Christian egalitarianism

Christian egalitarianism, also known as biblical equality, is egalitarianism based in Christianity. Christian egalitarians believe that the Bible mandates gender equality and equal responsibilities for the family unit and the ability for women to exercise spiritual authority as clergy. In contrast to Christian complementarianists and Christian patriarchists, proponents of Christian egalitarianism argue that Bible verses often used to justify patriarchal domination in gender roles are misinterpreted. Egalitarians believe in a form of mutual submission in which all people submit to each other in relationships and institutions as a code of conduct without a need for hierarchical authority.

Gender equality

According to Christian egalitarianism, gender equality is biblically sound in Christian church leadership (including pastors) and Christian marriage. Its theological foundations are interpretations of the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and other New Testament principles.

It refers to a biblically-based belief that gender, in and of itself, neither privileges nor curtails a believer's gifting or calling to any ministry in the church or home. It does not imply that women and men are identical or undifferentiated, but affirms that God designed men and women to complement and benefit one another.

Egalitarian beliefs are usually subscribed to by Quakers, United Methodist Churches, The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO), Northern Baptists, Church of the Nazarene, Wesleyan Church, The Salvation Army, The Evangelical Covenant Church, and some Pentecostal churches such as the Assemblies of God, The Foursquare Church, and United Church of God.

The opposing view is complementarianism, a view that holds that differing, often non-overlapping roles between men and women, manifested in marriage, church leadership, and elsewhere, are biblically required. Complementarianism is the belief that men were created for the headship role and women were created for the support role.

Biblical justifications

All three Synoptic Gospels record Jesus as saying:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you".^{[Mt 20:25–26a] [Mk 10:42] [Lk 22:25]}

According to Clive Marsh and Steve Moyise, while "lord it over" implies abusive leadership, Jesus' words "exercise authority" have no connotation of abuse of authority.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

— Galatians 3:28

Christian egalitarians' interpretation of scriptures and spiritual convictions bring them to the conclusion that the manner and teaching of Jesus abolished discrimination against racial minorities, slaves, and women in both the church and marriage. They believe that the Bible teaches the fundamental equality of believers of all racial and ethnic groups and all economic classes. They consider overarching principles of the Bible to be that men and women are equally created in God's image, equally responsible for sin, equally redeemed by Christ, and equally gifted by God's Spirit for service and held responsible for using their God-given gifts.

Each of the six times Aquila and his wife Priscilla are mentioned by name in the New Testament, they are listed together as a couple. Their order of appearance alternates in a perfect odd-even equality, with each mentioned first three times. Aquila appears first in the first, third and fifth mentions, and Priscilla (Prisca) first in the second, fourth and sixth mentions. Some revisions of the Bible put Priscilla rather than Aquila first, in Acts 18:26, following the Vulgate and a few Greek texts. Some scholars suggest that Priscilla was the head of the family unit.

Ultimately, Christian egalitarianism holds that all people are equal in fundamental worth and moral status. A significant source of this trend of thought is the Christian notion that humankind were created in the living image of God (Imago Dei).

Jesus Christ did not conform to a mentality unfavorable to women, but reacted against inequalities based on sexual differences.

Illustrative of efforts to institutionalize this notion are these excerpts from the organizational Statement of Faith of Christians for Biblical Equality, a major Christian Egalitarian organization:

• We believe in the equality and essential dignity of men and women of all ethnicities, ages, and classes. We recognize that all persons are made in the image of God and are to reflect that image in the community of believers, in the home, and in society.
• We believe that men and women are to diligently develop and use their God-given gifts for the good of the home, church and society.
  — Christians for Biblical Equality

History

Anna Oliver, a Methodist who demanded full clergy rights for women in 1880

The first organization whose purpose was advocating Christian egalitarianism was "Men, Women and God", established in the United Kingdom in 1984. The American organization Christians for Biblical Equality was established by evangelicals in 1987.

Egalitarian anthropologies

Titled in accordance with Rosemary Radford Ruether's work in Christian theology, Egalitarian anthropologies explore varying views of gender equality in Christianity. These include eschatological feminism, liberal feminism, and romantic feminism. According to Ruether, the commonality among these anthropologies is the belief that gender equality was the original intention of God and that it was somehow skewed by humanity. Ruether goes on to point out that the belief in the ideal of gender equality "leaves room for considerable variation in relating this equality to woman's present subjugated state in history under patriarchy." In the preceding statement, Ruether qualifies the need for further exploration into the following anthropologies.

Eschatological feminism

Ruether connects eschatological feminism to mysticism and asceticism by way of its roots in transcendentalism. Her assertion is that the original human, Adam, was androgynous and that "the fall" was the initial creation of gender. She reaffirms this point in a later article, "Sexism and Misogyny in the Christian Tradition: Liberating Alternatives", referencing Galatians 3:28, saying that through baptism androgyny is restored. Sexuality, the main division between genders, is said to be the root of female subordination. Relationships that are typically rooted in sexuality (marriage and motherhood) place women in roles that are subordinate in accordance with society's patriarchal norms. The path to equality is believed to be found when women transcend these roles—traditionally through celibacy (as seen in the life of Paul). Transcending worldly norms, which the Bible instructs Christians to do, brings men and women to the state of androgyny that eliminates gender subordination; thus, Christianity is intended to manifest gender equality. Ruether says that transcendence is the core of eschatological feminism; women reach equality with men by separating from the world, rather than changing it.

