monastic movements

I'm not sure why the bookPunk Monk resonated so deeply with me, perhaps because it chronicles what God is doing in England which appeals to my perception that the British are a little ahead of the game intellectually. I'm somewhat familiar with the ethos of the new monastic movements that my generation is embracing, but this quote in Punk Monk somehow gives some intellectual girth to what my hear draws me to.

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who prophesied:

The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of
new monasticism, which has only in common with the old
an uncompromising attitude of life according to the
Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ. I believe it
is now to call people together to do this

If the monastic movements of the past were driven by a need to provide an alternative to the compromise in the Church, then how much does our own predicament in the modern church parallel a need for an alternative. We aren't selling indulgences in our services, but our lack of protest against our consumer culture, coupled with our lack of practical priority for the least and the lost might be evidence in favor of a different expression of faith.

When Constantine came to power is 313 AD and initiated that powerfully flawed fusion of the church and the Roman empire, true followers of Christ sought to provide another representation of the way of Christ. The Desert Fathers of Egypt and the Benedictine orders are just some of the expressions of groups formed in an effort to simply follow Christ in prayer and mercy. Although every "escape" from the world concerns me, there is something admirable about intentionally countering a compromised culture and church with alternative expressions of the Christian life.

This desire for an alternative is not born out of rebellion against the modern church, but rather a recognition that an organic gathering of people, not simply around weekly services, but around community meals, prayer, and acts of justice and mercy provide greater opportunity to see and be Christ to our hurting neighborhoods and world.