Posted on 02/04/2008 5:59:38 AM PST by NYer
S.G. PRESTON IS a Knight of Prayer. Each morning at his Vancouver, Wash., home, he wakes up and prays one of the 50-odd psalms he has committed to memory, sometimes donning a Kelly green monk's habit. In Durham, N.C., Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and fellow members of Rutba House gather for common meals as well as morning and evening prayer based on the Benedictine divine office. Zach Roberts, founder of the Dogwood Abbey in Winston-Salem, meets regularly with a Trappist monk to talk about how to contemplate God. Roman Catholic monastic traditions loom large in their daily routines - yet all three men are evangelical Protestants.
The image of the Catholic monk - devoted to a cloistered life of fasting and prayer, his tonsured scalp hidden by a woolen cowl - has long provoked the disdain of Protestants. Their theological forefathers denounced the monastic life: True Christians, the 16th-century Reformers said, lived wholly in the world, spent their time reading the Bible rather than chanting in Latin, and accepted that God saved them by his grace alone, not as reward for prayers, fasting, or good works. Martin Luther called monks and wandering friars "lice placed by the devil on God Almighty's fur coat." Of all Protestants, American evangelicals in particular - activist, family-oriented, and far more concerned with evangelism than solitary study or meditative prayer - have historically viewed monks as an alien species, and a vaguely demonic one at that.
Yet some evangelicals are starting to wonder if Luther's judgment was too hasty. There is now a growing movement to revive evangelicalism by reclaiming parts of Roman Catholic tradition - including monasticism.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
There is now a growing movement to revive evangelicalism by reclaiming parts of Roman Catholic tradition - including monasticism.
Why am I not surprised?
There are times when the monastic life is very appealing to me.
My husband says that monasticism has a mysterious appeal to a lot of married men. :o)
LOL! Ah, well. :)
Fasting, asceticism, contemplation and meditation are part of every religious tradition, so I’m not surprised that it’s been taken up by protestant evangelicals.
Traditionally, protestants lean toward mission work and tithing as their form of service, rather than serving in an established monastic order, but the impulse to immerse oneself in religious contemplation is universal — Buddhists have monks, as do Catholics (obviously), Hindus have ascetics, Islam has Sufis and Dervishes, Jews have ... well, I honestly don’t know the term, but they do have people who devote their life to religious contemplation and selfless service.
I am a woman, and I am, at times, drawn to the monastic life.
My husband says that monasticism has a mysterious appeal to a lot of married men. :o)
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LOL! You got a good one Mrs. Don-o.
Can you Freep in a monestary?
LOL!
I don't consider a handful of people trying a new fad to be a "growing movement".
With the world the way it is, I can see why someone would want to become a monk.
I’m an Evangelical and believe in the core tenets of the Reformation...however, I am the first to admit that we have missed out on experiencing God on a much deeper level by not exercising all of the spiritual disciplines. We love Bible study and prayer, but forget that there are many, many more things Christians can do to grow in grace. Men like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, IMO, have brought Evangelicalism full circle by reintroducing these things.
A family attending a weekend retreat is hardly monastic.
Monasticism is not a "new fad," you know.
It certainly is for contemporary evanglicals, you know.
I’d call it a “new discovery.”
Or the new rejection if the vast majority of evanglicals continue to ignore it. Time will tell.
People pursue their relationship with God in various ways. I’m not bothered by this fact.
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