Throughout the history of the church, monastic movements have arisen during times of rapid social change. When the minority movement that Jesus started was flooded by converts after Constantine, desert mothers and fathers went into their cells to discern a new way of life. When Europe collapsed into the Dark Ages, Benedictines carved out spaces for community and new life. When the advent of a cash economy revolutionized European culture, St. Francis started an order of beggars to proclaim the divine economy of providence. Over the past two thousand years, monasticism has helped the church remember who we are.

Ours is a time of rapid social change. We are post-modern, post-Cold War, post-9/11, even post-Christian. All signs point to change, and we know things aren’t what they used to be. But we hardly know who we are. Amidst wars and rumors of war, our global identity crisis threatens to consume us.

But we have hope. The Holy Spirit is stirring in the places overlooked by Empire to raise up a new monastic movement. We don’t know yet what this movement of the Spirit will become. “New Monasticism” is the language we’re using to talk about it in the meantime.

For the sake of discernment and mutual encouragement, we have connected with other followers of Jesus who are experimenting with a new way of life in community. The “12 Marks of a New Monasticism” name what God is doing in our communities. The Community of Communities is an online directory of where communities are and descriptions of what they’re about.

In the summer of 2006, we started School for Conversion to offer community-based training and theological education for the church. Seeing a need to learn what community looks like across the dividing lines of our time, we initiated School for Conversion Latin America [link] in 2007. SFC courses are offered throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Argentina and Brazil.

To clarify our own thoughts and share the good news we’ve seen and heard, we have written a number of books which you can find here. In the fall of 2007, we announced a partnership with Cascade Books to publish the New Monastic Library Series.

We’re not sure just what will come of all this. But we’re so grateful for the good news that God has not abandoned the world. Something new is stirring, drawing deeply from the old. People who’ve stumbled in darkness are glimpsing light. We pray for grace to remember who we are in Christ.