Soul Sisters: Unique Partners in the New Monastic Recovery of Ancient Christian Forms of Life

As Christians have explored the Christian life through history, they have found themselves recovering not only ancient spiritual practices, but also practice-encompassing forms of life. One ancient set of forms is known as “monasticism”, an arrangement by which some choose to live an alternative lifestyle for the sake of following the gospel of Jesus. While the recovery of monastic life has recently received attention by Protestants, there is a need for helpful models of interpreting the traditional into appropriate expressions today. This paper suggests that the history of American women religious displays just this kind of interpretation: a “life-hermeneutic” which looks back, around, and forward. In this paper, I will present a portrait of American women religious, particularly with regard to two critical periods of life-hermeneutic challenge: the 19th century and the decades following the Second Vatican Council. I describe their life-hermeneutical “looks” in each situation. Finally, I will consider how Protestants today might recover the heritage of women’s circles in contemporary new monastic experiments.