Finding the Monk Within: Great Monastic Values for Today (review)

Monasticism and monastic practice continue to draw contemporary spiritual aspirants, and Edward Sellner's book provides a fine description of the lives and virtues of some of monasticism's most familiar adherents. Sellner describes his work as "an attempt to help recover that monastic memory, the living presence of the past, for those who desire to name and incorporate monastic values" (7). This attempt is made through a description of the "history of Christian monasticism itself, allowing it to become our mentor, guiding and teaching us the implications of that spiritual legacy for today" (6). Well-researched and well-written, Sellner's work should be accessible for readers seeking an introduction to monastic values and should provide insight for those who seek to deepen those values in their own lives.

Finding the Monk Within surveys a host of monastic figures from Antony of Egypt to Augustine, Benedict and Scholastica, to Brigit of Kildare and Irish monasticism. Each chapter typically begins with the life and influences of a particular monastic figure, and then proceeds to draw out, from stories of and writings by the figure, monastic values and practices. Sellner begins with Athanasius of Alexandria as someone who "reminds us that a person does not have to be a monk to live monastic values, but merely someone who loves that spiritual way of life" (26). Some chapters describe the same values—Antony and Cassian concerning discernment, or Augustine and Jerome concerning friendship—while discerning the particularities of that figure's own way of expressing the value. In the chapter on Augustine Sellner focuses on friendship as "nothing else but the welding together of two souls who seek the same goal; nothing more than two hearts united by the Holy Spirit who is God." Yet, in the chapter on Jerome, he focuses on the mentoring aspect of friendship as he describes the relationships between Jerome and his female friends.

Sellner also includes in each chapter reflections on how monastic values may be incorporated into the lives of contemporary readers. Jerome and his female friends give the reader a model of the mutuality of the mentorship relationship, as Sellner considers Marcella to be Jerome's "questioner." Sellner claims that Cassian can be a guide for the formation of Christian leadership: "his wisdom can teach us what could be considered key elements for the spiritual development of Christian leaders today, especially those who are seeking to incorporate monastic values into their own lives" (137). In his chapter on Gregory the Great, Sellner emphasizes implications for pastoral ministry and servant leadership found in the example of the saint's life: "All true and effective leadership depends, Gregory says, upon maintaining a discipline, a lifestyle of contemplation, while responding as best one can to the needs of one's fellows, one's community" (189).

Sellner's treatment of Benedict is particularly intriguing because, out of everything in Benedictine spirituality that he could have chosen to write on, Sellner focuses on the Benedictine value of stability for contemporary persons. This is much appreciated, for Benedictine stability may be a helpful corrective for the hyper-mobility and anxiety that often characterize contemporary persons. Sellner refreshingly describes stability as "an antidote to the restlessness of mind and heart in which a person constantly searches for new experiences, new relationships, and new geographical locations to escape difficulties or to solve problems by avoiding them" (222). The advice of many monastics concerning mobility is that wherever one goes, one always brings oneself. Sellner relates this monastic value, as he does for most of the values described in this book, to human relationships: "This unceasing search for the new and extravagant, of course, can too often make life and relationships superficial, and any intimacy between people extremely fragile" (223).

A major theme in the work is the practice of discernment and those virtues that make good discernment possible. Discernment is an essential practice for discovering what values and practices enable and sustain monastic...