If the church is more than just a building, what could it mean to live in it—to inhabit it as a way of life? From their location in new monastic communities, Otto, Stock, and Wilson-Hartgrove ask what the church can learn from St. Benedict's vows of conversion, obedience, and stability about how to live as the people of God in the world. In story-telling and serious engagement with Scripture, old wisdom breathes life into a new monasticism. But, like all monastic wisdom, these reflections are not just for monks. They speak directly to the challenge of being the church in America today and the good news Christ offers for the whole world.

Author - Jon R. Stock
Author - Tim Otto
Author - Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Christine Pohl

Conversations between contemporary Christian communities and Benedictine monasticism are among the most surprising and promising in the church today. Given that the roots of monasticism and of contemporary Protestantism lie in different parts of the Christian tradition, mutual engagement between contemporary Christians and monastics has been rare. Recently, however, the scene has shifted, and Inhabiting the Church represents the new eagerness to learn the art of living together faithfully from experienced and ancient practitioners.
—Christine D. Pohl
from the foreword

"Protestants looking for a richer, thicker, more robust and enchanted way of living into the Christian story should not ignore this invitation into the rhythms and cadences of Benedictine spirituality. Indeed, only one kind of person should avoid this book: the reader who does not wish to be changed."
—Lauren F. Winner
author of Girl Meets God and Real Sex


"This book is a timely intersection of the new and ancient, breathing fresh life into an aging body. An older generation will ¹nd this book a long-awaited reassurance that the Spirit is still stirring radical nonconformity on the margins of empires. And the contemporary renewal of new monastics and prophetic tricksters will ¹nd a cure for the pretension and sloppiness that can so often taint our vision or tempt us to pretend that there is 'something new under the sun.' With both courage and humility, we will all ¹nd ourselves invited to inhabit the incarnational body that makes God visible to the world . . . May it inspire all of us to become the church that God longs for."
—Shane Claiborne
author of The Irresistible Revolution, founding member of The Simple Way, and recovering sinner

"These folks are bringing things both old and new out of the great Christian
storehouse! The New Monasticism is discovering what is always
rediscovered—and always bears great life for the Gospel."

—Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
Center for Action and Contemplation
Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Nonviolent Coming of God by James W. Douglass
Building Up the Church by Sam Ewell
To Baghdad and Beyond by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Inhabiting the Church by Jon R. Stock, Tim Otto, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
School(s) for Conversion
Community of the Transfiguration by Paul R. Dekar