Book Review: Monk Habits for Everyday People

Monk Habits for Everyday People
Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants
by Dennis
Okholm
ISBN
978-1-58743-185-2
$12.99

Dennis
Okholm, professor of Theology at Azusa
Pacific University
and Presbyterian minister, offers his contribution to a growing genre of
literature written about monasticism for laity. 
Part memoir, part reflection, the book recounts the author’s own
introduction to and developing relationship with Benedictine practice and spirituality
and, in so doing, offers an invitation and apologia to his Protestant brethren
who have been bred to be wary of such religious communities.  Okholm’s under-lying thesis is that
Evangelicals are plagued with a spiritual shallowness because they neglect the
insights of historical Christian spiritual experience.

"In man
respects we live shallow lives, easily entertained by celebrities, trivial
pursuits, and consumer products.  A
deeply rooted spiritual life is desired by many, but its cultivation seems to
escape just as many."  Our lives pulled
in every direction by a multiplicity of vain concerns are spread thin, like
butter over toast, and do not drive deep, like the roots of a strong oak.  Evangelicals, according to Okholm, have too
often mistakenly assumed that a real spirituality is a spontaneous spirituality
and such would only be quelled by the formal, habitual rigidity of monastic
life.  This lack of rootedness has made
the development of spiritual wholeness in a person impossible and the valorization
of spontaneity has left Evangelicals to continue on an endless search for new
spiritual highs through the media of new praise choruses, inspirational
speakers, and best-selling books.

It will come
as a surprise, then, to many Evangelicals when Okholm proposes that the end of
these spiritual strivings is to be found in the mundane and ordinary life of
structured prayer, work and reading one finds prescribed in the Rule of St
Benedict followed in monasteries to this day. 
But this seeming contradiction is only apparent – as many of the monastic
fathers, especially their great patriarch, St Anthony, was wont to point out
that stability and regularity are the context in which one grows spiritually:
for it is a tree that is left unmoved that puts down roots, not that which is
transplanted often.  Comparing spiritual
wholeness to physical health, Okholm says:

"It is strange that we take the advice of our dentist and floss regularly
to maintain healthy gums or follow doctor’s orders to exercise on schedule to
enhance our physical well-being, while we often spurn the counsel of spiritual
physicians and trainers to develop habits that will maintain and enhance our
spiritual life."

Okholm traces
the place of the development of Benedictine spirituality in the history of
Christian monasticism, from its rise in the Egyptian and Judaean deserts at the
end of the third century, to its spread West into Europe contemporaneous with
the final decadence and fall of Rome, and its crystallization in the Rule which
St Benedict composed for his monastic community at Monte Cassino in Italy.  Contrary to the received wisdom common among
Evangelicals which portrays  monastic
rules as a recapitulation to the legalism of the Mosaic dispensation, Okholm
describes the rule as "a practical guide for living the Christian gospel and
for cultivating Christian virtue."  The
Rule, dealing with all aspects of life including food, sleep, study, work and
prayer, and the community which lives according to it exists to foster an arena
in which the Gospel can be lived, not simply believed in intellectually. 

Having made
his case for why Evangelicals should even consider giving attention to
Benedictine spirituality, both from reasoned argument and personal experience,
the author moves forward with his description of the monastic life and its
application to that of the common layperson. 
Okholm’s chapters each highlight various, individual points of
importance in the Rule of St Benedict including silence, poverty, obedience,
humility, hospitality, stability, and balance, relieving each of their
respective mystiques and demonstrating how these aspects of monastic life
challenge the non-contemplative life of the masses and can foster Christian
spirituality.  In all of this, the author
demonstrates how the mundane can be the source of spiritual excellence and
growth and a deliverance from the triviality that surrounds us.

To conclude,
the author offers an afterword addressing the question of why Protestants have
historically been opposed to monasticism, further correcting the misconceptions
that exists among Evangelicals.  After
this, on the more practical side, Okholm offers suggestions for further reading
on Benedictine spirituality, the larger monastic tradition, and works, like his
own, which offer a conversation between monastic and ‘normal’ life.  This, in turn, is followed by a summary of
ways in which Benedictine spirituality can be practiced in the ‘real’
world. 

While it may
be found lacking in some areas of its description, this book should serve as
good introduction to monastic practice for those who have never had the
personal experience.  I think the author
himself would admit that he is not an expert on the subject, but one who has
experienced something in Benedictine Abbey that he wishes to open up to and
share with others who might not be likely to go looking for the same experience
themselves.  Because of this, the book
can be recommended for its intended audience, Evangelicals who have had little
to no contact with monasticism, while others might find more depth in books by
those writing from inside monastic communities such as M. Basil Pennington’s A Place Apart.  For a perspective from outside Western
Christianity, one might read similar works by Eastern Orthodox writers like
Scott Cairn’s A Short Trip to the Edge,
John Oliver’s Touching Heaven, or
Kyriacos Markides’s Mountain of Silence.