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminism rejects the notion that creation established the patriarchy; Ruether asserts that gender equality originally existed, but was distorted by historical injustices against women. This branch of egalitarianism dictates that gender equality must be restored rather than introduced. This restoration will be accomplished by economic, political, social, and systemic reformation. Ruether includes the church in her discussion of social reform, displaying its participation in gender subordination. Ruether continues saying, "The Church as a bearer of redeemed humanity ought especially to represent this equality of men and women in its institutional life. But it does so as a paradigm of what all social institutions should become, not as a representative of an eschatological humanity outside of and beyond history." Here she distinguishes liberal from eschatological feminism stating that liberal feminism calls for liberation within society, rather than removal from it.

Romantic feminism

Ruether states that in romantic feminism the distinction between genders is found primarily in "spiritual" traits. Ruether references a sixteenth century humanist, Cornelius Agrippa, saying that women have an "affinity with divine Wisdom that gives them moral and spiritual superiority." Women are perceived to be innately altruistic, sensitive, and pure—traits that are considered morally superior compared to "male traits." Ruether continues saying that men and women are both inherently capable of goodness, but because of the patriarchy placing men into positions of power, more negative character traits are manifested (pride, aggression, dominance, etc.). Since women are not allowed into positions of power, Ruether supposes that they retain humanity's natural goodness. Romantic feminism contains varying ideologies in itself which are as follows.

Conservative romanticism

According to Ruether, conservative romanticism suggests that women remain in the home in order to maintain their goodness. Ruether says, "If a woman leaves the home to take up a traditional male occupation, she will straightaway lose this good femininity and become a she-male, a monstrous virago, or will become debased to carnal femaleness, fallen woman." In one survey conducted in 1999, a researcher concluded based on participants' responses, "Even though husbands were not always the sole providers, for the majority of men they remained symbolically so, such that women's employment was nearly always described as secondary, even expendable, in light of wives' responsibility to rear and nurture children." Conservative romanticism opposes gender equality in the work force in order to better preserve traditional roles in the home. Women's innate goodness makes her the ideal candidate to raise children and to support the husband. In turn, this spousal support allows the husband to perform better in the workforce; this trickle effect of women sending good husbands and sons into the world is how conservative romantics suppose women make an impact.

Reformist romanticism

Reformist romanticism aligns with conservative romanticism except in the reformist belief that the inherent goodness of women cannot be lost by equality in society. Ruether says that this ideology prescribes women to morally reform men and male-centric institutions, but to do so they require education, voting rights, and political power. Reformist romanticism believes that the innate goodness of women is needed in leadership positions to improve the nature of the world. It is also believed that the nature of women is incompatible with war and that under female leadership, the world would be at peace.

Radical romanticism

Radical feminism rejects the entirety of male culture and debates whether males can be redeemed at all. Ruether says that radical feminists desire a utopian society completely independent from males in which women's inherent goodness is unimpeded by male inferiority.

Criticism

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church has formally opposed radical egalitarianism and has stated that the differences between men and women are not merely phenomenal but are in fact ontological in nature.

In his 2004 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned against a related tendency to see gender as culturally constructed, which has generated "a new model of polymorphous sexuality", which reflects an "attempt to be free from one’s biological conditioning".

Complementarianism

While Christian egalitarians believe that the Bible portrays mostly egalitarian views, with the exception of a few contextually relativized patriarchal texts, complementarians oppose this viewpoint. As a response to the upcoming of evangelical feminism and egalitarianism in the 20th century, prominent theologians and scholars such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., James A. Borland, Thomas R. Schreiner, D. A. Carson, S. Lewis Johnson, George W. Knight III, Douglas J. Moo, John Frame and Vern Sheridan Poythress contributed to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in which they discuss and rebut most egalitarian viewpoints, such as the use of Galatians 3:28 to defend fundamental equality.

In 1988, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) published the Danvers Statement as a response to the "widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity", directly opposing feminist egalitarian beliefs. Similar to the Danvers Statement, CBMW published the 2017 Nashville Statement, affirming differences between male and female. In its Foundation Documents, The Gospel Coalition confesses that "men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways".

Prominent Christian egalitarians

• William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army. William Booth once said of the Salvation Army's workforce "Some of my best men are women!"
• Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of Angelus Temple
• Gilbert Bilezikian, author of Beyond Sex Roles (1985), Christianity 101 (1993)
• Greg Boyd, theologian and Senior Pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, author of Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution (2009)
• F.F. Bruce, Biblical Scholar and professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis
• Shane Claiborne
• Catherine Clark Kroeger, co-founder of CBE International; co-editor of The IVP Women's Bible Commentary (2002); co-author of Women, Abuse and the Bible (1996), I suffer not a Woman (1998)
• Gordon Fee, contributing editor to Discovering Biblical Equality (2004)
• George Fox
• Kevin Giles, Vicar of St. Michael's Church in North Carlton, Australia, in the Anglican Church of Australia; author of Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity (2006)
• Stanley Grenz, author of Women in the Church (1995)
• Mimi Haddad, President of CBE International, (2009-present), Adjunct Associate Professor of Historical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary; co-author of Is Gender Equality a Biblical Ideal? (2015), editor and contributing author of Global Voices on Biblical Equality: Women and Men Serving Together in the Church (2008)
• Trevor Huddleston
• Eddie L. Hyatt, D.Min., author of Paul, Women and the Church (2016)
• Craig S. Keener, author of Paul, Women and Wives (1992)
• Paul King Jewett, author of Man as Male and Female (1975) and The Ordination of Women (1980)
• Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University; author of The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How you Read the Bible (2008)
• Roger Nicole, Emeritus Professor of Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida.
• Roger Olson Professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University
• Carroll D. Osburn, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Abilene Christian University; author of Women in the Church: Reclaiming the Ideal (2001)
• Joseph Parker, author of The People's Bible
• Frank Stagg, co-author of Woman in the World of Jesus (1978)
• William J. Webb, author of Slaves, Women and Homosexuals (2001)
• Ben Witherington III, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary; author of Women in the Earliest Churches (1988) and Women and the Genesis of Christianity (1990)

Mechanization

Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows:

Every machine is constructed for the purpose of performing certain mechanical operations, each of which supposes the existence of two other things besides the machine in question, namely, a moving power, and an object subject to the operation, which may be termed the work to be done. Machines, in fact, are interposed between the power and the work, for the purpose of adapting the one to the other.

