The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality by Peters Greg

Author:Peters, Greg [Peters, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: REL062000, Monasticism and religious orders, REL086000, REL108020, Spirituality—Christianity
ISBN: 9781441227218
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Ressourcement: Inspiration and Ministry to Others

I often hear people say something like, “What earthly good is a monk or nun who simply spends his or her life in a monastery praying?” Such thinking is common and does not always come from someone in a non-monastic tradition; I have heard Roman Catholic Christians ask this question. This line of thinking assumes there must be some sort of practicality or applicability to the monastic life. To put it more bluntly, there must be some earthly good to all of this heavenly behavior. Though the “usefulness” of monks and nuns can easily be discerned in the history of the Christian church,[33] the institutions and radical change of thinking about the monastic life that resulted from the emergence of the canons regular and the military orders should go a long way in dispelling the historiographical myth that monasticism is not good for anything, at least on this side of heaven. Though no Christian today would necessarily want to see the reemergence of the military orders (much less the idea of God-sanctioned crusading), we continue to benefit from the advances in care for the sick and wounded first pioneered by the Hospitallers. We also think that believers from any religion should have the freedom to travel in safety to their respective holy sites—an idea first promulgated by the Knights Templar. Most of us, I imagine, also like the fact that pastors and priests today have access to a good seminary education before they embark on their pastoral ministries. Such radical thinking about pastoral ministry and education was highly valued by the canons regular and put into practice by the Premonstratensians and Victorines. Thus we can see from these movements that monasticism is not only inwardly focused but also outwardly focused. Of course, it is always outwardly focused in its prayer for the church and the world, but sometimes it is explicitly outwardly focused in its intention and institutionalization. The canons regular and the military orders prove this without a doubt.

Similarly, evangelical Christians are known for their outwardly focused activism. Historian David Bebbington even lists activism as one of the qualities of evangelicalism: “There are four qualities that have been the special marks of Evangelical religion: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and what may be termed crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism.”[34] Consequently, evangelicalism’s activism would align well with those monastic orders whose primary apostolate is ministry to others. Indeed, it could be argued that for monasticism to flourish within the evangelical church, it would need to be activist, not because there is no room for contemplative vocations within evangelicalism but because activism is a sine qua non of evangelical Christianity. Such a vision of evangelical monasticism aligns well with its history of missionary activity and social assistance (e.g., the Salvation Army).

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