Chapel Talk -- October 13, 2021: Introduction to Monasticism
(Mark 8:34-38)
This was written for a weekly chapel service at a local Christian school. The target audience includes students from Kindergarten to 12th grade, the faculty, and a few parents and grandparents that sometimes attend. It is obviously not a scholarly analysis but is meant to be devotional and practical for school aged children.
Introduction
This week we are thinking about monasticism. I want to give you a broad overview of when, where, and how monasticism developed, talk about some of its main features, critique some of its negative aspects, and suggest a few lessons we can learn from the monastic tradition that may be helpful in our Christian life. There are still monastics today, but I will focus on the movement historically.
Overview of Monasticism
First, what is monasticism? Monasticism refers to the devotion practiced by monks and nuns. It is the complete dedication of oneself to God, historically by renouncing an ordinary life and personal possessions and living a life of prayer and contemplation either in solitude or with other monastics. The term comes from the Greek word μοναχός which means single or solitary. Monasticism first appeared in the early AD 300s. Some people will suggest some characters in Scripture who were a type of monks whose example the monastic tradition follows, but this is reading the Bible anachronistically, i.e. reading later traditions back into the Bible where they do not actually appear. In fact, there have been monastic traditions in many world religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, so it is not surprising that some of these practices were adopted by some Christians. But the practice did not originate with the Bible but came from other, external factors.
The Church experienced intermittent and sometimes very severe persecution in the first 300 years of its existence, but after Constantine declared an end to the persecution, Christianity became very popular in the Roman world. Many people became Christians who were not really devoted to following Christ. It was convenient to be a Christian, even if it was not really a matter of faith for some of those converts. As the visible Church became more and more worldly, there began to be more and more Christians who wished to devote themselves fully to God in a life of holiness.
The earliest monastics first appeared in Egypt. These were the Desert Fathers. Anthony, whose biography we mentioned last month since it was written by Athanasius, was the most famous, though he wanted to live in solitude and not be widely or well-known. Anthony had once been a fairly wealthy man, but after hearing the story of the rich young ruler, he decided to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor, and live in solitary devotion to God in the wilderness. This isn’t exactly how we are supposed to apply the lessons of that story, but we can appreciate Anthony’s sincerity. There were already some Christians living in solitude in the desert, but many more followed after Anthony’s example.
There are two basic types of monasticism practiced by Christians. (These could be divided into several more kinds, but two will suffice for our purposes today.) Anchorites were monks who lived in solitude or mostly in solitude. Cenobites were monks who lived in communities dedicated to the practice of monastic devotion.
There are different features to the devotion practiced by different monastic groups, and later orders of monastics would be established with each group having its own emphases. But we can broadly summarize the main features under six headings, at least five of which were shared by all the different groups. First, celibacy: monastics were committed to living in singleness and sexual purity. Some of them even left their wives in order to become monks. Second, poverty: monastics were committed to renouncing earthly goods. Some of the communities might have possessions, but the individual monks would have nothing except a garment and, perhaps, a Bible. Sometimes they would not even have those. Third, asceticism: monastics believed that extreme self denial, refusing bodily comforts and pleasures, and even mistreatment of their bodies would make them more holy. Fourth, separation: monastics were committed to separating from human society and ordinary life. Some of them would interact with people in towns, others would not, but all of them shared a commitment to being aloof from the rest of the world. Fifth, prayer: monastics devoted most of their time throughout the day and night to prayer and contemplation. This would include memorizing large portions of Scripture, frequently the entire Book of Psalms and the NT. Sixth, in the case of cenobites living in a commune, obedience: monastics would vow complete obedience to their superior, usually the chief monk in the community.
Monasticism has a number of negative features, but there were also many positive results. Monks copied the Scriptures carefully and preserved not only the Bible but many ancient works of literature and Christian writings that we continue to benefit from today. Monasticism preserved and advanced learning and culture during times when upheaval in the world threatened it. Some monks also became great teachers and reformers within the Church, including Martin Luther who was a monk when he became a Protestant.
Critique of Monasticism
There are a number of positive things we could say about monasticism, but there are also some negative things we must say. First, monasticism depends on a twofold concept of morality. This means that there are varying levels of devotion that might be acceptable to God, and that some are better than others. So an ordinary Christian might be able to be married and have a house and a job, but the monk is much holier because he has none of those things. It is true that God calls Christians to different types of service, but this is not because of a difference in the moral value of those choices, only because the Lord does not give everyone the same job in the kingdom.
Second, monasticism depends on the idea of asceticism. Remember that asceticism is the belief that self denial and mistreating the body will make you holy. There is a type of asceticism that is good and commanded by God. We see that in Mark 8:34. But you are not more holy because you never eat Oreos or because you stay up all night or because you sleep on the ground. It is good to practice self discipline. But these kinds of manmade rules do not make a person more pleasing to God.
Third, monasticism denies the moral and spiritual value of enjoying the good things God has given to us. It is certainly possible for us to indulge too much in the pleasures of this world. But pleasure itself is not the problem; it is our sinful desires and idolatrous misuse of God’s good gifts that are wrong. God meant for marriage, food, rest, and friendship to be enjoyed. Monasticism views these as lesser goods, but God made the world very good, and even though it is marred and cursed by sin, we glorify him by enjoying his good gifts with thanksgiving.
Application
What can we learn positively from monasticism? I think the answer is a lot! Even though there is a lot to criticize in the monastic tradition, there are also a lot of good lessons we can learn. First, we can learn a more rigorous commitment to holiness. It is easy to make excuses about our sin and to think lightly about the demands of discipleship. Monasticism reminds us that being a Christian means following Christ in every aspect of our life, every day, and all day and all night.
Second, we can learn to pursue a simpler and less worldly life. You do not have to sell everything that you own and actually live in the desert, but most of us would probably benefit from having less stuff and caring a lot less about our stuff. Getting rid of some of our worldly possessions can free up our minds and our time for the things of God.
Third, we can learn to spend more time in prayer and spiritual contemplation. Most monastics would pray the entire Book of Psalms once a week or every two weeks. They would pray at fixed hours every day, including in the middle of the night. They would organize their entire day around prayer and direct their thoughts to God throughout the day no matter what else they were doing. You may not follow the same rules for prayer that they did, but their example reminds us that we should seek to live a life of prayer and not merely to have a prayer life. Amen. --JME
