WESTERN MONASTICISM

1. This is the year of the Historical Order. Creating the historical order is a matter of calling objectively into being in a creative way those relationships that already exist. Yet we have felt the need of grounding those kinds of relationships, primarily historically. We have presupposed that the ordering dynamic has had rich insights and much wisdom to give in whatever title it has gone under ­­ historical order, religious order, movemental order. So we have been looking not for answers in the past, but ways to ground our own intuitions about the present, or to relate historically our own grasp of the contemporary situation.

2. The new form of the historical order has to be created. It is not a matter of resurrecting some religious order of the past, or renewing the Catholic Church, or anything like that. It has to do with a totally new articulation of missional relationships that are coming into being.

3. We have found two ways to be most helpful in approaching this. One is through the People of GG~] triangle. In the Far right­hand corner of the People of God triangle, entit~ed 7Iistorical Christianity, is where our model building has recently been intensiri^­d. In the past we have spen; a great deal of cur corporate model. building rime on 'ne Loca1 Church model. That is simply who we are. I think we are going to be seeing a shift se­on to Historical Christianity. We talked about the historical Chri.tiani­ty pole as being ti~e red­hot corner, the catalytic agent of the catalytic agents. The ~asic dynamic that operates here is the movement of the spirit. That is, i~istoricaL Ch­?is­:anity is not synonymous with any intellectual movement. It is not sylno­!yrm~ou, wl­~­h ~ T social movement. It is what our fathers called the movement of fh.­ spj ito ~i,~'n c­­er and whenever the groan of travail has issued in any place on the pianet ~ t~ r­ t~ne . ~?le of God have had their attention. The movement of the spir'­ 'S unsynoiy~.!s with what you and I are about. Often it happens outside f the hist~ricai e s tGL­ shed church ~ cnd therefore you and I are constantly on the mo~re.

4. N~w, with n t~­o~e b­eak'coses of the splr~t in history, form has to be given. That means ­'i_ ~ , al ~'! S an in­ceracticn between order and movement. Saint Francis

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Typologies of Western Monasticism ­ page 2

bad. That is just simply what happens in history. On the basis of what the Franciscan order has conserved and what it has brought into being, another movement will then break loose. This goes on both ways. It is not ~ust that an order comes out of a movement. It happens the other way, too. On the basis of what has been posited as gifts from the past, a new insight, a new leap takes place, and you have another breakloose. It constantly goes on.

5. As you look at the People of God triangle you will see that Histcrical Christianity is in dynamical ~elation to both the Uni­,ersal Religious and the Local Church. This means the Ecum~nlc~l dynamic of Historical Christianity pl~nvides a catalytic dynamic to the gto~e atntlarge. It simply e: p' odes where it will­­secular, religious~ that is not important. The Pluriform dynamic of historical Christianity is catalytic also, primarily in relationship to the local church, or the established dimension of the Church, of the People of God. This is the localis, the local expression of it.

6. There is also a third dynamic that is the catalyst of the catalyst. The name we have called this pole is changed somewhat, but the dynamic is still there. It is an explosive device both within the ongoing movement and within the established ordering dynamic, and so for the lack of a better title we have called it the "Movemental Order." That holds both dimensions, but that name will probably not stand.

7. Recently we have tried to get a way of talking more clearly about the parts or the dimensions o~ this Movemental Order. It looks like it always has a symbolic dimension, a ga­thered few that represent intensified experimentation, whatever needs ;o be done. There is also an auxiliary dimension and there is an expanded dimension to the order. Again, whatever you label those at this point is not too important if you realize the top pole is the most extended dimension of it, that the left­hand pole is more closely related to the symbolic, and that when you are talking about the movement al ord' you mean all three.

8. When you look for this in history, you h~ve to look for the "Catholic substance" within that dynamic. This is a guideline or a value that we have held in our research. We mean by the Catholic substance, whether it is a dogmatic statement, whether it is a structure, whether it is an office, or whatever kind of thereness it 3S within the People of God, that major emphasis is put on the vision of the globe. That is not an adequate way of talking about the Citholic substance but it is a beginning. The way you can recognize it is that it uses spatial metaphors rather than temporal metaphors, as in Protest~nt theology. It emphas ­es sanctification ether than justification. It almost presupposes the Christ event in one's life. It deals Ith structures that nurture the sanctified life. That is where you would see i. most often.

