Sacred space reborn: Protestant monasteries in twentieth century Europe

Abstract

After the Reformation, monasteries and sacred space disappeared from Protestant Europe and did not reemerge until the twentieth century. This chapter explores the theologies and social movements behind both the disappearance and reemergence of Protestant monasteries and Protestant sacred space. Monasteries disappeared because the theology that supported them was deemed œworks righteousness by Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. Christians entered monasteries believing them to be a fast track to heaven. The Reformers argued that the path to righteousness was faith, not works. Since believers could experience faith just as easily outside the monastery as within, monasteries were dissolved. The understanding of the Eucharist also changed, transforming Protestants’ experience of the church sanctuary. Rather than being seen as a holy place for the body and blood of Christ, the building became a meeting place. In the mid-nineteenth century, Protestantism experienced a œcrise de foi. Secularization was emptying the pews. As Kierkegaard and later Barth pondered the problem, charismatic groups arose to inspire a new kind of Protestantism that included monasteries. These groups played a role in bringing monasteries back to Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and France: deaconesses, Moravians, ecumenism, Scouting, the Oxford Group, and the high church movement. Over 40 monastic communities emerged in Protestant Europe by the second half of the twentieth century, the most famous of them being Taizé. By analyzing the ways Taiz both is and is not representative of the Protestant monastic movement and the reemergence of sacred space in Protestant Europe, Protestant monasteries are illuminated. Creation stories, community organization, liturgy, architecture and relationships with Catholicism are explored. Today, while there are relatively few Protestants in monasteries, their impact on Protestantism is profound.