In some fields, mechanization includes the use of hand tools. In modern usage, such as in engineering or economics, mechanization implies machinery more complex than hand tools and would not include simple devices such as an ungeared horse or donkey mill. Devices that cause speed changes or changes to or from reciprocating to rotary motion, using means such as gears, pulleys or sheaves and belts, shafts, cams and cranks, usually are considered machines. After electrification, when most small machinery was no longer hand powered, mechanization was synonymous with motorized machines. Extension of mechanization of the production process is termed as automation and it is controlled by a closed loop system in which feedback is provided by the sensors. In an automated machine the work of different mechanisms is performed automatically.

History

The Salisbury Cathedral clock ca. 1386. A clock is a mechanical instrument rather than a true machine. Although this clock had iron gears, many machines of the early Industrial Revolution used wooden parts until around 1800.

Ancient times

Water wheels date to the Roman period and were used to grind grain and lift irrigation water. Water-powered bellows were in use on blast furnaces in China in 31 AD. By the 13th century, water wheels powered sawmills and trip hammers, to pull cloth and pound flax and later cotton rags into pulp for making paper. Trip hammers are shown crushing ore in De re Metallica (1555).

Clocks were some of the most complex early mechanical devices. Clock makers were important developers of machine tools including gear and screw cutting machines, and were also involved in the mathematical development of gear designs. Clocks were some of the earliest mass-produced items, beginning around 1830.

Water-powered bellows for blast furnaces, used in China in ancient times, were in use in Europe by the 15th century. De re Metallica contains drawings related to bellows for blast furnaces including a fabrication drawing.

Improved gear designs decreased wear and increased efficiency. Mathematical gear designs were developed in the mid 17th century. French mathematician and engineer Desargues designed and constructed the first mill with epicycloidal teeth ca. 1650. In the 18th century involute gears, another mathematical derived design, came into use. Involute gears are better for meshing gears of different sizes than epicycloidal. Gear cutting machines came into use in the 18th century.

Industrial revolution

The Newcomen steam engine was first used, to pump water from a mine, in 1712. John Smeaton introduced metal gears and axles to water wheels in the mid to last half of the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution started mainly with textile machinery, such as the spinning jenny (1764) and water frame (1768).

Demand for metal parts used in textile machinery led to the invention of many machine tools in the late 1700s until the mid-1800s. After the early decades of the 19th century, iron increasingly replaced wood in gearing and shafts in textile machinery. In the 1840s self acting machine tools were developed. Machinery was developed to make nails ca. 1810. The Fourdrinier paper machine for continuous production of paper was patented in 1801, displacing the centuries-old hand method of making individual sheets of paper.

One of the first mechanical devices used in agriculture was the seed drill invented by Jethro Tull around 1700. The seed drill allowed more uniform spacing of seed and planting depth than hand methods, increasing yields and saving valuable seed. In 1817, the first bicycle was invented and used in Germany. Mechanized agriculture greatly increased in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with horse drawn reapers and horse powered threshing machines. By the late nineteenth century steam power was applied to threshing and steam tractors appeared. Internal combustion began being used for tractors in the early twentieth century. Threshing and harvesting was originally done with attachments for tractors, but in the 1930s independently powered combine harvesters were in use.

In the mid to late 19th century, hydraulic and pneumatic devices were able to power various mechanical actions, such as positioning tools or work pieces. Pile drivers and steam hammers are examples for heavy work. In food processing, pneumatic or hydraulic devices could start and stop filling of cans or bottles on a conveyor. Power steering for automobiles uses hydraulic mechanisms, as does practically all earth moving equipment and other construction equipment and many attachments to tractors. Pneumatic (usually compressed air) power is widely used to operate industrial valves.

Twentieth century

By the early 20th century machines developed the ability to perform more complex operations that had previously been done by skilled craftsmen. An example is the glass bottle making machine developed 1905. It replaced highly paid glass blowers and child labor helpers and led to the mass production of glass bottles.

After 1900 factories were electrified, and electric motors and controls were used to perform more complicated mechanical operations. This resulted in mechanized processes to manufacture almost all goods.

Categories

 

Two involute gears, the left driving the right: Blue arrows show the contact forces between them. The force line (or Line of Action) runs along a tangent common to both base circles. (In this situation, there is no force, and no contact needed, along the opposite common tangent not shown.) The involutes here are traced out in converse fashion: points (of contact) move along the stationary force-vector "string" as if it was being unwound from the left rotating base circle, and wound onto the right rotating base circle.

In manufacturing, mechanization replaced hand methods of making goods. Prime movers are devices that convert thermal, potential or kinetic energy into mechanical work. Prime movers include internal combustion engines, combustion turbines (jet engines), water wheels and turbines, windmills and wind turbines and steam engines and turbines. Powered transportation equipment such as locomotives, automobiles and trucks and airplanes, is a classification of machinery which includes sub classes by engine type, such as internal combustion, combustion turbine and steam. Inside factories, warehouses, lumber yards and other manufacturing and distribution operations, material handling equipment replaced manual carrying or hand trucks and carts.^[10]

In mining and excavation, power shovels replaced picks and shovels.^[10] Rock and ore crushing had been done for centuries by water-powered trip hammers, but trip hammers have been replaced by modern ore crushers and ball mills.

