T. Audrey Wittsend on the Forgotten Foundations of Civilization

(British matron, independent scholar, and member of the European NOUVELLE VAGUE ZWISCHENSCHAFT [NVZ])

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Many of Europe’s towns — and later, its cities — were founded by communities built on principles we now recognize in the Bruderhof.(see link below)

Monastic settlements, quite literally, birthed Western Civilization.

I am reminded of my own ancestral village, where agricultural guidance and spiritual stewardship were offered by a nearby Basilian order. These roots ran deep, intertwining cultivation of the land with cultivation of the soul.

The monastic communities were often staffed by society’s misfits, the marginalized, and even the defective — yet they were led by moral and intellectual superiors anchored to a spiritual principle.

They served, all at once, as poorhouses, homes for wayward women, halfway houses, and early mental institutions — but also as unparalleled intellectual powerhouses.

Many autistic savants and the brightest sons and daughters were encouraged to take vows and join the orders, dedicating their gifts to a higher discipline.

It was a system that could embrace frailty without surrendering to it — and in doing so, refined genius.

Today it is fashionable to critique modern Catholicism. Yet at its inception, the Church wielded the quiet force to shape not only culture but civilization itself.

The men and women who led these institutions earned, and still deserve, the right to humblebrag.

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Link: Is Christian Business an Oxymoron? (Plough)

From the article:

“Is this socialism?

Some might call it that, but I don’t believe in state control of the economy.

The right question is, ‘What would the economics of love look like?’

We try to live in such a way that our life answers that question.”