Brew Evangelization: The Ongoing Renaissance of Monastic Beer | Robert Jared Staudt | CWR
As craft beer continues to rise in popularity in the United States, those responsible for creating western brewing practices are reclaiming their own
What is it about monks and beer? The two just go together. And as craft beer continues to rise in popularity in the United States, the ones responsible for creating western brewing practices are reclaiming their own.
This renewal is important for monastic life in providing another opportunity for monks to produce their own goods and to sustain their monasteries (in an age when many of their traditional farming practices are in decline; see an odd example in Mepkin Abbey’s controversy with PETA). St. Benedict affirms the necessity of the monk’s work: “When they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks” (Rule, ch. 48). Benedict also states that “the monastery should, if possible, be so constructed that within it all necessities, such as water, mill and garden are contained, and the various crafts are practiced” (ch. 66).
Although this self-sufficiency is meant, in part, to insulate the monks from the world, the crafts Benedict mentions are important to provide an opportunity for the monks to witness to society. St. Benedict foresees the contribution of the monk on society: “Whenever products of these artisans are sold, those responsible for the sale must not dare to practice any fraud. . . . The evil of avarice must have not part in establishing prices, which should, therefore, always be a little lower than people outside the monastery are able to set, so that in all things God may be glorified (ch. 57, quoting 1 Pt 4:11). Though speaking of prices in particular (although aren’t Trappist beers the most expensive?), Benedict wants the monks to glorify God when they enter into contact with the outside world through their products.
This combination of bolstering monastic life and creating a more dynamic engagement with our culture has the potential for what has been called a Brew Evangelization. The New Evangelization is a renewed proclamation of the treasury of the Christian faith to meet the needs and challenges of modern culture, especially for those Christians who have fallen away from the faith. The revival of brewing is also a small recovery of monastic tradition. Monastic brewing can be considered a part of a general need for Catholics to reassert our presence and influence in modern culture.
One brewery, which is certainly making a splash, is Birra Nursia, brewed by the Monastery of St. Benedict, an international community with many American monks, in Norcia Italy, St. Benedict’s hometown.
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