Monasticism

Background

Monasticism began among Christians who sought to live apart from the world, devoting themselves to prayer, labor, and asceticism. Asceticism is the voluntary restraint of one's desires. Around the third century, hermits (those who withdraw to practice the spiritual life in solitude) appeared in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. After the Edict of Milan in 313 brought persecution to an end, the church became institutionalized. It is commonly held that a growing number of people then chose the monastic life as a path of devotion in place of martyrdom. Monks appealed to texts such as Jesus' words to the rich young man (Matthew 19:21).

Development

• Anthony of Egypt (c. 251–c. 356) is known for having renounced his possessions to pursue the ascetic life in the desert. Through the Life of Anthony, written by Athanasius around 360, his life became known as far as the West.
• In the early fourth century, Pachomius (c. 292–c. 348) established in Egypt the cenobitic monastery, in which many monks lived together under a common rule.
• The monastic rules composed by Basil of Caesarea in the late fourth century became the foundation of monastic life in the Eastern church and the Orthodox Church.
• In the West, Augustine left a rule for common life. Benedict of Nursia founded a monastery at Monte Cassino around 529. The spirit of his Rule of Saint Benedict is often summarized as "Pray and work" (ora et labora).
• In the Middle Ages, the Abbey of Cluny (founded 910) and the Cistercian order (founded 1098) led movements of monastic reform. In the thirteenth century, mendicant orders (orders that live without property, by begging and preaching), such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, came into being.

Results and Influence

Monasteries preserved manuscripts of the Scriptures and the classics and undertook scholarship, agriculture, medicine, and relief of the poor. They also served as bases for missions. The Reformation profoundly altered this movement. Martin Luther had been a monk of the Augustinian order. In On Monastic Vows (1521), he criticized monastic vows as bound up with a merit-based piety that seeks to obtain salvation by works. He also taught that ordinary occupations are a vocation through which one serves God. In Protestant territories, many monasteries were closed, and in England Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries between 1536 and 1541. The Roman Catholic Church retained its religious orders while reforming them.

In the modern period, there have also been efforts within Protestantism to revive the tradition of common life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in community with seminarians in the 1930s and wrote Life Together. The Taizé Community in France also belongs to this movement. In Korea, Jesus Abbey, founded in 1965 in Taebaek, Gangwon Province, by Father Reuben Archer Torrey III (Dae Chun-duk), is well known.

Assessment

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches regard monastic life under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a legitimate calling within the church and consider it central to spirituality. Reformation traditions such as the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches hold that justification is by faith. On the basis of the priesthood of all believers, they also criticize the two-tiered distinction that elevates monastics above ordinary believers. For this reason, these denominations generally do not accept the institution of monastic vows. Anglicanism reestablished religious orders in the nineteenth century, and the Anglican Church of Korea has the Society of the Holy Cross, a community of sisters.

In Korean Protestantism, the culture of mountain prayer houses is sometimes compared to the monastic tradition. In recent years, some churches have reappraised elements of monastic spirituality, such as silence and meditation, as means of spiritual formation. Others, however, have expressed concern that adopting practices such as contemplative prayer may lead to mysticism and a merit-based piety.