Of monks and men

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 25th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Next up: Of monks and men.

Over the last five years the number of monks in a southeastern Finland monastery have nearly doubled. It’s just one example of a growing trend…young men around the world are moving towards more conservative expressions of Christianity. WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy reports.

AUDIO: [SHEEP BELLS]

BROTHER STEFANOS: I was a student at the time before I came here.

MARY MUNCY: 23-year-old Brother Stefanos entered the Valamo Orthodox Monastery two years ago. He began as a novice. But is on his way to becoming a full-fledged monk.

STEFANOS: I was worried about the rising costs, things like that.

Orthodox men without minor children—or other binding commitments—can join the monastery. A new convert goes through a year of living as a novice before the other monks vote on whether he can join the monastery.

Once he joins, there are many steps in the process before fully embracing monastic vows. Eventually, he may decide to commit to the monastery for the rest of his life—promising to live in “celibacy, obedience, and without personal ownership.”

Stefanos grew up in an Eastern Orthodox family and says he ‘just knew’ he would someday become a monk.

STEFANOS: I was also fairly stressed about my future and like trying to actually find if this, what I'm studying, is good and if I actually want this life and also the social dynamics of just the living in general can be sometimes quite overwhelming, as we all know.

AUDIO: [HERDING SHEEP]

Now, he spends his days praying, studying, and caring for the monastery’s sheep—amongst other things. Many other young men have joined in the last decade.

BROTHER RAPHAEL: In earlier times there was no internet and Orthodox Church was kind of this mystical, far away, church in the East.

Brother Raphael is almost 30. He showed up six years ago. He decided to join the monastery while studying for a philosophy degree.

RAPHAEL: I did imagine myself becoming a family man and starting a career and all of this once. I didn't feel comfortable with that kind of idea for myself, even though I thought I would enjoy it, but I decided otherwise.

Raphael and Stefanos are part of a growing trend: young men drawn to orthodoxy.

DANIEL DARLING: Among men online, the rise of sort of discipline culture and workout culture might track with this.

Daniel Darling is the director of cultural engagement at Southwestern Seminary. He’s also a WORLD Opinions contributor.

DARLING: Men are saying, Okay, we've got our physical discipline down pat. We have influencers. We watch, we have a routine. But what does spiritual discipline look like?

Darling believes the push to the monastic lifestyle might be a swing towards strict spiritualism after coming to the end of hedonism.

Reformer Martin Luther criticized monasticism saying it had no basis in scripture. He knew first hand that it could lead to a works-based faith. Others say that while it’s wise to spend time in solitude and silence with God, that seclusion ought to be for the purpose of renewed energy to go into the world.

AUDIO: [LIFE AROUND THE MONASTERY]

But a simple life of devotion, ritual, and an acute sense of transcendence is what drew Brother Raphael to the monastery.

BROTHER RAPHAEL: Orthodoxy in some sense is very patriarchal, conservative and Orthodoxy even considers tradition with a large 'T', so tradition is very important.

Raphael also thinks men in particular are being drawn to it because they’re more conservative than women. And at least in America, statistically, that’s true. And not just religiously, but politically. According to the Pew Research Center, men are more likely to associate with the Republican party, while women are more likely to associate with Democrats.

Dan Darling says that divide is being reinforced by where men and women get their news.

DARLING: I think people are reaching the end of themselves, and they're being influenced, I would say, by some other folks, like your Jordan Petersons and others, who are not believers, but are hinting at the fact that modernity and all this stuff has been unsatisfying, and there's got to be something more.

Men gravitating towards more conservative political parties has long been a trend in American politics, but new data suggests it’s also true of faith.

According to the American Survey Center, 54 percent of Gen Z who have left their formative religion are women. It’s the first time the study has found that more young women are leaving the church than men.

DARLING: a lot of young men have grown up in this country without any meaning and purpose, because maybe they've grown up in a broken home, or home without a father who was present, who could show them what it looks like to be a man, what it looks looks like to conduct yourselves in that way. And so they find meaning and purpose in the church.

Darling says the church is one of the few places celebrating healthy masculinity—where it’s taught that God made men and women and together they create a whole.

DARLING: It's a good thing to see men coming to church.

He says the church has made a concerted effort to reach men in recent years, and he hopes that continues. But…

DARLING: We don't want to do that at the expense of losing women.

And on that front, the data isn’t very encouraging. Additionally, Gen Z is still leaving religion in higher numbers than any previous generation—continuing a long standing trend.

But back at the monastery the head monk Michael says since the pandemic, he’s getting more emails than ever from young people wanting to join the monastery— especially from men. And he sees that as an encouraging trend.

ARCHIMANDRITE MICHAEL: I think it's maybe quite uncertain times that we are living in and people want to have something steady, something to stand on.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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