Why does monasticism appeal? How did it draw so many to abandon their wealth and the promise of worldly esteem to be monks? Monasticism’ draw had much to do with the ideal of the Vita Apostolica: “The concept vita apostolica embraced three basic principles: imitation of the primitive church, poor, simple, and penitential, with interests and activities restricted to the spiritual domain; a passionate love for souls at home and far afield; and evangelical poverty in common, either predicated on mendicancy or mitigated by the work of one's own hands. It became, during the age of Gregorian reform and after, a compelling program instinct with the fervor, spontaneity, and humanity of the first community at Jerusalem (Acts, iv, 32; cf. Luke, x, 1–12). It postulated reform and criticism in a restless age of expanding economic and geographical horizons, a more rational political system, an increasingly complex social organization, a multiplicity of divergent intellectual currents, and corresponding new spiritual needs. Such a momentous evolution of society, challenging the status quo in all its parts, demanded a reappraisal of the resources and ends of the church, the most powerful and tenacious defender of tradition.” (Ernest W. McDonnell, Article in Church History 24(01):15 - 31 · March 1955, ResearchGate). Monastic cloisters (communities) appeal to the primal part of our Christian spirituality, that The Early Church sold all the had and held it in common, “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common,” (Acts 4:32) and that they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer,” (Acts 2:42) and became like the apostles, teaching the gospel rather than being preoccupied with the practical work, “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:1-4). It should be notes that when the early church held everything in common this was due to that the Roman Authorities were going to confiscate their homes and land. To preempt this, the believers sold all their positions and shared it in communal way to survive, this is one of the reasons why Ananias and Sapphira were judged for keeping their funds and not sharing them with the community as they promised (Acts 5:1-11).
There is a yearning in us to be “devoted to the things of the Spirit.” (Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, BBC Series). To shirk off the coils of this world, and be completely dedicated to serving the Lord. There abounds in the Scriptures great motivators to caste aside the present life to become an ardent disciple, “Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me,” (Luke 9:23), “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple,” (Luke 14:26), “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also,” (John 15:18-20), “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money,” (Matthew 6:24), “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:19-21), and “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it,” (Matthew 13:44-46). To reconcile these passages and make sense of their application, the monastics took them as literal commands to come out of the world and “count all things lost but knowing Christ.” (Philippians 3:8), failing to consider Christ’s other words, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:11-15). The early monks tried to imitate Jesus who was poor (Matthew 8:20), and to take alms like when the disciples were sent out two by two (Mark 7:6-12), or take the Pauline approach of doing hard work tent making for supper (Acts 18:3).
This was the great reforming strength of Monasticism, returning to the primitive church life and rejecting the corruptive life of the clergy who wore silk robes, pectoral crosses of gold, and ministered before altars of precious stones and artwork. The monk sought humility, to quell the hubris that had hardened the senior ecclesia into becoming more like paid politicians than priests. There were many great reformers who sprung to start monastic and monsasticesque orders [Friars]. The Fransicians, The Cistericans, The Dominicans, and Jesuites. However, corruption inevitably crept in and reforms led to rebirth in newer monastic orders, an example was the Cistericans who wanted to more strictly follow the Rule and aim of the Fransician Order.
The Dark Side of Monasticism is apparent in the belief the monks held that they could achieve salvation via their asceticism [works of piety and self denial]. This flew in the face of the Truth found in the Scriptures that states salvation is based on Christ’s work alone to atone for us and belief in Him is sufficient to save (John 3:16-18, Hebrews 10:29, John 6:40, John 14:6, John 17:3, Romans 10:9-10, Ephesians 2:5-11, Philippians 3:9, 1 John 4:25, Acts 15:1-11, Colossians 2:23). This flaw in monastic theology and doxology which is confronted by the apostles, “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ” (Hebrews 10:28-29), “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh,” (Colossians 2:21-23), “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:2-6) and “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21), is the great error of monasticism. The more minor errors of monasticism was the idea of the Vow of Celibacy, that monks should neither marry nor have conjugal connections. The Monastics took their cue from St. Paul’s words, “would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord,” (1 Corinthians 7:32-35) but failed to read his other words, “But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion,” (1 Corinthians 7:9) and “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1-5). Their other case for celibacy comes from Christ speaking with the apostles on eunuchs, “The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” (Matthew 19:10-12). However, they fail to hone in on that Jesus does not make it a directive to be chaste, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.” (Matthew 19:11). The third faulty case monks make for being celibate is that the apostles were celibate, but the Scriptures again refute this with Paul saying, “Don't we have the right to bring a Christian wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord's brothers do, and as Peter does?” (1 Corinthians 9:5). So the Monastic claims to celibacy fall apart on three fronts: Paul doesn’t advocate only celibacy but also marriage (1 Corinthians 7, whole chapter), Jesus did not command all to be eunuchs (Matthew 19:10-12), and the apostles were all married (1 Corinthians 9:5). Worse, because of the insistence on celibacy, there are reports of sexual scandals in monasteries where abbots abused minors sexually, and prostitutes (harlots) were brought into monk’s cells for conjugal adventures; with even popes having their own.
So what can be said about the Monks? Their theology faulty, their vows unscriptural, and their morals at times maddening; what are we to take away from those who tried to live the Vita Apostolica? Well the first lesson is that because monastic orders were full of illiterate men, they did not know the Scriptures. Even the learned monks who knew Latin could not easily understand the only translation of the Holy Bible available at the time, the Latin Vulgate. The second lesson is zeal and a good ideal, like trying to imitate the life of the apostles is good in theory but fails on the level that it was The Message, The Gospel of Jesus Christ that was meant to be spread; reconciliation with God through His Son, not imitating the lives of the apostles that we are called to, “go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). In fact, the monks cannot fulfill this Great Commission in their cloisters, which sparked the Mendicant Friars, who went among the people and preached in society to come forth. But still the Friars turned dark, leading people into [Roman] Catholic Captivity rather than a “pure and simple devotion to Christ,” (2 Corinthians 11:3), and they became the soldiers of the appalling Roman and Spanish Inquisitions. The third and final lesson is that religious zeal must be guided by the Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26) and not by the intellect or the flesh. Under such zeal perversions of Christianity spread, for example The Crusades, The Inquisitions, and holy wars that were Christiancide [Thirty Year’s War, St. Bartholomew Day Massacre, Tyndale’s Burning, Bloody Mary and more].
The final reformation of Monasticism came from the Augustinian Monastic Order. A Man named Martin Luther would lead the Church to the true Vita Apostolica as found in the Scriptures and more importantly to the realization that salvation is “By Grace Through Faith in Christ Alone.” (Solas, based on Romans 5:1-2, Ephesians 2:5-11, Acts 15:1-11, Philippians 3:8-9, 1 John 4:15, Romans 10:9-10, John 3:16-18, John 6:40). Luther discovered that the true Vita Apostolica is not trying to imitate the apostles and their lives through man-made religion and asceticism (Colossians 2:23 ESV) nor through man made religious tradition (Mark 7:6-13), but by adopting the truth of the Good News that Jesus Saves and faith in Him is enough (John 3:16, John 6:40, Philippians 3:9). We aren’t called to dress like Peter and Paul, and live like hermits. The apostles themselves didn’t live like hermits, nor did they reject the latest technologies! On the contrary the used the latest technologies of the day: Roman Roads, Ships, Letters (in Oral times), and the Langua de Francias [International Language] of the day: Greek. It is most likely had the apostles lived in our times they would utilize the vast resources of blogs, email, text, phones, Skype, facetime, YouTube, powerpoint, docs, and more to reach people for the Gospel. Amen.
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