A Brief History of Protestant Monasticism

A bRiiEf HiStORy Of pROtEStANt MONASticiSM

“For this God is our God, forever and ever. He will be our guide, even beyond death.”

-Psalm 48:14

“Sambith seirbhis a dhéanamh do dhà mhaighstir.”

“No one can serve two masters.”

-Matthew 6:24 (In Gaelic}

HiStORicaLLy:

John Wycliffe’s teachings inspired John Hus, Jan Amos Comenius,

Count Zinzendorf & the Moravians, and William Carey,

and led to the founding of the modern Missions movement in the 1800’s.

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“To people of all nationalities the first Protestants bequeathed in spite of themselves

a heritage of spiritual freedom and equality,

the consequences of which are still working themselves out in the world today.”

-Stephen Ozment (Author: “Protestants”)

(There are between 800 million and 1 billion Protestants worldwide,

among approximately 2.5 billion Christians.)

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A Brief History of Protestant Monasticism

Protestant Monks? Maybe.

Although he was not aware of it at the time, on Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, he began the Protestant Reformation, and some would say, therefore became the first Protestant Monk (Luther was an Augustinian Monk).

Some argue that there were even “pre-Protestant Reformation” Protestant Monks.

In this view, these would include Christians like Francis of Assisi, Thomas á Kempis (Brethren of the Common Life), and with an even stronger case, John Wycliffe’s Lollard Order of preachers (“The Poor Priests”), which held and taught all of the teachings of the Protestant Reformation in the 1300’s: 200 years before Martin Luther.

Paul D.J. Arblaster, in his book, “Celtic Christianity Yesterday, Today, and for the Future: Gleaning Wisdom from the Primitive Protestants,” also makes this case for the Celtic Christian monastics.

(Click on the Photo of the Arblasters in the Column at the Right to read about Brother Paul and his ministry of evangelism on our webpage:

Brother Paul in the U.K.: Features Category).

On the other hand, since Luther ended the monasteries for Protestants, others would not count any of these as Protestant Monks.

iN tHE MOdERN ERA:

A Brief History of Protestant Monasticism

Protestant Monks? Definitely!

1841-42: Anglicans (England, U.S.A., Canada)

In 1841 an Anglican women’s monastic community was Founded in England.

In 1842 Anglicans created the first practicing Protestant Monks since the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII (300 years earlier), with the Founding of the Nashotah Community in Wisconsin.

This was followed by many others in the U.S.A., Canada, England, including many other women’s Orders. As of 1990, there were 168 Anglican religious Orders (both men’s and women’s) throughout the world.

1935: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a “New Monasticism” (Germany)

‘…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.

I think it is time to gather people together to do this…’

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer (January 14, 1935)

April 26, 1935: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Founded a Seminary to train Pastors for the underground Confessing Church (Evangelical Christians who were being persecuted by the Nazis); putting into practice his teachings of a New Monasticism.

In 1937, Heinrich Himmler declared the Seminary to be illegal, and ordered State Security Police to close it down.

By the following November, 27 of its former students had been arrested. That same year, Bonhoeffer wrote his most famous book, The Cost of Discipleship.

Dietrich was executed by the Nazis on Apr. 9, 1945 at Flossenburg Prison, just a few weeks before the end of WWII. He was 39 years old.

When the Nazis heard the Allies approaching, they executed all of their prisoners before fleeing. This was standard Nazi policy.

The only reason anyone in the camps survived, is because the Nazis didn’t have enough time to kill every prisoner, before the Allied Troops could arrive to liberate them.

1946: Taizé Community (France; Originally Protestant, Now Ecumenical)

After WWII, Brother Roger (1915-2001) Founded an Independent, International Protestant Religious Order known as Taizé, in France.

They now refer to themselves as an Ecumenical community, rather than as a Protestant community, since they began also accepting as monks Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics, in addition to those of Protestant background. Brother Roger remained a Protestant Monk his entire life.

(Note: We are an Evangelical Protestant Lay Monastic Order of “Mere Christianity” that also accepts Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians as Lay Monks in our Knights of Prayer Lay Monastic Order. Another term for Lay Monks is Oblates, from the word oblations, which means offerings, as in offerings to God.)

