Paula Huston has been an Oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage since 1999, after encountering the monastery during a period of acute spiritual crisis and having her life’s direction turned in an entirely new direction. She is the author of The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life, By Way of Grace: Moving From Faithfulness to Holiness, Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving, and Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit, as well as works of fiction. Her spiritual writing regularly appears in such journals as The Christian Century, America, Image, and Geez, in addition to websites like www.explorefaith.com, www.catholicexchange.com, and www.godspy.com. She has four grown children plus small grandchildren, and lives with her husband in rural Arroyo Grande, California (full bio here).This conversation is largely a response to my previous interview with Bruno Barnhart. Taking a decidedly different tack than Bruno’s vision of a new role for monasteries and the emergence of small, local experiments budding into new forms of monastic or quasi-monastic communities, Paula strongly defends the enduring validity and necessity of preserving ancient forms. In contrast to Bruno’s optimistic assessment of human creativity as a kind of revolutionary force unleashed by the Christ event, Paula sees, particularly in the Romantic Movement and the social upheavals of the mid-to-late 20th century, an unrestrained, destabilizing approach to both art and life that tends toward dissipation and broken relationships. Whereas Bruno suggests that the containment of the monastery often best serves as a period of training for a more creative kind of life, Paula sees the limitations imposed by a highly structured, disciplined life as the context wherein true creativity flowers. Not surprisingly, where Bruno sees the 1960s, and Vatican II in particular, as a time of grace, Paula paints a picture of the social fabric coming undone due to an exaggerated ideal of the good life as one without constraint or limitation. Paula also discusses her experience of the Oblate community of which she is a part, of how they’re held together in a bond akin to family with the monastery firmly at the center, and the liberating effects of learning to align their lives with the monastic values instilled by their relationship with the monastery. As regards the vocational crisis facing so many religious communities in the Christian West, Paula shares her belief that this is primarily a clash of cultures between modern and ancient prerogatives, a historical lull that actually gives monasteries greater opportunity to witness to something truly countercultural.
While these contrasting views might be caricatured as “liberal” and “conservative” (which I believe is an unfair simplification), I also see something else at play. The context for both interviews revolves around Bruno’s and Paula’s responses to the state of monastic institutions in the West, and New Camaldoli Hermitage in particular. As such, they appear to inhabit virtually opposite poles. I believe this kind of stalemate permeates much of the discourse around how to address what many see as a vocational crisis among monasteries today. Are changing cultural circumstances calling forth new forms of religious life? Do monastic institutions need to hold their ground as a countercultural witness and weather the crisis? Obviously, these are complex questions with no easy answers. What I find intriguing, however, is how different the context is among new evangelical communities that I’ve encountered. Because these communities have as yet no formal institutions of religious life of their own, there’s a spirit of freedom and spontaneity relatively unhindered by the kind of polarities one finds in Catholic circles. In other words, they’re able to draw from scripture, tradition, and human experience without bumping into overarching, longstanding structures, and hence do not suffer the kind of inertia that results from polarized reactions toward such structures. In fact, I would say that because of this freedom, the kind of small, local experiments Bruno foresees are actually happening now, though more often than not outside Catholicism.
My growing hope? That evangelical “new monastics” and Catholic monasteries forge stronger bonds, which would allow “new monastics” to establish deeper roots in history and tradition, and the “old monastics” to benefit from an infusion of youthful openness, enthusiasm, and spontaneity—the “many possibilities” of the beginner’s mind. This development leans more toward the less contentious idea put forward by Mary Forman, that we are entering a period of expanding diversity not unlike that which emerged in similar periods of cultural upheaval, a diversity fostered today by ecumenical dialogue and new relationships between monastics and laity.
Into/Outro music “He Prabhu” by Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam., and John Pennington, from Compassionate and Wise.
Dear Julian,
I am finding these contrasting “liberal and conservative” approaches to monastic life and community quite interesting, and your analysis and systhesis quite penetrating and insightful Thank you! Sending love and best wishes, Laurene
Thanks, Laurene. I’m off to the Dharma Zen Center tonight (Kwan Um School) and the L.A. Ecovillage Saturday. Stay tuned!
I love the picture of Paula (in her home?) – did you take it? I enjoyed her reflections on what oblate community life is like. I think it may be interesting to hear from more oblates. Would many of them, like her, have this picture of the monastery as something to be defended? Or would they be aware of the other forms emerging – or if they are aware, would they necessarily be involved? Or are those kinds of people (oblates, new monastics) entirely different sorts? The interview raised questions for me: thanks, Julian! It’s always fun to hear your voice – I still have a few interviews to catch up on…we were just talking in RB this week about vocations on the rise in communities that are fairly conservative – a women’s community in Kansas City, for instance, that still wears the habit. Are the exterior forms what people do want when entering – or are those the kinds that won’t stay in the long run? It’s interesting all right.
Yes, a whole lot of questions. A Benedictine Sister affirmed a suspicion of mine this morning that I think is reflected in this interview: Oblates often take a more conservative view of existing forms than monks or nuns themselves. I think part of the reason for that is also reflected in the interview: the Oblates satellite around a certain status quo that’s dear to them and animates their own lives.They also don’t have to deal directly with the daily ins and outs within the cloister and hence can entertain certain romantic notions of the life that get more thoroughly punctured for those who live it (conversely, I’ve found that many Oblates are extremely astute observers who often see more than the monks do!). That said, I don’t believe that Paula’s views are representative of Camaldolese Oblates as a whole, nor is Bruno necessarily representative of the monastic community as a whole. But each offers a thoughtful perspective from a place of deep commitment and care.
I was talking to a mentor of mine recently about this phenomenon of more “traditional” monasteries attracting vocations these days. This looking to revive the past, if you will, is a curious contrast to the kind of creative, responsive, open-minded attitudes I find among many of their evangelical counterparts (who are nonetheless intent upon reengaging ancient Christian tradition). At any rate, regardless of the factors involved, my mentor characterized this contrast as indicative of a kind of wintertime, or dying back, for Catholic communities (who in any case don’t seem to be attracting energetic young people with “beginner’s minds,” open to possibility), while evangelical communities are in their first spring, so to speak, bustling with life, energy, and a sense of possibility. That’s creating too clean a dichotomy, of course, but something of this way of thinking has obviously found its way into my own perceptions and analysis.