Tag: monasticism

Here is the link to article XXVII: https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-monastic-vows/

This is a fairly long one, and it may not seem particularly relevant to our own time. In our culture today, we don’t see many people clamoring to take monastic vows. Yet in the middle ages, the monastic life was often upheld as the ideal life. Members of a religious order typically took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

The problem was, many people were pressured into taking such vows at a young age, before they had life experience to make an informed decision. Further, for at least some, joining a monastery was seen as a way to win God’s favor and obtain salvation.

The argument in this article is that a vow taken for the purpose of earning God’s favor is a wicked vow, and those who have taken such vows should be released.

The monastic life, per se, is not a bad thing. However, it is wrong to think that we can merit God’s favor through our own works. It is also wrong to think that monks are more acceptable to God than any other Christian and their vocation.