Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism

Christian Century, May 29, 2007

Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism.

By Jon R. Stock, Tim Otto and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Cascade, 140 pp., $18.00 paperback.

This is a follow-up volume to School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, edited by Wilson-Hartgrove's Rutba House. Here three leaders in the "new monastic" movement engage with St. Benedict's tripartite monastic vow of conversion, obedience and stability to ask what the new monasticism has to learn from the old. Eberhard Arnold's description of intentional Christian community as "martyrdom by fire" resonates with the authors' experience. So does St. Anselm's description of stability as the act of setting down "roots of love." The authors find far more to praise in old monastic sources than to criticize--one might even wish for more points on which to say no. But the beautiful ordinariness of their communal life together shines through--for example, as Stock writes of his 20-year vow of stability to the Church of the Servant King, "I have not always found this vow convenient, but I can call it good." They argue that Alasdair MacIntyre may be wrong when he calls for a new St. Benedict: "What we really need are new Benedictines." We may already have them.