What The Monks Can Teach Us (Part 1)

J. K. Jones published his book "What the Monks Can Teach Us: An Ancient Practice for a Postmodern Time" in 2008. When I got my hands on a copy of the book, I found it to be an affirmation of a significant part of my spiritual journey. Since 2004, I had experienced a developing affinity for the ancient church, the writings of the church fathers and the monastic way, especially as expressed in Benedictine monasticism. And, I wasn't alone.

Rob Moll wrote an article for Christianity Today in September of 2005 describing "a fresh crop of Christian communities ... across America" under the title "The New Monasticism." Shane Claiborne published his book "Irresistible Revolution: Living as and Ordinary Radical" in 2006, a clear call to ancient ways of spirituality. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove published his call to a return to monastic spirituality in his book called "New Monasticism: What it has to say to today's church" in 2008. The currents were surging in an Ancient-Future direction, as predicted in many ways by the late Robert Webber (See Ancient-Future Legacy article Click here). For me, it was Jones' book that was most satisfying to see published, since he was writing from within my own religious heritage.

On the one hand, the idea of moving forward by going backward seemed counter-intuitive. But, on the other hand, it seemed so right. The main problem I had with learning what the monks could teach me was that I was as Protestant as I could be. Anything that smacked of sacerdotalism and Roman Catholicism was suspect, according to my religious training. Actually, I was brought up and trained in a very American Protestant movement of independent churches started in the early 1800s by Presbyterians and Baptists that wanted to restore New Testament Christianity by means of a strict primitivism. As Richard Hughes explains:

What is Protestant primitivism? Most often it has meant the quest to revivify the church by reestablishing its primitive foundations, by returning to or recovering the "original" teaching, discipline, and polity of apostolic Christianity. Movements of restoration have differed over what constituted the essential core of primitive Christianity; sometimes it has been a particular set of doctrines; at other times, a precise pattern of worship; at yet others, the prophetic inspiration associated with Pentecost. In all cases, primitivism built on the assumption that the original or first time of faith encountered the holy with a reality and power that has been lost in subsequent Christian centuries. (See Hughes, Richard T., and Allen C. Leonard. Illusions of Innocence: Protestant Primitivism in America, 1630-1875. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).

Nothing could be more at odds with my religious heritage and training than to listen to what monks had to say about living the Christian life. And yet, there was an inherent principle within my 'primitivist' background that agrees with the move toward an Ancient-Future faith. As Hughes and Allen put it: "The church cannot advance, so the primitivists proclaimed, until it first returns to what is ancient and true." And so, the first thing the monastic tradition had to teach me was that "ancient and true" might include the historic faith as it has been developed and practiced beyond the first century. For a more thorough examination of this idea see "Retrieving the Tradition: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants," by D. H. Williams.

I'd like to spend some time on this blog sharing what I've learned from the monks. Keep checking for more on this. Here is a short list of the lessons we may learn from the monks:

• Listening to God involves learning the language of God and tuning our ears to God's frequency
• Gaining the blessings of a simple life and the joy of sharing our goods
• Acting in obedience to God's providence (what God is doing in our lives)
• Developing Humility and becoming authentic
• The value of stability, staying put to get somewhere
• Finding balance: Experiencing God in everything
• Changing the World with a Revolution of Love and Holiness (See "How the Monks Saved Civilization").

All that I've learned from the monks has not caused me to become Roman Catholic or to leave my Protestant faith and church tradition. What it has done is lead me to a fuller and deeper understanding of one of the most important principles of the Protestant Reformation: Having a personal relationship with Jesus. The intimacy of such a personal relationship is truly mediated through the 'habits' of the spiritual life so well worked out in the monastic tradition.

It only makes sense. The God who sends out his people in the power of His Spirit and in the name of His Son has always done this by first calling his people back into the cloister of his divine embrace. When we talk about being radical we need to remember that by definition it means "going to the root or origin." As a good friend of mine likes to say, "The battle is not 'out there,' it's 'in here.'"