When one is engaged in apologetics, it is often difficult to remain balanced with one’s theological opponents and opposing doctrinal perspectives, as it is easy to engage in an “either-or” mentality (either ‘x’ is 100% right or it is 100% wrong). However, there is no theological system that is 100% in error and all have some positives one can have some “holy envy” for.
RLDS author Roy A. Cheville captured this
attitude in his discussion of Monasticism. While noting the many problems
therein, he did note the following positives that came from the movement:
YET MONASTICISM WAS A
SAVING GRACE
The contributions of
monasticism to our total civilization may not be disregarded. The withdrawal of
monks enabled them to do something things for the longtime good of
civilization. During the Middle Ages the monks were the most skillful tillers
of the soil. They reclaimed lands. They also kept learning alive, the brand of
learning that fit in with their way of life, but it was learning. They maintained
schools for neighboring youth, about the only schools extant. They copied and
preserved manuscripts. They produced what little literature was produced.
Science, too, owes a
debt of gratitude particularly to the Benedictine order. The monasteries
protected and preserved the scientific knowledge of the times. Monks cared for
the poor, the suffering, and the outcast. They provided the hospitals and the
almshouses for the times. They made contact with the less civilized and drew
them into more civilized ways. In a sense separation from the world was
necessary to prevent losing identity in the rough times. The saving factor was
that they did not withdraw completely.
How much apartness
from the social order shall a religious group maintain? Every specialized group
has to be apart enough to maintain fitness. It needs to be selective with
respect to its personnel, regulating carefully who are eligible to have
membership. Yet it may not become inbred and narrow. It has to keep near enough
to society to enable it to bring its specialized contribution. Such is the case
of the symphony orchestra: it has to be selective and in a sense apart if it is
to bring music of merit to the largest society. Yet it may not play for its own
self-admiration. Is it not so with the church? One gets the impression that
during these centuries, from the fifth through the eighth the church was not
seeing this very clearly. The church at large was taking in new members right
and left and taking on the qualities of the times. On the other hand, many
persons in the church were withdrawing from society to save themselves. There
was general tendency to withdraw to the next life. (Roy A. Cheville, Did the
Light Go Out? A Study in the Process of Apostasy [Independence, Miss.:
Herald Publishing House/Department of Religious Education Reorganized Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1962], 150-51)