Bulk material handling systems and equipment are used for a variety of materials including coal, ores, grains, sand, gravel and wood products.^[10]

Construction equipment includes cranes, concrete mixers, concrete pumps, cherry pickers and an assortment of power tools.

Powered machinery

See also: Mass production

Powered machinery today usually means either by electric motor or internal combustion engine. Before the first decade of the 20th century powered usually meant by steam engine, water or wind.

Many of the early machines and machine tools were hand powered, but most changed over to water or steam power by the early 19th century.

Before electrification, mill and factory power was usually transmitted using a line shaft. Electrification allowed individual machines to each be powered by a separate motor in what is called unit drive. Unit drive allowed factories to be better arranged and allowed different machines to run at different speeds. Unit drive also allowed much higher speeds, which was especially important for machine tools.^[12]

A step beyond mechanization is automation. Early production machinery, such as the glass bottle blowing machine (ca. 1890s), required a lot of operator involvement. By the 1920s fully automatic machines, which required much less operator attention, were being used.^[10]

Military usage

The term is also used in the military to refer to the use of tracked armoured vehicles, particularly armoured personnel carriers, to move troops that would otherwise have marched or ridden trucks into combat. In military terminology, mechanized refers to ground units that can fight from vehicles, while motorized refers to units that go to battle in vehicles but then dismount and fight without them. Thus, a towed artillery unit is considered motorized while a self-propelled one is mechanized.

Mechanical vs human labour

When we compare the efficiency of a labourer, we see that he has an efficiency of about 1%-5.5% (depending on whether he uses arms, or a combination of arms and legs). Internal combustion engines mostly have an efficiency of about 20%, although large diesel engines, such as those used to power ships, may have efficiencies of nearly 50%. Industrial electric motors have efficiencies up to the low 90% range, before correcting for the conversion efficiency of fuel to electricity of about 35%.

When we compare the costs of using an internal combustion engine to a worker to perform work, we notice that an engine can perform more work at a comparative cost. 1 liter of fossil fuel burnt with an IC engine equals about 50 hands of workers operating for 24 hours or 275 arms and legs for 24 hours.

In addition, the combined work capability of a human is also much lower than that of a machine. An average human worker can provide work good for around 0,9 hp (2.3 MJ per hour)  while a machine (depending on the type and size) can provide for far greater amounts of work. For example, it takes more than one and a half hour of hard labour to deliver only one kWh - which a small engine could deliver in less than one hour while burning less than one litre of petroleum fuel. This implies that a gang of 20 to 40 men will require a financial compensation for their work at least equal to the required expended food calories (which is at least 4 to 20 times higher). In most situations, the worker will also want compensation for the lost time, which is easily 96 times greater per day. Even if we assume the real wage cost for the human labour to be at US $1.00/day, an energy cost is generated of about $4.00/kWh. Despite this being a low wage for hard labour, even in some of the countries with the lowest wages, it represents an energy cost that is significantly more expensive than even exotic power sources such as solar photovoltaic panels (and thus even more expensive when compared to wind energy harvesters or luminescent solar concentrators).

Levels of mechanization

For simplification, one can study mechanization as a series of steps. Many students refer to this series as indicating basic-to-advanced forms of mechanical society.

1. hand/muscle power
2. hand-tools
3. powered hand-tools, e.g. electric-controlled
4. powered tools, single functioned, fixed cycle
5. powered tools, multi-functioned, program controlled
6. powered tools, remote-controlled
7. powered tools, activated by work-piece (e.g.: coin phone)
8. measurement
9. selected signaling control, e.g. hydro power control
10. performance recording
11. automated machine action altered through measurement
12. segregation/rejection according to measurement
13. selection of appropriate action cycle
14. correcting performance after operation
15. correcting performance during operation

New Monasticism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Monasticism is a diverse movement, not limited to a specific religious denomination or church and including varying expressions of contemplative life. These include evangelical Christian communities such as "Simple Way Community" and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's "Rutba House," European and Irish new monastic communities, such as that formed by Bernadette Flanagan, spiritual communities such as the "Community of the New Monastic Way" founded by feminist contemplative theologian Beverly Lanzetta, and "interspiritual" new monasticism, such as that developed by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko. These communities expand upon traditional monastic wisdom, translating it into forms that can be lived out in contemporary lives "in the world."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Monasticism is a diverse movement, not limited to a specific religious denomination or church and including varying expressions of contemplative life. These include evangelical Christian communities such as "Simple Way Community" and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's "Rutba House," European and Irish new monastic communities, such as that formed by Bernadette Flanagan, spiritual communities such as the "Community of the New Monastic Way" founded by feminist contemplative theologian Beverly Lanzetta, and "interspiritual" new monasticism, such as that developed by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko. These communities expand upon traditional monastic wisdom, translating it into forms that can be lived out in contemporary lives "in the world."

Origins

New monastic Shane Claiborne with Ron Copeland and Brian Farrell at Our Community Place, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 2008

The origin of the new monastic movement is difficult to pinpoint. Some communities now identified with new monasticism have been in existence since the 1970s and 80s in the UK. Other well-known communities, such as the Simple Way in Philadelphia, formed in the mid-90s. Bede Griffiths, a Catholic Camaldolese Benedictine monk who oversaw a Christian Ashram in India from 1968-1993, spoke often of the future of monasticism as being a '"lay movement"', and developed a vision for new monastic life. Raimon Panikkar outlined the idea of a '"new monk"' in a series of lectures in 1980 given to a group of western and eastern monastics as well as non-monastic lay contemplatives at Holyoke, MA, which were subsequently published in the book Blessed Simplicity: The Monk as Universal Archetype. In the early 1980s, contemplative feminist theologian Beverly Lanzetta started the '"Community of the New Monastic Way"', a non-denominational new monastic community still in existence today. Recently, various new monastic communities have appeared in Ireland and increasingly across the United States, including '"interspiritual"' new monastic communities, connected to the lineage of Bede Griffiths, such as that seen in the Foundation for New Monasticism.