9. This concept has helped us locate the monastic relationships in history. The classical Catholic forms are hard to perceive with Protestant eyes. It is hard to see what you are talking about by "third order" or something like that. The whole idea of the Catholic substance in sociological form is helpful because we have found it is really dealing with forms of spirituality. Even a decision­making process, which is a sociological process, is a form of spirituality if it is embodying the Catholic ~ubstance. For example, the main political principle in a monastery may be obedience the abbot . But this is never talked about in democratic language. It is never talked about as, "We decided to have it that way." It is rather just dogmatically said, "He is in charge~" It may say, "You obey him as the vicar of Christ on earth." Now it is a political structure, obviously, if the abbot is in charge of making the decisions in the monastery. But it is a little hard to see the political aspect if it is stated with the "vicar of Christ" terminology, but it is easy to see the spirituality.

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Typologies cF Western Monasticism ­ page 3

10. TLe cl?ssical orders deal with ontological relationships over and over again, but they are comi­ll~:licated to us in moral relationships, 500 year old medieval moral relationsilips. li.e ,ntological presuppositions, the ontological nature of relationships within the orders of history, the very being of the orders has been communicated to us with a kind of moralism which has been hard to break through. For example, celibacy has been con,i..~unicated to us as a moralism rather than a radical experiment in humanness. The same is true of poverty and obedience.

11. Therefore, as you go back into history you have to hold joth of these values, the Catholic substance and the People of God triangle. The social process triangle is =Isc an extremely helpful screen here­­Economic, Political, Cultural (and yet they ?re also a ;­orm of spirituality).

12. In our cu rent research we have tried to gestalt the forms of the classical ordering dynamic as they have shown up in Western civilization, primarily in the classical Catholic orders. We began with a presupposition that you may be familiar w th from Nigg, that the way these characters operated in those monasteries in medieval times and before wa~ that they would move into an area, whether it was a city, or a forest, or a rura' area, and build a little patch of order, namely the monastery. Within that they b~gan to order their lives­­they began to discipline their interior and tney began to think through very carefully the needs of what had to be done, whether it was agricultural or, as it was in many cases, cultural. That is, if all the books had been destroyed, then they just very systematically began to order the cultural life by recopying them.

Ordering or 13. As we began to look at the monasteries, we found that the/sustaining structures of that ordering dynamic had to go on. What was their commcn support system? How did tk;y maintz n their life? How were they economically sustained? Secondly, what was the common polity? How did they not only make decisions but commonize the decisions that were made? How did they create a consensus in the monastery? Thirdly, we looked very carefully at the common rule or constitutional statement or both, if available. ,hese three began to give us a picture that we could nail down as to how they started, how they developed, how they changed, how they looked at the economic support system, the po.'i~ical internal structures, and the constitution and rule.

14. The secc!nd area we looked at was their symbolic life. The monastic tradiction ccr.les f­~'om contemplative roots. It comes from an understanding of symbols which is the "if­. of the chu ch. You can talk about the church as the symbol­making institution in socie~yO This was their self­conscious task in the world, although they may no­, have talk'~d about it that way. Therefore, we looked at the liturgy, as a c­'ciological .­orm of spirituality. We did not have to look hard because there is so much rlc.riness there. Thus, we looked at the patterns of liturgical life. We were a* er the five, s x, seven basic patterns of liturgical life that sociologically appeared.

