The Monastic Impulse

I am very impressed and helped by what I have read so far in The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality by Greg Peters. Check out Peters' webpage at Nashotah House: The Rev. Canon Greg Peters, PhD, SMD. It's profoundly encouraging, and humbling, to see what a gifted man can accomplish if he stays on the straight road to Christ from the start of his college years.

My thought at this point is to take a deep dive through The Story of Monasticism (TSM) here on my blog. These will be fairly informal study notes that tackle one small section of TSM at a time. Eventually, I might like to work this into a three-year curriculum, but I am not pressuring myself. This could grow in a different direction.

Peters begins TSM with an introduction titled "The Monastic Impulse." What I would like to do in today's note is unpack the first paragraph of this introduction, which contains three key components.

The first component is a clarification of the reader's likely motivations for reading the book. I would like to suggest a further division of reason #1 into 1A and 1B, where 1A consists of those readers who are actively discerning a call to eremitic, cenobitic, or idiorhythmic monastic life, and 1B consists of those who are primarily interested (at least initially) in applying monastic principles, the "hermit cycle," and "monk mode" to a secular life, either entirely on their own terms, or perhaps as an oblate.

I myself am exploring calls to both 1A and 1B right now.

The second component of Peters' first paragraph on the monastic impulse is a short history of his own "hook" into this field of study. This is an important exercise. For the over fifties, I would put it like this: in 3-5 sentences, summarize when and how you first become hooked on the idea of monasticism, and the most important 2-3 milestones in the evolution of your interest since then.

I will tackle this exercise for myself in my next blog post in this series.

The third component of Peter's first paragraph I need to mention is the powerful aim in his final sentence at a "history of Christian monasticism geared toward a ressourcement of the tradition for the twenty-first century." This is the essence of his undertaking, so it warrants additional attention up front. 

I will unpack the concept of ressourcement as it applies in this context after I complete the monastic "hook" exercise in my next post.    

In the meantime, here is what I worked out with Gemini this afternoon for the first year of a three-year curriculum in a School of Vegan New Monasticism.

Q1. What is meant in modern terms by the idea of the "hermit cycle" - is it a religious framework, or a secular one?

Q2. How can a spiritual director help a client discern the difference between temporary calls to monk mode and a permanent monastic vocation? It seems important not to confuse the two or put too much pressure on choosing a permanent vocation during the early stages of discernment.

Q3.  I am fascinated by the idea that the oblates of a monastic order might be called to repeating guided experiences of "monk mode," while members of the core community might be called to a permanent monastic vocation. Does that make sense?

Q4. I would like a set of discernment questions to help a client determine if they are called to the "bridge" life of an oblate or the "anchor" life of a monk?

Q5. Is it safe to say that clients involved in this discernment might well be drawn to start reading about contemporary monasticism, and that books, videos, and classes about monasticism might be needed to round out the work of spiritual direction with these clients?

Q6. I'd like to take a book I found that seems very well written and use it as the foundation of a 16-week introductory adult education course (1 class per week with readings between) for Protestant Christians who are discerning between temporary monk mode and a permanent monastic vocation. The book is called The Story of Monasticism by Greg Peters. Do you have any suggestions?

Q7. I am thinking of doing this online with YouTube PPT videos for educational content and small group Zoom sessions for discussion and support. Some other books might help fill the gap, or they might crowd the course. What do you think of The Benedict Option, How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job, and Domestic Monastery as possible supporting texts for some of the module components?

Q8. The more I think about it, the more I am drawn to something like a three-year online curriculum (1 session per week) in a school of vegan new monasticism. Maybe I should divide each year into 12-week quarters to make the content more manageable, and maybe I should focus the first quarter of the first year on Peters' The Story of Monasticism. How would you recommend I think about defining the mission and objectives of the curriculum?

Q9. What do you think about using the second quarter for an introduction to intermittent Monk Mode and the Hermit Cycle, the third quarter for a focus on the Domestic Monastery, and the fourth quarter for a theme that synthesizes lessons learned to date and sets the stage for Year 2?

Q10. Can you recommend any primary texts for Q2 and Q4 of Year One?

Q11. For Q2, I am thinking of something more contemporary, almost along the lines of Deep Work or Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport, that addresses the theory and how-to behind a 1-3-month stay-at-home Christian retreat. Any suggestions for how to integrate Q2 into Lent to map the curriculum to a liturgical year?

Here is the full thread:

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Peace and grace.