12 Marks of a New Monasticism

The following is a handout that I created for a meeting about intentional community. Essentially, it is a book review, with some quotes. I chose some quotes that challenged me. It is rather lengthy; I apologize.

Considerations for Intentional Communities: 12 Marks of New Monasticism
(From School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism)

The following points were developed as intentional communities came together and shared their joint experiences, motivations, successes, and failures. They realized that the vast majority of these communities shared some commonalities.

Jonathan Wilson, a contributor to the above book, reminds readers of one of the key mindsets needed for an intentional community:

“To think eschatologically, Christians must recognize that the end of things cannot simply be inferred from their existence or their nature. That is, thinking eschatologically makes us realize that God’s actions are required for the goal or purpose of things to be realized. Living eschatologically, then, means that we must not line our living up with “the way things are” in this age. The way of discipleship to Jesus Christ is not the best strategy for “making life work” or “getting along in this world” as those phrases would be commonly understood. Rather, the way of Jesus is living by that which is seen by the eyes of faith and sustained by the presence of hope; living eschatologically is making present that which is yet to come.”

The Rutba House, a New Monastic community in Durham, NC, decided to compile essays from different people in different communities, each expounding on a different trait. You can read more about these traits and New Monasticism in the above book, or at www.newmonasticism.org. As The Rutba House states in the introduction:

“Moved by God’s Spirit in this time called Aermica to assemble at St. John’s Baptist Church in Durham, NC, we wish to acknowledge a movement of radical rebirth, grounded in God’s love and drawing on the rich tradition of Christian practices that have long formed disciples in the simple Way of Christ. This contemporary school for conversion, which we have called a “new monasticism,” is producing a grassroots ecumenism and a prophetic witness within the North American church which is diverse in form, but characterized by the following marks:”

1. Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

“An abandoned place is one that has no attraction for the “world of what’s happening now,” and therefore is left alone by the political, economic, and social powers that be. Deserts and wastelands are abandoned places. So are inner cities, some of the loneliest places on earth. The attration of the desert is its naturalness, openness, and unconventional beauty. It is like a blank canvas to an artist. The blank canvas or wall mirrors an interior state as well… the blankness is an invitation to renewed spiritual and environmental creativity and transformation. It is also a refuse from the filled and arranged and familiar canvas that society provides.”

2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

“People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for disrupting the status quo, for calling forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.”

3. Hospitality to the stranger.

4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

“Racialized divisions in America have become, in Wendell Berry’s phrase, a ‘hidden wound,’ marked not by open hostility but by normalization with racialized, divided, accepted patterns of life concerning who “our people” are… essentially black and white churches… and different communal ways of being did not drop like meteors from the sky. The ground on which hwe live is not innocent; it only seems so because of forgetfulness… lament thus becomes a practice and task of remembering and grieving well, through which Christiansdo not forget and continue naming the truth about the past. To the extent that communities of Christians are able to do this, lament is not only a cry of grief – ‘Oh, God, we see and feel the pain of our divides, our brokenness!’ – but a declaration of hope – ‘This is not the way God intends things to be! Christ brings new life!’… One challenge is to remain deeply unsatisfied with a monologue with ‘people like us.’ This dissatisfaction will seek authentic dialogical enounter toward a far more transformative conversation and diversity of holy friendships. For example, to call for dialogue around a new monasticism only rings bells for people with a certain kind of tradition, or network, or education. It assumes there’s something attractive about renewing something called ‘monasticism,’ but does nothing for (and may repel) others for whom it might evoke a vague image of a thin, robed, white guy chanting inside distant, dark walls with other thin, robed, white guys, far removed from the streets, the world’s pain…”

5. Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

“The only alternative to the twin evils of individualism and spiritual pride is a ‘humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.’ Despite their faults – and they are many – every Christian congregation and every Christian denomination nevertheless has within it Christ’s living presence. It is not easy for radically committed persons to see themselves as part of these very imperfect structures and to participate in them as accountable members. But unless we do our efforts will come to nothing, for Christ has chosen to be present to us in the church, and unless we accept his presence there we will find him nowhere.”

6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate.

“The Simple Way in Philadelphia has found it useful to describe the way into community commitment by means of an “Onion.” These are the lays of the onion moving from the outer to the innermost core: Visitors, Guests, Nomads and Novices, Partners… The Onion’s layers do not necessarily represent increasing maturity. Rather, each layer has ‘different commitments, expectations, and accountability.’ It takes time to experience each layer before the seeker can know if this is God’s calling.”

7. Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

10. Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.