Modern Dislocations in Religious Life

Extract

In order to see the modern needs of religious men and women in perspective we should sometimes look across the Christian monastic scene back to the natural origins of religious life in primitive and pre-Christian religions. These origins, although they do not include the supernatural vitality of a life dedicated to the following of Christ, have yet a fundamental bearing on the way religious behave throughout the ages. Grace builds on nature, and there are natural origins even for religious life, which thus has a specifically human character as well as a divine. After many hundreds of years’ progress in ways of life and of culture, there almost inevitably arises a threat of dislocation, when those living the traditional culture are severed from its roots. In the case of Monastic life (just as on a wider field of the whole Christian way of living), the many centuries of existence have led to a tremendous elaboration which can become in part artificial and with little natural support.