In the last number of years, there are a variety of different protestant communities and churches that have come together in ways that resemble and glean from the Benedictine way. This movement has come to be known as the “New Monasticism”. Throughout the United States and the United Kingdom a variety of different monastic-style communities and churches have come to embrace central elements of the monastic, and particularly the Benedictine vision. While these groups are clearly not monastic in the proper sense (i.e. they are free to be married, generally have private possessions, and often live in their own houses), there is a clear resonance between the spirituality of the Rule of Benedict in the life and practice of these communities.

Central to this movement (in varying ways) is the three-fold Benedictine vow of conversatio, obedientia, and stabilitas. There is a clear commitment to live under a more rigorous rule of life and practice than is the case in most protestant churches. In New Monastic communities, at the very least, all members commit to living within the same general area, often with different members living together in common households, depending on the cultural and social location of the community in question. This commitment to reorder one’s life around the common life of the community corresponds to the Benedictine vow of conversatio. Obedience is likewise a central element among New Monastic communities. While these communities are not ordered under an abbot as Benedictine monasteries were, the emphasis is on submission and deference to one another in the making of decisions resonates with the monastic practice of obedientia rather than autonomy. Finally, New Monastic communities practice a form of the Benedictine vow of stabilitas. There is always some measure of permanent commitment to the community of which one is a part. While this is not practiced in the same sort of way as is done in Benedictine monasteries, the concept of covenant is central to the New Monastic understanding of how God calls us to be faithful to one another, forsaking the transience and career-driven mobility of our culture.

While the New Monasticism is certainly not the only appropriation that could be made of Benedictine spirituality, it is perhaps the most pronounced one to take root in Protestantism in recent years. And it is a movement to be welcomed in the church. In an age of hypermobility, fragmentation, and widespread social alienation, stable cells of the body of Christ which embody his presence intentionally in local contexts are more necessary than ever to the mission of the church. Alasdair MacIntyre, in his landmark study, After Virtue chronicled what he termed “the failure of the enlightenment project”. The forces of modernity and enlightenment, he argued, have led to fragmentation, and potential social and economic chaos. In light of this, however, he calls not for some sort of Marxist revolution or a violent overthrow of the status quo, but rather for “the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness.” It is precisely this vision which animates the contemporary appropriation of Saint Benedict on the part of the New Monasticism. In much the same way that the Benedictine tradition preserved the forms of Christian morality and culture that were necessary to Christian life through the barbarism of the dark ages, such communities as the New Monasticism may fulfill a similar function today as our increasingly globalized world grows more and more violent, dominative, and unstable. As MacIntyre says,

What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another – doubtless very different – St. Benedict.

It is to this task of constructing local forms of community that the communities of the New Monasticism have applied themselves. And their agenda is not simply to preserve intellectual and moral life – though they may be instrumental in that – but to embody the fullness of Christ’s vision for the church in the world. This is the lesson they have taken from Saint Benedict. MacIntyre was surely correct at the time of his writing that we were waiting for a new Saint Benedict, or better, for new Benedictines. Perhaps, just such new Benedictines have come among us, and for that we should be thankful, for them, for Saint Benedict who lead the way, and for the Spirit of God who brings out of his storehouse treasures new and old.

While the spirituality of the Rule of Benedict is multifaceted, there are two basic principles of Benedictine spirituality that have been identified by the followers of Saint Benedict. The first is that the divine presence is everywhere. This is emphasized throughout the Rule of Benedict, both in that God sees all things, and that because of the presence of God, the posture of the brothers is to always be one of obedience and awe. For Benedict, the presence of God is all encompassing and expansive. The whole of human life is laid open before God, and it is in light of that reality of the divine presence that the constant calls of the Rule to abstain from laziness are to be understood (cf. Rom. 13:11-13).

The second principle is that Christ is encountered in others. “To love Christ above all else” (RB 4.21) is the ultimate goal of Benedictine spirituality. This goal is sought out through submission to the abbot and to one another as unto Christ (RB 2), and through hospitality to the stranger in whom Christ himself is welcomed (RB 53). While there are clearly authoritarian elements in Benedict’s account of the relationship between the abbot and the brothers in the monastery (cf. RB 63, 68), it should be remembered that Benedict’s understanding of the presence of Christ being mediated through other persons (rather than solely through the Eucharist, the priesthood, etc.) is distinctive in its historical context. Moreover, Benedict is clear that the abbot is accorded honor on the basis of the love of Christ, not because of the abbot’s own “assumption of dignity” (RB 63).

Another central element, or rather the overarching context of Benedictine spirituality is the monastic profession: the vows into which a brother or sister would enter in coming into the community. The Benedictine vow was a three-fold commitment to conversatio (conversion, or the submission to the shape of monastic life), obedientia (obedience, chiefly to the abbot), and stabilitas (the commitment to stay among the community for the rest of one’s life). These vows were entered into as a way of establishing the context necessary for proper growth in holiness, contemplation, and worship of God. Central to the Benedictine life was the total sharing of all things in common, renouncing possessions and self-determination entirely, seeking instead to learn obedience, humility, and service.

The Benedictine vision of rejecting private ownership – which Benedict firmly brands as a vice (see RB 33) – was central to Benedictine spirituality as well. While the Benedictines were not a mendicant order such as the Franciscans who gave up possessions altogether, the Benedictine vision called for the complete rejection of private ownership and the holding of all possessions in common. This form of life in common, rejecting autonomy and private possessions continues to present the church with a prophetic witness that needs to be heard, especially in our culture of commoditization. Fortunately, in the last few years there has been an increased appreciation for this witness within the protestant church.