Protestant forms

The notion and terminology of Protestant "new monasticism" was developed by Jonathan Wilson in his 1998 book called Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World. Wilson was, in turn, building on ideas of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said in 1935: "the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ." Wilson also built on ideas of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. Noting the decline of local community that could sustain the moral life, MacIntyre ended his book After Virtue, by voicing a longing for "another... St. Benedict." By this, he meant someone in the present age to lead another renewal of morality and civility through community. Wilson identified with that longing in his own book, but outlined a vision to carry it forward within the Protestant Christian tradition.

Calling the vision a "new monasticism", he proposed four characteristics that such a monasticism would entail: (1) it will be "marked by a recovery of the telos of this world" revealed in Jesus, and aimed at the healing of fragmentation, bringing the whole of life under the lordship of Christ; (2) it will be aimed at the "whole people of God" who live and work in all kinds of contexts, and not create a distinction between those with sacred and secular vocations; (3) it will be disciplined, not by a recovery of old monastic rules, but by the joyful discipline achieved by a small group of disciples practicing mutual exhortation, correction, and reconciliation; and (4) it will be "undergirded by deep theological reflection and commitment," by which the church may recover its life and witness in the world.

The middle months of 2004 became a defining moment for the movement, when there was a gathering of a number of existing communities and academics in Durham, North Carolina, where they drew together something like a "rule of life," referred to as the "12 marks" of new monasticism. The gathering took place at a new monastic community called "Rutba House," of which some founding members were Jonathan and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove. Not coincidentally, Leah Wilson-Hartgrove is the daughter of Jonathan Wilson whose writing has galvanized the movement.

Building on the work of MacIntyre, Rod Dreher published a book in 2017 called The Benedict Option. In this he outlines a strategy for western Christians to survive the influence of a hostile society. He identifies order, prayer and work, stability, community, hospitality and balance as tools for living a Christian life. Dreher points to intentional communities such as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, the Bruderhof, or the School for Conversion as examples of the Benedict Option being lived out today.

Common themes

Values

Most Protestant new monastic communities emphasize the following:

• Thoughtful, prayerful, and contemplative lives
• Communal life (expressed in a variety of ways depending on the community)
• A focus on hospitality
• Practical engagement with the poor

"Twelve Marks"

The "Twelve Marks" of new monasticism express the common thread of many new monastic communities. These "marks" are:

1. Relocation to the "abandoned places of Empire" [at the margins of society]
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us
3. Hospitality to the stranger
4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation
5. Humble submission to Christ's body, the Church
6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate
7. Nurturing common life among members of an intentional community
8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children
9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life
10. Care for the plot of God's earth given to us along with support of our local economies
11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18
12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life

Differences from traditional Christian monasticism

The movement differs from other Christian monastic movements in many ways.

• Traditional monastic vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience are not normally taken, as with members of traditional monastic orders, such as the Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Basilians.
• Communities do not always live in a single place, but geographic proximity is emphasized by the movement.
• The movement allows married couples. Most traditional forms of Christian religious life do not admit married couples. (Certain centuries-old Catholic and more recent Anglican groups, known as "third," "secular," or "lay" orders, also admit married individuals who profess the spirituality of the order (including the Franciscans and Dominicans), but these are neither new nor monastic.) This, however, does not apply to much newer movements in the Catholic Church that accept married couples even into their core governance structures, of course. Check new communities such as Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, etc. Missionary married couples there profess spirituality of the community there too. Furthermore, members do not wear habits.
• Not all new monastic orders have religious garb. And those which will not normally require members to wear religious habits. This is somewhat similar to traditions among the long-established Catholic third orders, whose members may wear some form of the religious habit of the order with which they are associated.

Other forms

Father Bede Griffiths and Brother Wayne Teasdale

Bede Griffiths

Catholic Camaldolese Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths spoke of monastic life being essentially a lay calling, and saw the future of monastic life in lay communities. "The monk is a lay person…An order of monastics is essentially a lay order. Some monks may live in monasteries, but increasingly the majority will live in their own homes or form small communities—a monastic order in the world." He went on to express a new vision for monastics, one in which communities and individuals live spiritual lives independent of religious organizations or institutions, independent of celibacy and overarching rules and dogmas—free to follow their own conscience and guidance of the Holy Spirit in living a sacred life, yet united in the common cause of building a sacred world. A good summary of Fr. Bede’s thought on these matters is found in The New Creation in Christ. Fr. Bede also wrote many other books on contemplative life, inter-religious experience and exploration, and the relationship between science and religion.

The "New Monk"

Raimon Panikkar explicated a vision of the "new monk" during a series of lectures given to western and eastern monastic from various religious traditions and lay contemplatives in 1980 at Holyoke, MA, these lectures were subsequently published as Blessed Simplicity: The Monk as Universal Archetype. There Panikkar said the traditional monk is "only one way of realizing [this] universal archetype. … If the monastic dimension exists at least potentially in everybody, the institution of monasticism should be equally open to everybody. … The monastery, then, would not be the ‘establishment’ of the monks, but the schola Domini, the school where that human dimension is cultivated and transmitted. … Here appears the consequence of our distinction between the monk as archetype, i.e., the monk as a paradigm of religious life, against the archetype of the monk, i.e., the human archetype lived out by the monks, but which may also be experienced and lived today in different ways."

The Community of a New Monastic Way

The Community of a New Monastic Way was co-founded by Beverly Lanzetta, a theologian, contemplative scholar, and teacher of contemplative wisdom traditions.

