A New Monastic Handbook: From Vision to Practice

by Ian Mobsby

Two leading practitioners of new monasticism open up the movement's spiritual landscape and its distinctive calling and gifts within today's church. Practical experience and story is set alongside reflection and liturgies as a creative resource for all who are already involved in, or are exploring intentional living in community.

256 pages, ebook

First published July 26, 2013

Reviews

[Neil Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful, and practical look at community life in the context of the modern, institutional church. Rooted in Anglicanism. Paced a little slowly. Sometimes weighed down in the "how to" instead of the "why." On the whole, very good.

[Wayne Craske · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting and entertaining book, and a good introduction to what the 'new monasticism' is, in terms of practice and how to go about setting up a community.
I found the initial chapters very interesting; considering how spirituality can influence the setting up of an group, how a particular model of the trinity scripted by the authors influences missiology, and considering value appropriate to such groups. The book's main value to me was to set apart a distinctly Christian community from the prevailing individualism of this day.
However, I found the latter chapters, ironically on community, to be less interesting: possibly because I'm not looking to start a community, just learn a bit about the movement as a whole, prior to investigating any code to me.
This is a handbook, not for someone wanting to be a new monastic or curious about what may be involved (though you do get some of that), but for someone wanting to start a group.
My only real complaint about the book is that the editing could be better, but I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning about the 'new monasticism', and certainly anyone thinking of starting a group.