reclaiming parts of Roman Catholic tradition - including monasticism. Some 100 groups that describe themselves as both evangelical and monastic have sprung up in North America, according to Rutba House's Wilson-Hartgrove. Many have appeared within the past five years. Increasing numbers of evangelical congregations have struck up friendships with Catholic monasteries, sending church members to join the monks for spiritual retreats. St. John's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, now makes a point of including interested evangelicals in its summer Monastic Institute."I grew up in a tradition that believes Catholics are pagans," said Roberts, who was raised Southern Baptist and serves as a pastor in a Baptist church. "I never really understood that. Now I'd argue against that wholeheartedly."
In an era in which televangelists and megachurches dominate the face of American evangelicalism, offering a version of Christianity inflected by populist aesthetics and the gospel of prosperity, the rise of the New Monastics suggests that mainstream worship is leaving some people cold. Already, they are transforming evangelical religious life in surprising ways. They are post-Protestants, breaking old liturgical and theological taboos by borrowing liberally from Catholic traditions of monastic prayer, looking to St. Francis instead of Jerry Falwell for their social values, and stocking their bookshelves with the writings of medieval mystics rather than the latest from televangelist Joel Osteen.
The New Monastics come from a variety of religious backgrounds, from Presbyterian to Pentecostal. All share a common frustration with what they see as the overcommercialized and socially apathetic culture of mainstream evangelicalism. They perceive a "spiritual flabbiness in the broader church and a tendency to assimilate into a corrupt, power-hungry world," writes New Monastic author Scott Bessenecker in his recent book "The New Friars."
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Reaganite,
Thanks for your post. I started getting interested in the Liturgy of the Hours recently myself. I am trying to learn the "Shorter Christian Prayer" order, but if I leave off for a week or two (I do lose track of time here in Iraq!) I sometimes lose my place. I'm going to follow that link, should help.
The advantages seem many to me. You have a program laid out for you, those many times you don't pray because you don't feel like it, or don't know where to begin. You get scripture every day, on those days, again when you don't feel inspired to read it. Then there's the unity and tradition of it all. Something larger than yourself and quite independent of your own desires. Surely we grow even more when we pursue God even when we don't "feel like it." I think that is part of the motivation behind these monastic movements. That and the real fact that early Christians were not exactly consumerists. ;)
As I have mentioned before, since my first tour in Iraq, the megachurch is too large, to crowded, to brash for me. I am no longer at ease in crowds or around loud noises. And those services seem to be so much about "feeling inspired" or "feeling the Spirit." We are called to worship, whether we feel it or not. And not all times call for celebration.
I hope when I return home to worship in a smaller quieter community. Thanks again for the link.
Bible study will be part of any Christian spirituality. Although I'm a Lutheran, I am excited about the publication of the complete Orthodox Study Bible, truly a long-awaited publication (about 15 years!).
There should be some interesting discussions on Wisdom of Sirach 42:14 on p. 968, which I just opened to at random. (It says 49:10 at the top of the page, but that is a misprint.)
Picked up my copy of the "Orthodox Study Bible" at church yesterday. I've only had a glance through it, but the jury is definitely "out" from my perspective. Seems rather shallow, thus far.
It's hard to be totally negative toward this latest bit of emergent church dabbling in history. Expose a dozen or so evangelicals to pseudo-historic Christianity and a few of them may catch a case of the real thing.
Is there a parallel between this "monasticism" and the original monastics, who came out of a Church that had gotten just a bit too popular after Constantine tolerated, then favored, Christianity? Is this monastic impulse a healthy-if-skewed response to an Evangelicalism that has become too popular and has picked up too many shallow (if not positively phony" adherents?
One thing I've learned is that my crystal ball is worthless. But it's interesting later on comparing actual developments to my original suspicions about some phenomenon's tendency.
As I first became a Christian in 1996, it was in an Assemblies of God environment. Early on, I had a lot of respect for monks, and didn't puruse monasticism because I was only aware of Catholic monks. It was actually through exploring the writings of Christian mystics that I "discovered" Orthodoxy. Being married, Orthodox monasticism is out of the question (not to mention my wife's dislike of Orthodoxy). But still, I might see what I can do in my own home, even if it isn't full-fledged monasticism. (Your "Crunchy Cons" book was good for indicating a countercultural quasi-monastic lifestyle, at least on a community level.)
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