'5. Then we Jooked at the internal formation. (You may recognize this Catholic word.) They ,nqy­ not have had an intern training program but, as soon as you went into that

'onastery,arld for the rest of your life, you got yourself formed. You were put into highly di­sciplinec', structures, so that you came out a different human being after two, three, fou , or five years. Whether that was spelled out or not, we presupposed a nc~iate pro~'am or the equivalent, and looked at the basic types of formation St­tUC­,V­'2S that in the later orders, were very carefully spelled out. You remember the .!esJits cmpl~asize this to a great extent. Over a period of 16 years they had every ~ay of y~ur life laid out. Then you might be a good Jesuit. That model is

i. ypologies of Western Monasticism ­ Page la

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Typologies of Western Monasticism ­ page 4

built on re­programming the entire orientation through a complete new symbol system, namely, celibacy, the monastery, the whole Roman Catholic Church, the People of God. Therefore, it is very closely related to the symbolic life as you can see in the chart.

16. We found another crucial area of their symbols was the "auxiliary." They use that word to indicate the methodological arenas of their task. The "auxiliary" is related to their missional thrust as ~would understand mission, but it is more a description of the way they organized themselves for any external task. They regarded their mission as "being the religious," or "loving God." A cloistered order, ­ especially, would see popular preaching, for example, as an auxiliary action. Various orders had a number of auxiliary relationships such as teaching in the high school, working in a college, etc. The types of auxiliary relationships became formalized into lay, military, and nuns. Nuns, for example, were sometimes seen as auxiliary action to the monastic life. You see how I am using that word. This is auxiliary action to the monastery, but it is more related to what we point to with the term external thrust.

17. We would talk about the way one related internal formation and liturgical life to the external thrust under the arena of style. Style is the revolutionary tool for us. Putting style into history is what alters life. They would have no trouble with that kind of understanding, but they might not use that language. They would call it "auxiliary" to the "religious life."

18. We saw that the common mission could be dealt with under the categories of of_ offices, time, and apostolate. The common offices were the positions, or assignments in the order. For example, offices would include the assignment to be a parish priest, or be a high school teacher, or be the prior of the monastery. In other words they have structured titles for each missional arena. To find out where their missional thrust was you simply had to look at what titles they were called.

lg. Then we found the time design to be a key tool for getting hold of their mission. The time design is related to the assignments. If they taught in a high school, their internal time design in the monastery or convent would be geared to that. If you were a parish priest, you would have a different time design. So we looked at the basic time design that they used to carry out their assignments, whether it be hoeing corn or caring for the sick.

Typologies of Western Monasticism ­ Page 5

20. Then we looked at the common aposto ate. The way the monastic tradition uses that term is similar to what we mean by frontier system. I,hen they began to expandrwhen the monasteries began to create daughter houses, when they began to open up new kinds of missions, they used that phrase. Apostolate is almost synonymous with vocation today. But what they mean by that is a new form or the religious life. There would be new houses opening up, new monasteries. We wanted to find out the four or five basic ways that they extended in sociological form .the monastic life. Was it a house? Was it a convent? Was it a cenobitic desert retreat? What were the common forms that they then housed themselves in, couched themselves in to expand.

21. When you ask someone today about their apostolate they might talk about it as being a nurse, or being a teacher but we have held that with the term office. What we were looking at here is how they maintained the religious life, while being a nurse or a teacher. \~here did they live? How did they maintain the community life? There may be just two or three of them living together, or it may be a convent, or it may be a house. We have explored those forms.

22. For a contemplative order, the community life was the apostolate. Being a contemplative was understood as a full­time vocation although that is not as common as common today. Holding retreats, then, may have been their main external task. If it is a service order, they might very well relate apostolate to a vocation like being a nurse. Apostolate is simply the title that they have that points to the task that they are assigned to. Auxiliary here poi­ ato the actual activity that goes on outside the monastery, the external mission.

23. Now, any order would have all nine of these. A service order would come at them a little bit differently from the other orders. A primarily contemplative order wohld also emphasize, different ones of these in different ways. The gestalt includes contemplative, service, and teaching orders.

24. Each one of the classical typologies has a four by four underneath it. Under common polity, for example, there are the four basic decision promulgation systems. I do not want to deal with who makes the final decision, although that is crucial. Karl Deutsch talks about polity in his Nerves of Government as a system of information flow. T~hat we were after was the information flow system within the order. There are going to be some points where it starts and where it stops, but those are included in this gestalt.

