As I type this I am with the staff of The Church at Argenta at the Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco, Arkansas. This is a Benedictine monastery. This morning we will travel to Eureka Springs, AR, where we’ve been given permission to meet in the chapel at The Little Portion Hermitage, a familial Franciscan community founded by Christian musician and monk John Michael Talbot. Yesterday and today, I have been leading and will be leading the staff from Argenta through selections from the 6th century Rule of Benedict, a monastic rule written by Benedict of Nursia.
It all begs the question: what are good Baptist boys like us doing in monastic places like this?
A few months ago, Michael Gallup, a member of the Church at Argenta team, asked if I would be willing to take the staff on a spiritual retreat, something that they would not have to prepare for or work at putting together, but that would be a blessing to them spiritually. I agreed and, after pondering it, I decided to use The Rule of Benedict as a guide for our time together, a kind of springboard from which we would jump into this or that issue, particularly in the field of pastoral ministry and leadership. Why? In the letter I wrote to the guys in the front of the study guide I prepared for them, I put this:
May 27, 2013
To: Michael Carpenter
Michael Gallup
Cliff Hutchinson
James Paul
Guys,
In thinking about what guide to use for our time together these next two days, I finally decided upon The Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule is a spiritual classic. It was written by Benedict of Nursia in the early 500’s AD. While it has a monastic function (i.e., the establishment of orders and rules for a monastery), it also contains numerous spiritual insights and guidelines for Christians in general. In particular, it offers a number of helpful challenges and ideas to those in ministry and church leadership.
This little guide is intended to point out certain portions of the rule that seem particularly apropos for our lives as ministers. The questions and exercises I’ve put here are meant to encourage us to think about Benedictine principles in light of our callings and vocations.
I hope this is an encouragement to you guys.
Wyman
I suppose I have Methodist theologian Thomas Oden to blame for our being here and doing this, for it was Oden who rocked my world in a chapel address he delivered at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth 17 or 18 years ago. In that address, Oden told of his personal journey from radical liberalism to historic Christianity and outlined his paleoorthodoxy programme and, with it, his call for Christians to refamiliarize themselves with “the classical Christian consensus,” as he put it. Since that time, the ancient Christian writings have become dear to me, even though I am woefully under-read in that great sea of written offerings. Even so, I am happy to be, as Oden put it, “a young fogey” and to fight against “neophilia,” an obsession with the new. Furthermore, I am attracted to Oden’s suggestion that, when he dies, he would like for his tombstone to read: ”He Said Nothing New.”
Should we read the ancient works uncritically? Absolutely not. They are not Scripture and, therefore, they are not infallible. Furthermore, my disagreements with Rome are real and substantive. Even so, there is great wisdom to be found in the classics of Christianity. The Rule of Benedict, for instance, may be studied with great profit, and I have done so for some years now. For me, a willingness to read widely in the great streams of Christianity, judging all by Scripture, has been a great blessing and a great challenge.
Give it a shot. A few suggestions:
The Confessions of St. Augustine
The Rule of Benedict by St. Benedict
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A’Kempis
The Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure
The Little Flowers of St. Francis
Dear Wym, I would have to conclude that you are either in fact or in process of becoming the most “catholic” Baptist I know personally. I not only have greatly benefitted from the ancient texts, the Medieval period and yes, even some of the “mystics” of antiquity but it has caused some serious reflections on the indoctrinations and dogma of the recent past that was my own time of spiritual formation. I am all for this form of exercise and experiment with the living saints. I too have spent time in monasteries and the retreats of monks. The New Johnboy Translation in 2 Opinions, Chapter 1, Verse 9 states that “Southern Baptists have not cornered the market on spiritual development” and we have much to learn from other traditions especially those of the early church fathers and ancient church pioneers in “…the faith once for all delivered to the saints”. Kudos to the Great Wymanus. The three cardinal rules common in almost all monastic orders are a good way to fight modernity especially in our local observances in the contest of a culture gone mad with new and novel means and methods. A few days of quietness and solitude is a powerful and sobering way to get a fresh new look at reality stripped of the modern cultural milieu we live in every day. Americans have an almost irrational fear of just doing the “be still & know that I am God” thingy. I think some folks actually experience anxiety attacks and panic at the very thought of just sitting quietly in solitude even for just part of a day. It borders almost on a hysterical soul sickness for many who have been immersed in high speed techy toys for most of their life. Selah.
Hey John! Ha! Well, I don’t know about being a “catholic Baptist,” but I will take “Baptist who wants to read and benefit from believers outside of our own tradition.” 🙂
I appreciate your comment, and you, brother.
W