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Greg Peters

Dr. Greg Peters is a native Virginian who loves traveling (especially to monasteries in Europe) and reading. He enjoys the fiction of Chinua Achebe, Georges Bernanos and the nineteenth century Russian novelists, and the poetry of George Herbert, John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He is an ordained priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church, serving as vicar at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, La Mirada. Peters is also a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund's College (University of Cambridge) and a research professor at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin.

Affiliation Faculty
Position Professor, Torrey Honors College

Author's books

companion-priesthood
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A Companion to Priesthood and Holy Orders in the Middle Ages

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In A Companion to Priesthood and Holy Orders in the Middle Ages, a select group of scholars explain the rise and function of priests and deacons in the Middle Ages. Though priests were sometimes viewed through the lens of function, the medieval priesthood was also defined ontologically-those marked by God who performed the sacraments and confected the Eucharist. While their role grew in importance, medieval priests continued to fulfil the role of preacher, confessor and provider of pastoral care. As the concept of ordination changed theologically the practices and status of bishops, priests and deacons continued to be refined, with many of these medieval discussions continuing to the present day.

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reading-christian-classics3
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Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals

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Ever since Richard Foster wrote Celebration of Discipline in 1978, evangelicals have hungered for a deeper and more historic spirituality. Many have come to discover the wealth of spiritual insight available in the Desert Fathers, the medieval mystics, German Pietism and other traditions. While these classics have been a source of life-changing renewal for many, still others are wary of these texts and the foreign theological traditions from which they come. The essays in this volume provide a guide for evangelicals to read the Christian spiritual classics.

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reforming-the-monastery
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Reforming the Monastery: Protestant Theologies of the Religious Life

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Richard Froude wrote in 1833 to John Henry Newman that “the present state of things in England makes an opening for reviving the monastic system.” Seemingly original words at the time. Yet, monasticism is one of the most ancient and enduring institutions of the Christian church, reaching its zenith during the High Middle Ages. This volume is an examination of Protestant theologies of monasticism, examining the thought of select Protestant authors who have argued for the existence of monasticism in the Reformation churches, beginning with Martin Luther and John Calvin and including Conrad Hoyer, John Henry Newman, Karl Barth, and Donald Bloesch. Looking at the contemporary church, the current movement known as the “New Monasticism” is discussed and evaluated in light of Protestant monastic history.

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monkhood-all-believers
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The Monkhood of All Believers: The Monastic Foundation of Christian Spirituality

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Although the institution of monasticism has existed in the Christian church since the first century, it is often misunderstood. Greg Peters, an expert in monastic studies, reintroduces historic monasticism to the Protestant church, articulating a monastic spirituality for all believers. Peters argues that all monks are Christians, but all Christians are also monks. To be a monk, one must first and foremost be singled-minded toward God. This book presents a theology of monasticism for the whole church, offering a vision of Christian spirituality that brings together important elements of history and practice. The author connects monasticism to movements in contemporary spiritual formation, helping readers understand how monastic practices can be a resource for exploring a robust spiritual life.

Editorial Reviews

Without rejecting institutionalized monasticism, Greg Peters succeeds in demonstrating that we are all monks in the sense that our baptismal vows obligate us to cultivate a single-minded interior devotion to God and to seek an asceticism of balance and moderation in everyday life. One could call it a revisionist history of monasticism that commends it to Protestants–especially to those heirs of Luther who have rejected monasticism. But along the way what makes Greg’s book a feast is all the wisdom he has unearthed from the entire history and wide breadth of the Christian church.
Dennis Okholm, Azusa Pacific University; author of Dangerous Passions, Deadly Sins: Learning from the Psychology of Ancient Monks

This reader-friendly book is an exploration of the meaning of monkhood from various early and medieval sources. Peters’s work, which makes room for Protestants to live out an interior monasticism of the heart, adds an important theological dimension to the explorations of monastic spirituality today across the Christian and Orthodox spectrum.
Mary Forman, OSB, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, Minnesota; prioress of the Monastery of St. Gertrude, Cottonwood, Idaho

A winsome recovery of monasticism, The Monkhood of All Believers reaches across theological traditions as it presents an irenic, ecumenical theology of monasticism. It is baptism, Peters explains, that turns us into monks. This is monastic spirituality of the most compelling sort.
Hans Boersma, Regent College

Peters’s masterly book offers a long-awaited historical and theological evaluation of the baptismal foundation of monastic vocation and conversely of the monastic nature of Christian life. Monks remind us that growth in Christian life is a process of inner unification and of ever-greater humanity. Monasticism is not a luxury for a few but a gift available for all who have been baptized.
Luigi Gioia, Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge

In order to be inspired by monasticism, most Christians, especially in the Protestant traditions, need to know much more about its true history and spirituality and also about their own call to holiness. Peters has provided a scholarly yet accessible exploration of the vocation of all believers.
Judith Sutera, OSB, monastery of Mount Saint Scholastica, Atchison, Kansas

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story-of-monasticism
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The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality

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Some evangelicals perceive monasticism as a relic from the past, a retreat from the world, or a shirking of the call to the Great Commission. At the same time, contemporary evangelical spirituality desires historical Christian manifestations of the faith. In this accessibly written book Greg Peters, an expert in monastic studies who is a Benedictine oblate and spiritual director, offers a historical survey of monasticism from its origins to current manifestations. Peters recovers the riches of the monastic tradition for contemporary spiritual formation and devotional practice, explaining why the monastic impulse is a valid and necessary manifestation of the Christian faith for today’s church.

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thomas-a-kempis
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Thomas a Kempis: His Life and Spiritual Theology

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Given that Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ is one of the most frequently translated and read late medieval books of devotion, it is surprising that there are few studies of the work in English. This book fills the void by offering an explication of Thomas’ spiritual theology in the Imitation, while situating him in his late medieval monastic context and as someone familiar with and influenced by the Modern Devotion and the Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life. Thomas’ emphasis on grace and his dependence on Augustine of Hippo show, to some extent, that he anticipated theological developments of the Protestant Reformation.

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