Community and New Monasticism

Bonhoeffer once said: ‘The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it is now time to call people together to do this.’

Talk of a ‘new monasticism’ has become pretty popular recently with best-selling books such as ‘Punk Monk’ and ‘The Irresistible Revolution’ reminding the church of the critical place of community to the purposes of God, and specifically to the journey of discipleship. Unfortunately the language of monasticism carries with it the negative connotations of withdrawing from the world in a form of spirituality that involves isolated introspection and extreme asceticism. However, at its heart, monasticism (as Benedict, Bonhoeffer and others understood it) is not about withdrawal but about appropriate engagement with the world. The monastic community provided the context for disciples to learn what it meant to live for Christ in such a way that ushered in his kingdom in the world. Specifically, it taught the disciples three critical lessons: how to die, how to live and how to love. I believe these three lessons lie at the centre of all Christian discipleship.

Community: the means by which we learn to die
Before a Christian truly learns to live, a Christian has to learn how to die. As Jesus stated, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Monastic communities encouraged certain disciplines that enabled this journey towards humility (and ultimately self-death) to take place, including serving others, obedience and confession. For example, on the subject of confession, Bonhoeffer states: ‘Confession in the presence of a brother is the profoundest kind of humiliation. It hurts, it cuts a man down, it is a dreadful blow to the pride. To stand there before a brother as a sinner is an ignominy that is almost unbearable. In the confession of concrete sins the old man dies a painful, shameful death before the eyes of a brother… In the deep mental and physical pain of humiliation before a brother – which means before God – we experience the Cross of Jesus as our rescue and salvation. The old man dies, but it is God who has conquered him. Now we share in the resurrection of Christ and eternal life.’ Self-death was not the end of the road but the beginning. Through the community, the disciple learnt to die with Christ in order to be raised with Christ and start participating in the life of the age to come.

Community: the means by which we learn to live
Experiencing eternal life was the ultimate purpose and goal of the monastic community. Such life was to be shaped by the teachings of Jesus. Benedict suggests: ‘The Lord waits for us daily to translate into action, as we should, his holy teachings… But as we progress in this way of life and faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love. Never swerving from his instructions, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may also deserve to share in his kingdom.’ The monastic community provided the context for this journey of aligning one’s life to the teachings of Jesus to take place.

Community: the means by which we learn to love
The ‘path of God’s commandments’ primarily relates to the Great Commandments. The leading figures of early monasticism (such as Benedict) were all trying to provide a setting in which one could live out more readily than elsewhere the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. The disciplines of worship, scripture reading, prayer, hospitality and serving the poor all served this end.

A new monasticism will obviously look very different to the visions of Benedict and later Bonhoeffer. However, in the consumer culture of our day, the only way to be truly countercultural is to form committed communities that seek to give themselves away in love rather than simply consume and accumulate more. Such communities can only exist through the disciplines evident in much of the monastic movement. As Ian Bradley suggests: ‘How do we begin to keep in time with the deep pulsations of Eternity and establish colonies of heaven in a society that is profoundly materialistic and secular? One way is by establishing communities which embrace many of the disciplines.’ Only then will we rediscover that learning to die, learning to live and learning to love are central to the kingdom agenda of Jesus.