Central to Lanzetta's scholarship and teaching is the mystical path of the feminine, which she calls via feminina. She writes: "As a distinct spirituality, via feminina is attentive to the multiple wisdoms of body, psyche, and soul, placing primary importance on healing those social factors - whether gender, culture, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, etc. - that stigmatize persons, rob them of dignity, wound their souls, and betray the highest aspirations of religious life. It thus is an invitation to divest one's being of subtle forms of injustice imbedded in the categories that define the religious life - redemption, salvation, nirvana, samadhi, soul, god - as well as in the processes of mystical ascent - purification, great death, annihilation, union - and hinder the full integration and liberations of the self."

Lanzetta's vision of intimate wholeness is articulated in her various works, which include her booksThe Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life Emerging Heart: Global Spirituality and the Sacred, Path of the Heart: A Spiritual Guide to Divine Union and Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology.

The Community of a New Monastic Way is one of many spiritual initiatives which articulate Lanzetta's belief that the contemplative dimension of new monastic life both proceeds and goes beyond the religious traditions themselves. The Community of a New Monastic Way became officially known as such in 2008, having formed over the course of decades. In 2008, eight people took vows as new monks after completing a formal process created, initiated, and taught by Lanzetta. The community has since grown to include 18 members and exists outside of any religious structure, with members living all over the United States, gathering throughout the year for community practice.

Interspiritual

New Monastics Rory McEntee, Netanel Miles-Yepez, and Adam Bucko with Father Thomas Keating at St. Benedict's monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, 2014

Inspired by the new monastic forms of Bede Griffiths and Raimon Panikkar, and in partnership with Catholic monks Father Thomas Keating and Brother Wayne Teasdale, an "interspiritual" movement of new monasticism has formed around the work of young spiritual leaders and social activists in partnership with traditional monastics. This form of new monasticism is expressed and developed in Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko's The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life. Other collaborators include Episcopal priest Matthew Wright, Sufi lineage holder Pir Netanel Miles-Yepez, David and Tamara Milliken and their "InnerSky Community", V.K. Harber's work, and others.

Brother Wayne Teasdale coined the words interspiritual and interspirituality, which he described in his books The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions and A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life as a new orientation of religious and spiritual life with the following elements:

• It will be an enhanced understanding of the inner life through assimilating the psychological, moral, aesthetic, spiritual, and literary treasures of the world's religions. Each tradition will define itself in relation to every other viable tradition of the inner life; each will take into account the totality of the spiritual journey
• It is deeply concerned with the plight of all those who suffer, wherever they are…
• It follows a strict adherence to ecological justice …
• It doesn't just depend on books or spiritual reading, but looks to art, music, and movies … universal languages of vast sacred potential … to nourish contemplative life…
• It recognizes that we are part of a much larger community … the human, the earth, the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe itself…
• Intermysticism [or interspirituality] is the deepest expression of the religious dimension of human life. It is the actual religion of each one of us when we arrive at the point of spiritual maturity.

The Universal Order of Sannyasa (UOOS) uses the term “neoteric monasticism” to self-identify their interspiritual form of new monasticism, and “NeMon” is an abbreviated term designating a “neoteric monastic”, according to UOOS’s group description on Facebook.

The Nine Vows

In McEntee and Bucko's The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life, they describe the "Nine Vows of the New Monastic", which were based on Brother Wayne Teasdale's "Nine Elements of Spiritual Maturity" and developed by the Rev. Diane Berke.

1. I vow to actualize and live according to my full moral and ethical capacity.
2. I vow to live in solidarity with the cosmos and all living beings.
3. I vow to live in deep nonviolence.
4. I vow to live in humility and to remember the many teachers and guides who assisted me on my spiritual path.
5. I vow to embrace a daily spiritual practice.
6. I vow to cultivate mature self-knowledge.
7. I vow to live a life of simplicity.
8. I vow to live a life of selfless service and compassionate action.
9. I vow to be a prophetic voice as I work for justice, compassion and world transformation.

The Community of St. Columba

Inspired by the original foundations of Monastic Communities. A Catholic lay group began in Georgia that focuses on Celtic Spirituality and Monasticism that is essentially tied to Eastern Catholic/Orthodox ties. Through Meticulous study, the group found the ancient Coptic Church to be the heritage holder of the ancient Celtic monks, and established connections with the larger Byzantine Catholic Church in order to found a religious community that is focused on instilling the virtues of monastic life in lay persons. The Community meets regularly for prayer, follows the Rule of St. Columba, meets for common times of study, and involves both married/single men. It also consists of lay persons who do not take the vow of the monastic life, but are associated to the community in providing time, talent and treasure.

The community follows a very strong code that comes from 2 Peter. the Columban code is:

"The way to the Father is through the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, From Faith there is Virtue, From Virtue there is Knowledge, From Knowledge there is Self-Control, From Self-Control there is Steadfastness, From Steadfastness there is godliness, From godliness there is Brotherly Affection, From Brotherly Affection there is Love, By Love I will know that God has set me free."

All monks follow the above code, the Columban Rule and take Vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience in the state of life they have been called.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Monasticism is a diverse movement, not limited to a specific religious denomination or church and including varying expressions of contemplative life. These include evangelical Christian communities such as "Simple Way Community" and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's "Rutba House," European and Irish new monastic communities, such as that formed by Bernadette Flanagan, spiritual communities such as the "Community of the New Monastic Way" founded by feminist contemplative theologian Beverly Lanzetta, and "interspiritual" new monasticism, such as that developed by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko. These communities expand upon traditional monastic wisdom, translating it into forms that can be lived out in contemporary lives "in the world."

