RLC Book Club sits with School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, edited by The Rutba House, and Dr. Jorden Sharick — discussing the various communal attempts to discern the marks of a new monasticism in the inner cities and forgotten landscapes of the Empire that is America.
Jorden Sharick studies race and evangelicalism in the US. He is currently a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, where he develops educational programming for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He also teaches in Stanford’s Department of Religious Studies. Jorden’s research focuses on the ways that history, power, and identity are transmitted through faith narratives. His recent projects draw on his fieldwork with leaders in the New Monastic movement to explore the stories that White evangelicals tell about racial justice. He is particularly interested in the ideas about God, Christ, and neighbor such stories imagine; the forms of self-reflection they enable; and the possibilities for justice they open and constrain. Jorden earned his PhD in religion from Harvard University and his MDiv from Harvard Divinity School. He has undergraduate degrees from the University of California, Riverside, and Moreno Valley Community College.
About the conversation
Twenty years after School(s) for Conversion was published, Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove revisit the book with Jorden Sharick, whose research follows the New Monastic movement. They remember how the 12 marks came together at the June 2004 gathering in Durham, North Carolina, and where the name “schools for conversion” came from; why the movement resonated so strongly in the years after 9/11 and the Iraq war; and the stories its communities have told about their neighbors and neighborhoods — and why those stories keep needing to be retold and revised.
Resources from the conversation
Get the book — School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, in the RLC Store
- The Red Letter Christians podcast — Creativity in the Margins: Shane and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove on two decades of new monasticism
- Britney Winn Lee’s blog — essays, liturgies, and art
- Britney Winn Lee’s books — britneywinnlee.com/books
- Jorden’s recommendation from Britney Winn Lee — Deconstructed Do-Gooder
- The National Peacemaker Association — become a member and take the pledge
- Death Penalty Action — execution alerts and vigils
- Vote Common Good — votecommongood.com
Gather with us
- Monthly Morning Prayer, October 1 at 9:00 AM ET, with friends from Vote Common Good — redletterchristians.org/events
- 3rd Annual Peacemaker Summit, Philadelphia, October 22–24 — details and registration
- RLC Book Club, October 28 — “What Grows in Weary Lands” with Tish Harrison Warren
- RLC Book Club in November, with Randy Woodley — How Western Christianity Got It Wrong, in the RLC Store