25. Let me give an example of that. If there is a single n,onastery, the flow system begins and ends with the Abbott. Each order also had a particular relationship to the Pope. He is always in the flow system somewhere. If he is the final authority, it is a different kind of system, than if, as in the Jesuits, final loyalty is to the order, or to the society, although symbolically the Pope is the head. This is a different kind of bureaucratic structure than when the Pope makes the final decisions. In other systems there are different locations along tile way in terms of council, definators, curia, etc. In conciliar decision­making like Vatican II which is a later development, the council is the final word, although the Pope symbolizes it. A different information flow pattern goes on there. Each one of the other areas of order life has a similar analysis under it of the four basic classical patterns.

Typologies of Westera Monasticism­Page 6

26. Af~er del­neeting the classical typologies, we moved to raise the question ­,f what the pcs .­mo­7ern ordering dynamic looks like. We started with the wisdom of the Cc~tholic ord~ring dynamic, keeping in mind that these are sociological forms that convey spirituality. Even a conciliar decision­making process is not a colitical c~gan as such. It has to do with the way life is. Therefore, the symbolization of the Council ­how the bishops are seated and what the office you do before and after ­­is just as important as what the agenda actually is.

c7. A=ter doing c r analysis of the classical typologies we looked at how that wi,dom would inform the design for an order in the post­modern world of today. The chcrt on page 3 R shows the nine categories that must be considered. We have arranged them i.1 three rows with the heading of the three Dynamics of the movemental order, Expanded, Symbolic and Auxiliary, because that is where we expect the breaklooses .o occur for the various nine categories. However, every manifestation of the .ovemental order will need to embody all nine in some way.

28. When we started to talk about the symbolic dimensions of the movemental order ' pUt 5N';'..~ ­ ·~ r'7' scipline as the basis for the ordering dynamic. (The emphasis is on the sy..!~,~1 system. DiscipLine is simply the pattern within that, whether it be the daily office. ,he vows or whatever.) From the Catholic tradition it seemed to us that the s~mbol system is what the revolution marches on. We know this intellectually in terms of the value of the symbols that you and I operate out of as the basis of our corporateness, as the basis of our style, as the basis of just who we are ln history. Now we can ground this historically.

2ti. The second fou,~dational building block of the symbolic dimension of the m._­vemental order has to do with internal training. We have used the words internal training rather than ~ormation to get into our mind that you and I have common :.ages, common curriculum, common training patterns, and common courses that form ur co~nTr.onnness and give us symbolic power. We know what every teacher in RS­I s £oing to do before he gets up to do it.

­~. rh~` r.ternal training, however, is determined by the external mission.

W;­!at it means to be the Church is to be that gathered body who cares for the external,

·rhich then gives us guidelin_s as to what we have to do to form ourselves to be God's people in wha­tever age that we show up.

31. 1!ben we looked at the auxiliary dimen~ion of the order, that dynamic most closely related to the symbolic order dimension, we found that the time desi~n is key. 1­. is or~ of the basic common denominators,holding people together whether they ~re regional ieadcrs, cadre members or others that see themselves operating out of ~n e tended rule.

~2. The second major category that we came up with was assignment position. Position here is not a status category. There seems to have been a breakthrough in c.ssignment position in the last couple of years. At first, for someone in the moven­,ent to take on an assignment within a region was a significant step. The rationale for mission then became picked up and embodied by colleagues across the region, which was a sign of a sociological structure that held together the order.

Typologies o~ Western Monasticism ­ Page 7

33. Thirdly5 in term of the way you recognize the intended order, you could tel that there was a common general strategy or battle plan with common goals 5 common .actlc~, comi.lon maneuvers, common meetings, etc.

34. As we raised the question of the sociological structures that held in being the most expanded expression of movemental order, we found that it ·s in and through economic deve70p­nent pledges and gifts that many people give their lives, their

stored~up self­hood~ It is also very interesting to go back and look at the way that the mcnastic tradition tied in the economic structures in such a way to maintain their support over a period of time.