Origins

New monastic Shane Claiborne with Ron Copeland and Brian Farrell at Our Community Place, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 2008

The origin of the new monastic movement is difficult to pinpoint. Some communities now identified with new monasticism have been in existence since the 1970s and 80s in the UK. Other well-known communities, such as the Simple Way in Philadelphia, formed in the mid-90s. Bede Griffiths, a Catholic Camaldolese Benedictine monk who oversaw a Christian Ashram in India from 1968-1993, spoke often of the future of monasticism as being a '"lay movement"', and developed a vision for new monastic life. Raimon Panikkar outlined the idea of a '"new monk"' in a series of lectures in 1980 given to a group of western and eastern monastics as well as non-monastic lay contemplatives at Holyoke, MA, which were subsequently published in the book Blessed Simplicity: The Monk as Universal Archetype. In the early 1980s, contemplative feminist theologian Beverly Lanzetta started the '"Community of the New Monastic Way"', a non-denominational new monastic community still in existence today. Recently, various new monastic communities have appeared in Ireland and increasingly across the United States, including '"interspiritual"' new monastic communities, connected to the lineage of Bede Griffiths, such as that seen in the Foundation for New Monasticism.

Protestant forms

The notion and terminology of Protestant "new monasticism" was developed by Jonathan Wilson in his 1998 book called Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World. Wilson was, in turn, building on ideas of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said in 1935: "the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ." Wilson also built on ideas of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. Noting the decline of local community that could sustain the moral life, MacIntyre ended his book After Virtue, by voicing a longing for "another... St. Benedict." By this, he meant someone in the present age to lead another renewal of morality and civility through community. Wilson identified with that longing in his own book, but outlined a vision to carry it forward within the Protestant Christian tradition.

Calling the vision a "new monasticism", he proposed four characteristics that such a monasticism would entail: (1) it will be "marked by a recovery of the telos of this world" revealed in Jesus, and aimed at the healing of fragmentation, bringing the whole of life under the lordship of Christ; (2) it will be aimed at the "whole people of God" who live and work in all kinds of contexts, and not create a distinction between those with sacred and secular vocations; (3) it will be disciplined, not by a recovery of old monastic rules, but by the joyful discipline achieved by a small group of disciples practicing mutual exhortation, correction, and reconciliation; and (4) it will be "undergirded by deep theological reflection and commitment," by which the church may recover its life and witness in the world.

The middle months of 2004 became a defining moment for the movement, when there was a gathering of a number of existing communities and academics in Durham, North Carolina, where they drew together something like a "rule of life," referred to as the "12 marks" of new monasticism. The gathering took place at a new monastic community called "Rutba House," of which some founding members were Jonathan and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove. Not coincidentally, Leah Wilson-Hartgrove is the daughter of Jonathan Wilson whose writing has galvanized the movement.

Building on the work of MacIntyre, Rod Dreher published a book in 2017 called The Benedict Option. In this he outlines a strategy for western Christians to survive the influence of a hostile society. He identifies order, prayer and work, stability, community, hospitality and balance as tools for living a Christian life. Dreher points to intentional communities such as Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, the Bruderhof, or the School for Conversion as examples of the Benedict Option being lived out today.

Common themes

Values

Most Protestant new monastic communities emphasize the following:

• Thoughtful, prayerful, and contemplative lives
• Communal life (expressed in a variety of ways depending on the community)
• A focus on hospitality
• Practical engagement with the poor

"Twelve Marks"

The "Twelve Marks" of new monasticism express the common thread of many new monastic communities. These "marks" are:

1. Relocation to the "abandoned places of Empire" [at the margins of society]
2. Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us
3. Hospitality to the stranger
4. Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation
5. Humble submission to Christ's body, the Church
6. Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate
7. Nurturing common life among members of an intentional community
8. Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children
9. Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life
10. Care for the plot of God's earth given to us along with support of our local economies
11. Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18
12. Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life

Differences from traditional Christian monasticism

The movement differs from other Christian monastic movements in many ways.

• Traditional monastic vows of celibacy, poverty, and obedience are not normally taken, as with members of traditional monastic orders, such as the Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Basilians.
• Communities do not always live in a single place, but geographic proximity is emphasized by the movement.
• The movement allows married couples. Most traditional forms of Christian religious life do not admit married couples. (Certain centuries-old Catholic and more recent Anglican groups, known as "third," "secular," or "lay" orders, also admit married individuals who profess the spirituality of the order (including the Franciscans and Dominicans), but these are neither new nor monastic.) This, however, does not apply to much newer movements in the Catholic Church that accept married couples even into their core governance structures, of course. Check new communities such as Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, etc. Missionary married couples there profess spirituality of the community there too. Furthermore, members do not wear habits.
• Not all new monastic orders have religious garb. And those which will not normally require members to wear religious habits. This is somewhat similar to traditions among the long-established Catholic third orders, whose members may wear some form of the religious habit of the order with which they are associated.

Other forms

Father Bede Griffiths and Brother Wayne Teasdale

Bede Griffiths

Catholic Camaldolese Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths spoke of monastic life being essentially a lay calling, and saw the future of monastic life in lay communities. "The monk is a lay person…An order of monastics is essentially a lay order. Some monks may live in monasteries, but increasingly the majority will live in their own homes or form small communities—a monastic order in the world." He went on to express a new vision for monastics, one in which communities and individuals live spiritual lives independent of religious organizations or institutions, independent of celibacy and overarching rules and dogmas—free to follow their own conscience and guidance of the Holy Spirit in living a sacred life, yet united in the common cause of building a sacred world. A good summary of Fr. Bede’s thought on these matters is found in The New Creation in Christ. Fr. Bede also wrote many other books on contemplative life, inter-religious experience and exploration, and the relationship between science and religion.