Brother Roger died in 2005 at the age of 90, murdered in Church during an Evening Prayer Service by a mentally ill woman who stabbed him to death with a knife.

1947: The Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary (Germany)

In 1947, religious leader and Christian Author, M. Basilea Schlink (Mother Basilea; 1904-2001) Co-Founded a Protestant Order for women (with Mother Martyria) in Darmstadt, Germany: The Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. The founders and first seven sisters became nuns in 1948.

The Order currently has 11 Convents located all over the world, with a total of 209 sisters, 130 residing in Darmstadt. Mother Basilea led the Order from 1947 until she went home to be with the Lord in 2001.

1964: Jesus Abbey (South Korea)

In 1964, Reuben Archer Torrey III (1918-2002), an Episcopal Priest and Missionary in Asia (he had been raised in China, his parents were also missionaries), and his wife, Jane, Founded the Jesus Abbey community in South Korea.

He was the grandson of Dwight Moody’s fellow servant of the Lord, R.A. Torrey. After Moody’s sudden, unexpected death, Torrey took over his ministry of worldwide evangelism.

Jesus Abbey was begun originally loosely affiliated with the Episcopal Church. They are very Evangelical and sound in Doctrine.

They seem in actuality to be a Lay Monastic community, but they do not call themselves that, or use the term “lay monks” in referring to themselves.

1960’s-1990’s: Lutherans (Monasticism Comes Full Circle)

During this period, a Lutheran Monastery was Founded in Denmark, and another in the State of Michigan in the U.S.A.

The New Monasticism Movement

1998: The Simple Way Community (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Founder of The Simple Way Community, Shane Claiborne, popularizes the term: “New Monasticism.”

1999: The Prayer Foundation / Knights of Prayer Lay Monastic Order™
(Portland, Oregon / Vancouver, Washington)

S.G. Preston and his wife, Linda, Founded The Prayer Foundation / Knights of Prayer Lay Monastic Order,™ an Interdenominational “Prayer Encouragement” ministry, of prayer teaching and resources from all Christian Communions and eras.

The first Evangelical Monastic Order on the Internet in 1999, and only one for the next four years. The original 1,300 webpage Site, equivalent to twenty 200-page books, received up to 2.4 million page downloads per month: 1/2 to 3/4 billion total page-views by 2020. Becoming technically outdated, it was replaced by this current website.

Over 2,000 Christians from 47 Countries have Officially Registered as Lay Monks and Prayer Warriors; one out of seven Lay Monks being Pastors, Youth Pastors, Missionaries, Bible College, or Seminary students.

The definition of a “Lay Monk” is simply a Christian especially dedicated to the word of God and prayer.

2001: Founding of the First Methodist Monastery (Minnesota)

A Methodist Monastery for women, Founded in Minnesota: St. Brigid of Kildare Monastery.

2002-2003 Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches

During 2002-2003, a few Monastic Orders were formed as affiliated Orders of the CEEC (Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches). This group, Founded in 1995, came out of the Episcopal Church U.S.A., and consisted of Evangelical Episcopal Priests and Congregations.

2003: Rutba House Founded (North Carloina)

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and his wife, Leah, Founded the Rutba House in North Carolina.

2008: The Boston Globe Articles on The “New Monasticism” Movement

By 2008 there were over 100 groups describing themselves as both “Evangelical” and “Monastic” in North America alone, according to The Boston Globe articles:

“The unexpected monks…” and “In the beginning…” by Molly Worthen (Feb.3, 2008). There are now thousands of such groups worldwide.

(These two articles are posted on The Boston Globe website and also on this website under the: (About Us Category) in the Navigation Bar.

WHy did MaRtin LutHEr End tHE MONAStERiiES?

A Brief History of Protestant Monasticism

Commentary:

Martin Luther at first considered retaining the monasteries as schools. Later in life he regretted ending them, but by then it was too late.

Luther’s decision to end the monasteries was to a large extent a reaction against two doctrinal errors concerning the way in which monks and monasticism were viewed in his time.

