1. The mixed life, which integrates monastic practices without being formally recognised as monastic (though this is a distinction rejected by Thomas Merton). Example: Jesus himself.
  2. Family monasticism, in which a monastic community also contains married people and families. Example: the Cistercian abbey of Loccum after its adoption of Protestantism in 1593.
  3. Interior monasticism, in which a cloister is constructed in one’s soul. Example: the 14th century text, Abbey of the Holy Ghost.
  4. Making a commitment before God only, with no formal recognition. Example: the group of young women living under the Nazi regime who promised fidelity to Jesus on Easter of 1942.
  5. Monastic communities that place an emphasis on serving others in the world. Examples: Bonhoeffer’s vision, under the Nazi regime, of a community lived according to the Sermon on the Mount; and more recently, New Monasticism.
  6. “Oblate” and “associate” programs, in which people are formally associated with a monastery and adopt some practices while continuing to live in the world.

Further reading: Peters, Greg 2015, The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality