Why Abbeys? The Mission of Icolmkill House: Part III – The Abbey is the Solution for Today

“Whilst culture was shrinking in the West, each of these Abbey centers of faith and civilization was lighting a torch . . . a torch whose flame would soon be carried everywhere.”
M. Daniel-Rops, 1959

“These monks taught scripture as well as the arts, languages, literature, history, the sciences and the classical writers. They were instructors in every known branch of science and learning of the time, possessors and bearers of a higher culture than was at that period to be found anywhere in the West, and can surely claim to have been pioneers – to have laid the corner-stone of Western Civilization.”

Zimmer, 1969

In our recent series of Pax Futura blog posts for family leaders we have detailed the following:  

Most Families of means desire to create legacies lasting generations;

Family wealth is downstream from Christianity, which together with Republican Democracy and Capitalism form the distinct ecosystem for the creation and retention of wealth unique in all the world;

Families have always faced significant challenges to the successful transition of wealth to the next generation; and,

Significant recent challenges confront Christian Family plans for successfully transferring wealth and establishing legacies that the rational family leader must address.

Christian Family Abbeys are an historically proven solution to current problems which serves our long-term goals for our families, faith, community, culture and our future.  Christian Family Abbeys are the genesis, incubator and catalyst of the single ecosystem essential for the creation and retention of wealth.  As carried forward and refined in America, Christianity, Republican Democracy and Capitalism created the greatest rise in the human condition in history, what we call the Earthly Trinity or, the Light and Envy of the World.

The original foundation of Christianity is the family, exemplified by the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; by the biological family born of the union of man and woman; and the church family of the daughters and sons of God, brothers and sisters together in Christ.  Of course, the family of the Gaels was the Clan and the Clans founded, underwrote and directed the Abbeys with lay Abbott and Abbess clan members.  Both the Clans and the Abbeys organized themselves as communities of equals, associated with equal families and associated equal Abbeys.

The hallmark of the Christian Family Abbeys is four-fold. First, the balance of living and learning.  Here we found the cultivation of Holy living in harmony with the cultivation of the mind.  The monks and nuns were dedicated to nourishment of body, mind and soul with committed outreach to and spiritual and practical connection with others.  Improving lives by their spiritual, practical and artistic devotion and charity, yet also by their dedication to progress and improvement in every field of activity and knowledge.  

The Second iconic characteristic of the Christian Family Abbey is its incomparable contribution to the raising of civilization and the expansion of God’s Kingdom on Earth.  By their example of humility, piety, diligence, frugality, learning, innovation, service and charity the monks and nuns of the Abbeys inspired individuals to change their hearts and care for their souls, remaking their characters and creating a Christian civilization that endured in the West.  The Abbeys proved by example that cultural prosperity was dramatically advance through  a new progress in peace compared to the old plunder of war.

The Third mark of the Christian Family Abbey is the longevity of its influence.  In just two examples, Iona Abbey was established in 563, birthed the unparalleled Gaelic Christian missionary movement and survived the attacks of the Vikings in 795, 802, 806 and 825 – the 806 raid saw the Norse massacre 68 monks.  The burial site of Kings for centuries, the Abbey was converted to Benedictine rule in 1200 and remained a celebrated center of faith, worship, learning and culture until the Reformation in 1560.  The genesis of St. Gall Abbey occurred in 613 when Gallen settled his hermitage in the boggy valley.  His Christian service to the community saw him venerated and the Abbey in his name founded by Charles Martel in 719.  The Abbey flourished in its Golden Age from 854 until 1207.  During this time the Abbey was the center of culture, with the famous St. Gall Plan created as the model for Abbeys and its library holding innumerable treasures of the ancients.  Many such treasures were discovered by manuscript hunter Poggio Bracciolini in 1415, a recovery of the classics that inspired the humanism igniting the Renaissance and the Reformation.  The prominence and wealth of the Abbey continually attracted those seeking to command its preeminence to benefit both church and state, its ultimate dissolution came in 1805.

The Fourth distinguishing nature of Christian Family Abbeys is realized by their founding, capitalization, direction and habits of life.  Specifically, Abbeys were founded by Families, not the State or Church.  They were self-reliant and self-sufficient, though additionally aided and expanded by donations and gifts of land, herds and treasures.  The Abbeys were directed by family members, Abbotts and Abbesses, graduates of the schools and mentoring programs.  These authorities were elected according to their learning, Christian character and leadership abilities in administration by consent of the governed, independent from Church or State in nascent republican form.  The Abbey was the prototype for organizing faith based communities of people as islands of knowledge, reason, competence and culture for sojourning out to civilize an illiterate, pagan and barbarian world.

Regarding Legacy, what do leaders of Christian families seek today?  

Cohesion around and continuation of their family’s meaning, purpose and values;

Celebration of God, honoring with lifestyle and legacy, through thoughts, words and deeds;

Continuity for our Civilization: Christianity, Constitutional Republic and Capitalism;

Financial security and opportunistic investment capital extended from one generation to the next;

Dedication to learning, improvement, innovation and advance, inside the family and out;

Inclusion, an incubator and accelerator for the spiritual, practical and artistic interests of every family member;

Service and charity to the wider world through programs, ministries and missions; and,

A Whole-Family approach to building God’s kingdom.

Such a list of objectives is no different from that of Gaelic Clan chiefs that founded the incomparable Christian Abbeys and populated them with their sons and daughters to the enduring blessing of the world.  

The intentional commitment of our forefathers in the faith converted the West to Christianity and established our incomparable Western Christian Civilization – our heritage that we depended upon to create our wealth, and is necessary to sustain our wealth.  Our culture and civilization are fragile and could all disappear within the next generation unless intentional steps are taken again.  Real risks to our faith and freedoms abound and increase daily.

Your Family’s cohesion and wealth could fall victim;

Our Christian religion could lapse into obscurity;

American Constitutional Democracy could degrade into Socialism;

Free Market Capitalism could regress into a completely managed economy stifling all opportunity; and,

Equal protection under the Rule of Law might become only a memory.

In short, everything we depended upon to create our way of life and everything necessary to sustain our way of life and Family wealth is at risk.  

Does this sound too alarmist?  In the event you haven’t seen to connect the dots  . . . things are happening TODAY in America that would never have been possible even 10 years ago . . .

Far from being alarmist, what we are observing is the accelerating coming apart of the American culture at the core of our Western Christian Civilization.  With the dissolution go the political, economic and religious freedoms and traditions of Christianity, Republican Democracy and Capitalism necessary for our cherished way of life.  Based on our reading of history, absent an expanding commitment to Christian living, our civilization will dissolve and our future will fail drastically to live up to our gloried past.

Virtually every family leader is mindful of the events of the day yet,  to quote Churchill, are,

“Decided to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity and all powerful to be impotent.”

Why are typically decisive titans so timid?

There are psychological and sociological reasons that explain part of this.  In human psychology, Cognitive Dissonance is the term employed when new information contradicts accepted ideas, values and belief – one’s established worldview.  A person habituated to, comforted by and reliant upon social stability in America and the West will react to radical change with discomfort.  Such anxiety is necessarily relieved by either expanding their cognition (or rationalizing what they can be comfortable with), or dismissing or ignoring the new information causing the dissonance with the accepted cognition- Confirmation Bias.

In sociology, a similar reaction to threatened change is called Normalcy Bias – one doesn’t appreciate anyone else undermining their commitment to feeling normal.  People invested in a given perspective, when confronted with contradictory evidence, can expend great effort to justify retaining the old perspective.  Studies have been particularly successful in identifying Normalcy Bias in people witnessing and at risk of natural disasters.

It may be the case that the speed, breadth and depth of the changes occurring in America today are too much to process for many family leaders.  However, once you realize that all our Western Civilization is downstream from Christianity, responsible for our past successes and necessary for the future survival of our families and our culture, the determination to act becomes vital and the question demands, “What is to be done?”

We submit that it was Christian Family Abbeys that saved Western Civilization fifteen centuries ago, and it is Christian Family Abbeys that will save us today.  Abbeys are the vessel within which you can command your time, talent and treasures in service of your family, faith, communities, culture and our future.   

Christian Family Abbeys can be self-reliant, self-sufficient and decentralized from the mass market activities that benefit only the provider.  Rather, they can be oriented locally and discreetly to serve you, your family and your purpose.  Such approaches are practical from the first world through the third world and scalable through association with like minded others.

The Gaelic Family Abbeys survived independently from clutching kings, bellicose bishops, natural disasters, viking raids, religious revolutions and political, economic and cultural upheaval for near a millennia to guide the foundation and flourishing of our Western Christian Civilization.  We remember that Jesus came to rescue humanity, and the Christian Family Abbeys rescued our civilization fifteen centuries ago.  Christian Family Abbeys can rescue us again.

Scotus

photo credit:  H. Maliphant, View of Dunfermline Abbey and Town from the River, 1811, The National Galleries of Scotland