Kierkegaard on Monasticism

Soren Kierkegaard is quoted as the epigraph of Nancy Klein Maguire's An Infinity of Little Hours, as saying:

"Of this there is not doubt, our age and Protestantism in general may need the monastery again, or wish it were there. The 'monastery' is an essential dialectical element in Christianity. We therefore need it out there like a navigation buoy at sea in order to see where we are, even though I myself would not enter it. But if there really is true Christianity in every generation, there must also be individuals who have this need..."



I love reading Kierkegaard. He's not always the easiest on his readers, but the reward is always well worth the work. He is also one of the few philosophers that regularly makes me laugh out loud. I was surprised though to read him with anything like the above positive appraisal of monasticism in the light of his emphasis on the individual's conversion experience and his trenchant critique of Christendom.

Monasticism can be two different, though not necessarily mutually exclusive, things. On the one hand it can be an individual's path of intense devotion and zealous attempt at attaining perfection. This is the only thing most people picture when they imagine the life of a monk. On the other hand, at least in its oldest, largest and most influential form, the Benedictine tradition practices communal sanctification and communal salvation. It emphasizes what is true of Christian teaching in general: that there is no salvation for any individual apart from the body of believers.

I'm not sure which conception of the monastic Kierkegaard would have had in mind, but I wholeheartedly agree with his sentiment on its continued necessity to those within and without its cloisters.