'new' monasticism - questions and thoughts...

[Joe knight]

Hi all,

I've recently been researching some different aspects of new monasticism and what we can learn from monasticism through the ages - and as a result, I've formed a (hopefully) fairly simple questionnaire that I've been sending to some contacts and practitioners. On Ian's recommendation, I'm posting it here with the hope that you'll be able to answer the questions too?! The more answers the better.

The results will be compiled into a small document to be circulate amongst some friends here in Gloucester who are exploring all this, but if you're interested I can keep you in the loop too.

It's open to all, answers are as long or short as you like, and you can either answer on the forum or copy and paste your answers in a message to me here.

Thanks loads for your time. Grace and Peace to you.

Here it is:
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1. How would you describe the phenomenon labelled ‘New Monasticism’?

2. How does the New Monasticism reflect what you believe God is calling His Church to in the early 21st Century?

3. How do you see its potential effect on the wider Church?

4. What is unhelpful with the term New Monasticism?

5. Is it possible for a new monasticism to emerge without creating a new Church denomination? Are there any examples you can think of where people practising this have hallmarked the ‘oneness’ in the church that Jesus prays for?

6. In ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states that monastic movements of old emerged as a “living protest against the secularisation of Christianity and the cheapening of grace”. How do you think the new monasticism compares to the old?

7. Are there any particular monastic traditions that inspire your ideals within today’s ‘new’ monasticism?

8. Bonhoeffer goes on to explain, that though the monastics rallied together to live differently in their discipleship, they were often welcomed warmly by the wider church because of their ‘good example’. In the end, this meant that monastic orders became a place for ‘special Christians’, whilst the masses in Christendom failed to hear their call for renewal.

a) Do you think that the welcome received by the emerging church / fresh expressions and new monastic movements by traditional denominations of church puts these movements in danger of becoming ‘something for the young radicals’, or for the ‘special’ Christians? What are the dangers of such a perspective?

b) How do you think the ‘new moves of God’ can keep a balance between unity, not conformity, whilst still living true to the prophetic challenge of renewal to the wider Church? How important is this?

9. One last question on the dangers and threats! Do you agree that the new monastic / fresh expression movements are in danger of not achieving what they originally set out to because of the following examples? How can we guard against this?

a) The focus can often boil down to when and where and how we meet, causing new ways of doing church, but missing out on new ways of being the church / being Christians day to day?

b) Whilst holding a ‘go to them’ attitude in mission, we can at times lose our distinctiveness when the culture we are trying to reach can consume us?

10. Can you summarise the key values, traditions and rhythms that you think we can learn from ‘monasticism through the ages’ for today’s new movements? Any examples / stories are welcome.

11. Would you like to add anything else?

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THANK YOU!!

[Ian Mobsby]

I copied this and replied to it by email by pasting it in - and then adding in comment - so you may want to do this too
Ian Mobsby

[Andy Phillips/CowethasPeranSans]

Oooer! Rather too many points to deal with in one bite I think, but here are some first thoughts...

It may be said that we are in danger of devaluing the term 'monasticism' as much as we have already devalued the term 'Celtic'! If 'Celtic' now effectively means 'alternative' in matters of spirituality (unless you are a Celt of course!), then using the term 'monk' (which the term 'New Monasticism' suggests) to refer to someone living in a cathedral close who pops over to join in with evening prayer now and then, with a cat, undemanding rule of life, and an over-benevolent spiritual director is much the same.

If then the term 'Monk' should mean something meaningful (i.e. making some real sacrifices), then so should 'New Monasticism'! That's why we don't use it in our fellowship!

[Alan J Munday (Most Rev. Dom)]

Perhaps rather than try to go through all of the questions at once, members might want to answer each one in separate messages.  If we begin our messages with the particular question we are responding to,including the question number, this will enable a clear recognition of the different points answered, for Joe to collate.

Of course for any who would rather follow Ian's suggestion and copy all of the questions in order to email the answers to Joe, that would  be good too, although if we could all somehow see the full sets of answers as well, this would be interesting.  On private request, not via all of us here, perhaps he might be willing to email us copies.

I dare say this might provoke some interesting discussions between us here as well.  Too bad this venue does not enable discussion threads like on other on-line fora.