Shane Claiborne and Jesus

Sometime ago, I wrote about Shane Claiborne and the work of the Simple Way Community in Philadelphia. Shane came to speak at Duke Divinity School back in 2009, and I used the opportunity to pen a few thoughts (which you can access at this link).

The term often used to describe the kind of Christianity that Shane and others practice at the Simple Way is "New Monasticism." I'm deeply interested in monasticism - both the new and the old varieties - for reasons that are both academic and practical. In the early middle ages, it was the monastic communities in Western Europe that helped to sustain a church that might have fallen apart otherwise. We live in much different times, but I think the church has its own set of very difficult challenges to its survival in our culture. Monasticism of the kind Shane Claiborne practices may offer us some lessons about real faithfulness.

I wanted to mention Shane in this post because of what I see as a possible greater migration of New Monastic practices into Methodism of late. Robin Russell at the United Methodist Reporter covered some such activities in a news article not too long ago. And Kami Rice offers this this article in a recent issue of Interpreter Magazine as well.

If you really want to check out something that will stick with you and not let you go anytime soon, click on the link to Shane's article in Esquire, "What if Jesus meant all that stuff?"  Read it, wait a little bit, and then read it again.