In Defence of Personhood: St Benedict and Postmodernity

Abstract

For 1 ,500 years the Rule of St Benedict has been the normative document of Western monasticism, a touchstone for subsequent reformers and a comforting inspiration for those vowed to observe its regime. In it Benedict calls the seeker to realise, through a careful process of self-discipline, the fullness of Christian life: enjoying the company of God and fellows in a manner which closely anticipates the heavenly life (Olsen, 1984: 35-45). Throughout history Benedictine communities have played an important part in wider Christian life, providing pastoral and intellectual leadership for the institutional church (lawrence, 1984). However, the relationship between the ideal Christian life pursued within the cloister and the spiritual efforts of ordinary Christians in the world has not always been happily or conveniently expounded. Post-Tridentine spirituality has tended to separate hierarchically 'religious' and 'lay' experience into hermetically sealed compartments, an attitude sometimes mirrored by strict physical enclosure (Knowles, 1969: 228-32; Chittister, 1991; Lavin, 2002). Such an approach is surprising given Benedict's insistence that every outside guest to the monastery should be 'welcomed as Christ' (Benedict, 1980:53, 255-59).' The recent flourishing of oblature, the swelling ranks of friends' associations, and the growing volume of literature on 'lay application' testify to a stronger sense of the Rule's place within the wider baptismal vocation (de Waal, 1996). However, the renewed interest in Benedictine spirituality extends well beyond the Roman Catholic Church, not only into Anglicanism but also into the 'unchurched' population at large (as witnessed by the popularity of BBC2's recent series The Monastery). This wider interest suggests that Benedict speaks to the particular spiritual hunger of our time as well as the fundamental basis of our calling. How, though, might this be so? To answer we must first identify that hunger. The distinguished social theorist Zygmunt Bauman has identified the quest for individuality as a defining characteristic of the postmodern consumer society, a society in which 'people are haunted by the problem of identity' (Bauman, 2005: 6). In this environment the apogee of personal happiness is understood to lie in the holding together of our disparate psychological tendencies, the achievement of decisive autonomy, and the exercise of unobstructed, impulsive free choice amidst a dazzling range of purchasable commodities. Our enjoyment of the last feature serves as an index to the whole project's success (Bauman, 2005: 1-15, 80-116). The indissoluble problem of identity in such a context arises from a hidden reality: the market's manipulative spur to consumption is in fact an