The Doctrinal Errors:

(1.) Becoming a monk was viewed as the best way to “attempt” or “hope” to attain salvation.

It was considered as efficacious as if it were a “second baptism,” in the following sense…

Baptism was considered to be an act (Sacrament) that removed Original Sin.

(2.) Becoming a monk was considered to be an act that removed all of your sins up to that point in your life, so that you started over with a tabula rasa (clean slate)…as though you had been baptized again.

Martin Luther, in correctly rejecting these two doctrinal errors, unfortunately rejected monasticism also, instead of reforming it, thus, in my opinion:

“Throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

-Lay Monk Preston

WHAt if LutHEr HAd RefORMEd MONASticiSM ?

What might a Monasticism reformed by Martin Luther have looked like?

Well, what did a reformed Ministry (Priesthood) look like?

The first step was to end the practice of “forbidding to marry” (1 Timothy 4:3), to allow married Priests (as Eastern Orthodoxy has always done).

500 years later, the Roman Catholic Church is currently having this same debate.

A Return to the Prayer Practices of the Early Church

The next step, which Lay Monk Preston and Lay Monk Linda took when they founded The Prayer Foundation / Knights of Prayer Lay Monastic Order,™ was to emphasize the return of Early Christian practices of devotion to prayer and to the word of God (Acts 6:4), back to the average Christian.

Some New Testament and Early Church practices had long been relegated primarily to the monks in the monasteries, but are in fact the spiritual heritage of all Christians.

These include observance of The Threefold Daily Prayers; the three prayer times of the Apostles in the New Testament, and of the Early Church for its first 800 years; and use of the Psalms as the Prayer-book of the Church by all Christians.

So what might a reformed monasticism have looked like?

It might have looked very much like the “Third Order” that St. Francis created for average Christian householders;

those who remained in their own homes, jobs, careers; with their own families, and in their own local churches.

It might have looked very much like the PrayerFoundation Evangelical Lay Monks,™ with its Knights of Prayer Lay Monastic Order.™

SAyiNGS Of tHE dESERt FatHERS & tHE dESERt MOtHERS:

“The spiritual practice of Abba Sisoes the Theban, was to read Scripture from beginning to end, then begin again at Genesis.

When a monk asked Abba Sisoes for a word of advice, he would answer, ‘I read the New Testament, and then I read the Old.’”

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Abba Pastor once said, “If someone does evil to you, you should do good to him, so that by your good work you may drive out his malice.”

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“The Brothers requested of Abba Pambo, ‘Speak a word to Bishop Theophilus, that he may be edified while he is visiting.

The old man answered, ‘If the Bishop is not edified by my silence, I have no hope that he would be edified by my words.'”

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Abba Copres often told us: “Blessed are those who bear affliction with thankfulness.”

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“In Skete, a Brother asked for a word from Abba Moses, who told him,

‘Go and sit in your cell (prayer room), and your cell will teach you everything.'” ______________________

Abba Poemen taught: “It is water’s nature to be soft, and a stone’s nature to be hard; but if you suspend a bottle over a stone, and water continuously falls one drop at a time, it will wear away the stone.

Even so is God’s Word. It’s nature is to be soft, and our heart’s nature is to be hard; but whoever listens to the word of God often, will open their heart to reverence for God.”

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-Sayings of the Desert Fathers

^“A new heart also I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

-Ezekiel 26:36

‘In the beginning,’ Amma Syncletica taught us,

‘there are a great many battles and there is much suffering for those who would draw near God, but afterwards, great joy.

It is like someone who kindles a fire. In the beginning they are choked by smoke and cry, but they will at length receive what they are seeking after…

…in the same way we need to kindle the divine fire within ourselves through tears and hard work.'”

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“Amma Theodora taught:

A teacher ought to be a stranger to the desire for domination, vain-glory, and pride;

one should not be able to fool him by flattery, nor blind him by gifts, nor conquer him by the stomach, nor dominate them by anger;

but they should be patient, gentle and humble as far as possible;

they must be tested and without partisanship, full of concern, and a lover of souls.”

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-Sayings of the Desert Mothers

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