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Where charity and love are: How does the counterculturality of the new monastic movement shift

Publication at Faculty of Social Sciences |
2023

Abstract

Church of the Sojourners from San Francisco represents an example of the American new monastic community. It started as a community of people unsatisfied with American society's injustices and inequalities and with their churches' social conservatism.

The double counterculturality developed over the forty years of the community's existence into the creative resistance to some features of the mainstream society as neoliberal capitalism and individualism and into the emphasis on living well the community. Increasing numbers of people with mental health problems are coming to the community, which leads to the reflection of the interdependence of the members.

Most of the communal energy is now directed to living faithfully as interdependent parts of the church body. The culture of deep interest in the other balances the creative resistance.