35. Secondly, obviously, are common images. This is a broad category but can easily be grounded. Many people who you and I do not know participate in the models mud the images that come out of RS­I and operate as the People of God and understand themselves to be disciplined human beings wherever they show up. They are related to the symbolic ordering dynamic, either through training or mission, or participating in the symbolic life.

36. For thc middle category we are using the term rotation polity, although we are trying to find different language for that. If you think of polity not as the points of decision­making, but the points of information input, you will see how it belong~ in the expanded dimension. The crucial thing in polity is participation in the discussion, not being there for the final vote. Therefore, data input is what is crucial, o use Deutsch's categories, ordered data information. When models are beir"7 p­~t into the whole ordering dynamic, the front line troops, which are the expanded crcer,­nave their lives directly invested in the needs of suffering humanity.

37. These are not groups of people in the first instance. You miss the model if you do no, see these as dynamics of the movemental order. You might very well be participating at any place along the line in terms of the sociological structures I mentioned or the activities that they perform. But you stand with a certain consciousness in the model to make that statement, from which you can see what is going on and how they are related.

38. Each one of these nine has a four by four which delineates therenesses that are going on in our own life. In other words, it gave us a screen to see that we had a polity.. already. We could not be an order if we did not have a polity. We could not be doing what we are doing. The question is: what does it need to be? What are the present problems and contradictions, and where can we need to push? We can ~­ ~,.~ 1: ~ ~i s or the practical form of the polity

39. ~ thin'; you can begin to see all this is nothing other than the bug model. That is to say, in terms of the internal order and external mission, the typologies simply arc models of those dynamics, related to the classical forms of those as they have come thrctOh Western civilization. In the rule model from the discipline lecture, where tirne­ and task is the center box and worship, study, goods, and discipline are around it5 the polity is an internal task. Can you begin to think what that would mean? ~rOu are assigned a polity position in order to carry off an internal task. There is no sta~us involved. It is rotated. Polity and time design are intimately related. The polity dynamic and the time design objectify one another in a very intimate lay. When we looked back into history we had to see the relationship between them`~how often they met, the frequency of the meals­­to really get hold of the information f]ow. Then it became too difficult to expand in that way. In terms of the intern~1 Jife and external mission of the bug model, economic support and assignment rationale are internal life. Common images, communication of images, is witnessing love' and genera' strategy is direct action or justing love. These are the categories we feel hold our entire common life in some way, that spell out with a little bit more clarity the categories of the ordering dynamic as they exist in our own life today, and that I wQuld ex~uect to find wherever the post­modern ordering dynamic is going on.

40. The questions which we then raise~ of ourselves and of the model, were practical ones, in terms of rhere that model informE our own life and '?hat we ought to do relative to the movemental order As we did the four bv four, it seemed th~t one of the contradictions blocking the full development of the symbolic order was internal training. You could probably get many yes's to that, but you would be surprized to find the categories that are missing in our training. We emphasize the academic and the intellectual, yet that occupies about one­fourth of training formation as understood in the classical western order. Another kind of order training, however, has to do with competenc,, in internal life. It has to do with the competency of religious houses. It has to do with the common memory. It has to do with the development of public image. That is a formation process that one has to embody as he goes out. There is great wisdom here from the monastic tradition as to how this went on, how long it takes, and wnat needs to be done.

41. The contradiction in the intended order, which is also a crucial question, can be seen in terms of the quarterly planning meeting of religious house priors. In order for the intended order to participate fully, they have to know what the general str~teg es are as well as any Religious House prior. In other words this four by four is grounded in the missional forms of the third order. It moves from the cloistered community, through the mendicant friars, the begging life of the wandering preacher­­to congregation development (another kind of strategy, which is the way most religious conmmur.ities operate today outside of the classical orders), and then to what is called the "canon regulars" or clerical societies, the association of clergy who are the p<~rish priests but who are related to the monastic community in some way. This is a fairly complete gestalt of the common apostolate in the monastic tradition. It informs the ''ind of relationships you develop around a religious house in a metro or a regicr. Unclarity in this dimension is the major contradiction in bringing into seif­eonsciousness the intended order.

