Here's a fascinating interview (from Speaking of Faith) with Shane Claiborne, founder of the New Monasticism: Christians from a variety of backgrounds who chose to live in intentional communities, relocating to what they call "the abandoned places of Empire." Claiborne's community settled in poverty-stricken, hollowed-out North Philadelphia.
EC and I have a couple of friends moving from Colorado Springs to Minneapolis, in order to start just such an intentional community. We ourselves have been (and continue to be) tempted by this lifestyle. At the very least, the New Monastics' emphasis on simplicity and service we hope to incorporate into our own daily lives--even in extraordinarily non-simple Washington, D.C. What a challenge...
BC
p.s. New Monasticism seems in some ways to be the opposite of what Rod Dreher of the Crunchy Con calls "The St. Benedict Option"--that is, calling on Christians to intentionally leave cities and organize themselves into new rural communities.
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