The Rule of Benedict and Baptist Ecclesiology…you what?!

I am an occasional and aspiring Benedictine. I've wanted for some time to write a paper on Benedictine Spirituality and Baptist Ecclesiology. Not as daft as it sounds. For me it started with Esther De Waal's book Seeking God. That was my first serious look at a monastic rule, and I was captivated by the moderate, common-sense discipline of a Rule that had much to say to those outside as well as inside a monastery. For example the Rule of Benedict has much to say about community; so has Bonhoeffer in a different context at Finkenwalde (a community pejoratively labelled monastic); and so has Jean Vanier in his still finest book, Community and Growth. And for all our claimed Baptist crededntials about rhe gathered community, the fellowship of believers and the Body of Christ locally, we aren't exactly amongst the front runners in articulating, demonstrating, practising and propagating community.

So when I read Benedict, Bonhoeffer, or Vanier, what I encounter is critical honesty about what gets in the way of community, realistic practices which sustain and grow community, indeed a theololgy of community that is rooted in a way of life, and a way of life that is the outcome of community. A dialectic of discipline and grace, of individual and community, of hopefulness and humility, and of love as both ideal to be striven towards, and human beings as limited, fallible yet graced carriers of the image of God.

Joan Chittister is a nun in trouble – actually she's quite often in trouble with the Catholic hierarchy. She is independent in mind, persuasive and eloquent in her writing and speaking, suspicious of oppressive structures demanding unreasonable obedience, – and a sharp and imaginative expositor of the Rule of Benedict. So as just one wee quote from her book on the Rule – and think Baptist church meeting rather than monastic dinner table:

"Humility is a proper sense of self in the universe of wonders. When we make ourselves God, no one in the world is safe in our presence43. Humility, in othewr words, is the basis for right relationships in life."

And here is Benedict himself, giving advice before the Baptist church meeting sets out on its agenda; remember he was writing for monks – he was such a moderate sensible Abbot that today he would think the accusation of political correctness a small price to pay for using discourse that included men and women!:

Accordingly, brothers, if we want to reach the highest summit of
humility, if we desire to attain speedily that exaltation in heaven to
which we climb by the humility of this present life, ⁶then by our ascending actions we must set up that ladder on which Jacob in a dream saw angels descending and ascending (Gen 28: 12). ⁷Without doubt, this descent and ascent can signify only that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. ⁸Now the ladder erected is our life on earth, and if we humble our hearts the Lord will raise it to heaven.

Question for us Baptists: When was there last a seminar on humility? As opposed to conferences, seminars, sermons, books, and T shirts about leadership?How long before we can buy a Leadership app – or have I missed it and it's already here?

I only ask, humbly.