42. The major contradiction in bringing to be the expanded order has to do with polity, not in the sense that somebody makes decisions for you and me or with you and me, but that in~orme~i~r flow irto the symbolic order ana participation in the modeling process is l mitco at this point. Until that kind of data communication can be streamlined and authent ea]ly participated in, the polity dynamic does not come into its full form. When we say, "The Collegium meets in Seapac," you can see how that is right. But what does that mean in terms of the information that comes out of it? How does that relate to the collegium that meets here and the information that goes there? I am raising it on a global basis because in order for the expanded relationships of the order ­,o be ~leshed out, we need to work particularly in this arena.

43. Sensing after the contradictions in this way allows the model to inform our own thinking as to where we need to move to bring into being self­consciously the movemental order. The North Shore Cadre would probably be extremely interested in just hearing a lecturette that comes from classical models on the general strategy of the apostolate. We would also be interested in the wisdom of monastic training, which we have embodied in the Academy to a great degree, but which now has to be streamlined and brought to a system within the order and ­,he houses. Also with the whole arena of polity, we don't want to rush into that, but we should begin to look at it in terms of global needs, and therefore have a way to begin to spell that out in the next four years.

44. These typologies: are a fairly objective way to look at the ordering dynamic wherever it occurs. A colleague of ours who knows computers has begun to see this through computer methodology. He says that computer boards ­­ computer plates that have the wiring on them­­can be superimposed in such a way that new patterns of wiring are revealed. That is a way, then, of integrating the system, or from that you can gather a way of integrating the two systems on a computer program.

45. Although you may not know about computer programming, I think you can see the central position that the computer plate occupies. It is almost as if to get hold of the Catholic substance, you have to view all the other four by four's through the symbolic. But how do you do that? Do you just have worship every morning? That is one way, but what does that mean in terms of a council meeting or in terms of a school or something else? Our computer colleague says that you can take the nine­fold diagram, and pull the symbol plate out, so that training and mission would be j posed. Then through the computer program of symbolic discipline, you could view internal training and external mission in such a way as to inform those activities in relation to the symbolic significance. Now if you pull the plate a little further out, what happens is that polity and time design juxtapose onto internal training and external mission. Not only do you have a new pattern at that point, but you have an overlay of polity and time design on training and mission, which informs training and mission, all viewed from the symbolic overlay.

46. In other words, this nine­fold diagram is a system, which if it is comprehensive, gives us a way of looking at priorities within our life and holding the values of the Catholic substance, the global vision, and also the Protestant principle. Therefore each of the typologies now has to be theologically spelled out in terms of the Catholic substance, which is their applicability for everyman on the globe, and the Protestant principle, which is the address of each activity as it goes on in their lives.

47. Our recommendations for next quarter are first, that we work with the method of overlay from the computer image, and that we push it in terms of building tactics. I think that from that can come strategic arenas for which tactics can be built for implementing the movemental order. That might be ­ part of our agenda this summer. Second, we need to intentionalize our approach to the Catholic church, not for the sake of renewing the Catholic church, or renewing any order, but for the sake of research. There are many, many things that we have to learn yet You may have met Catholics who can spell out these kinds of buried pieces of wisdom. In many cases, as you know, they are ashamed of this kind of heritage, and yet we cannot let that die. Third, we need to use the typologies experimentally as a screen for other religions. We need to take the religious orders of the Muslim faith, like the Dervishes or the Sufis, and the Buddhist orders and see if this elicits the kind of data that we would hope to gain from another religious expression. And, fourth, this needs to be part of the global research net for the spring. You would take some of the orders that you have assigned yourself, and using the screen of one of the typologies, build a conversation in which you interview people from the orders that you have worked with, trying to find out more about the order and about the typology. That data would then come back in and be incorporated into the historical order research. That would be helpful to you and to us at this point.

. . . Rick Loudermilk