The "New Monk"

Raimon Panikkar explicated a vision of the "new monk" during a series of lectures given to western and eastern monastic from various religious traditions and lay contemplatives in 1980 at Holyoke, MA, these lectures were subsequently published as Blessed Simplicity: The Monk as Universal Archetype. There Panikkar said the traditional monk is "only one way of realizing [this] universal archetype. … If the monastic dimension exists at least potentially in everybody, the institution of monasticism should be equally open to everybody. … The monastery, then, would not be the ‘establishment’ of the monks, but the schola Domini, the school where that human dimension is cultivated and transmitted. … Here appears the consequence of our distinction between the monk as archetype, i.e., the monk as a paradigm of religious life, against the archetype of the monk, i.e., the human archetype lived out by the monks, but which may also be experienced and lived today in different ways."

The Community of a New Monastic Way

The Community of a New Monastic Way was co-founded by Beverly Lanzetta, a theologian, contemplative scholar, and teacher of contemplative wisdom traditions.

Central to Lanzetta's scholarship and teaching is the mystical path of the feminine, which she calls via feminina. She writes: "As a distinct spirituality, via feminina is attentive to the multiple wisdoms of body, psyche, and soul, placing primary importance on healing those social factors - whether gender, culture, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, etc. - that stigmatize persons, rob them of dignity, wound their souls, and betray the highest aspirations of religious life. It thus is an invitation to divest one's being of subtle forms of injustice imbedded in the categories that define the religious life - redemption, salvation, nirvana, samadhi, soul, god - as well as in the processes of mystical ascent - purification, great death, annihilation, union - and hinder the full integration and liberations of the self."

Lanzetta's vision of intimate wholeness is articulated in her various works, which include her books The Monk Within: Embracing a Sacred Way of Life Emerging Heart: Global Spirituality and the Sacred, Path of the Heart: A Spiritual Guide to Divine Union and Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology.

The Community of a New Monastic Way is one of many spiritual initiatives which articulate Lanzetta's belief that the contemplative dimension of new monastic life both proceeds and goes beyond the religious traditions themselves. The Community of a New Monastic Way became officially known as such in 2008, having formed over the course of decades. In 2008, eight people took vows as new monks after completing a formal process created, initiated, and taught by Lanzetta. The community has since grown to include 18 members and exists outside of any religious structure, with members living all over the United States, gathering throughout the year for community practice.

Interspiritual

New Monastics Rory McEntee, Netanel Miles-Yepez, and Adam Bucko with Father Thomas Keating at St. Benedict's monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, 2014

Inspired by the new monastic forms of Bede Griffiths and Raimon Panikkar, and in partnership with Catholic monks Father Thomas Keating and Brother Wayne Teasdale, an "interspiritual" movement of new monasticism has formed around the work of young spiritual leaders and social activists in partnership with traditional monastics. This form of new monasticism is expressed and developed in Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko's The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life. Other collaborators include Episcopal priest Matthew Wright, Sufi lineage holder Pir Netanel Miles-Yepez, David and Tamara Milliken and their "InnerSky Community", V.K. Harber's work, and others.

Brother Wayne Teasdale coined the words interspiritual and interspirituality, which he described in his books The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions and A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life as a new orientation of religious and spiritual life with the following elements:

• It will be an enhanced understanding of the inner life through assimilating the psychological, moral, aesthetic, spiritual, and literary treasures of the world's religions. Each tradition will define itself in relation to every other viable tradition of the inner life; each will take into account the totality of the spiritual journey
• It is deeply concerned with the plight of all those who suffer, wherever they are…
• It follows a strict adherence to ecological justice …
• It doesn't just depend on books or spiritual reading, but looks to art, music, and movies … universal languages of vast sacred potential … to nourish contemplative life…
• It recognizes that we are part of a much larger community … the human, the earth, the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe itself…
• Intermysticism [or interspirituality] is the deepest expression of the religious dimension of human life. It is the actual religion of each one of us when we arrive at the point of spiritual maturity.

The Universal Order of Sannyasa (UOOS) uses the term “neoteric monasticism” to self-identify their interspiritual form of new monasticism, and “NeMon” is an abbreviated term designating a “neoteric monastic”, according to UOOS’s group description on Facebook.

The Nine Vows

In McEntee and Bucko's The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life, they describe the "Nine Vows of the New Monastic", which were based on Brother Wayne Teasdale's "Nine Elements of Spiritual Maturity" and developed by the Rev. Diane Berke.

1. I vow to actualize and live according to my full moral and ethical capacity.
2. I vow to live in solidarity with the cosmos and all living beings.
3. I vow to live in deep nonviolence.
4. I vow to live in humility and to remember the many teachers and guides who assisted me on my spiritual path.
5. I vow to embrace a daily spiritual practice.
6. I vow to cultivate mature self-knowledge.
7. I vow to live a life of simplicity.
8. I vow to live a life of selfless service and compassionate action.
9. I vow to be a prophetic voice as I work for justice, compassion and world transformation.

The Community of St. Columba

Inspired by the original foundations of Monastic Communities. A Catholic lay group began in Georgia that focuses on Celtic Spirituality and Monasticism that is essentially tied to Eastern Catholic/Orthodox ties. Through Meticulous study, the group found the ancient Coptic Church to be the heritage holder of the ancient Celtic monks, and established connections with the larger Byzantine Catholic Church in order to found a religious community that is focused on instilling the virtues of monastic life in lay persons. The Community meets regularly for prayer, follows the Rule of St. Columba, meets for common times of study, and involves both married/single men. It also consists of lay persons who do not take the vow of the monastic life, but are associated to the community in providing time, talent and treasure.

The community follows a very strong code that comes from 2 Peter. the Columban code is:

"The way to the Father is through the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, From Faith there is Virtue, From Virtue there is Knowledge, From Knowledge there is Self-Control, From Self-Control there is.