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Orthodox Christians today have no lack of resources on monastic spirituality. And yet startlingly little has been done to critically engage the monastic tradition and adapt its ancient wisdom for the Orthodox faithful living in today's complex society. A Layman in the Desert aims to bridge this crucial gap. Working with the Conferences of St John Cassian, Opperwall constructs a kind of relationship handbook that shows us how the desert saints of old can help us build healthy, Christ-centered rel...

In the West, monastic ideals and scholastic pursuits are complementary; monks are popularly imagined copying classics, preserving learning through the Middle Ages, and establishing the first universities. But this dual identity is not without its contradictions. While monasticism emphasizes the virtues of poverty, chastity, and humility, the scholar, by contrast, requires expensive infrastructure--a library, a workplace, and the means of disseminating his work. In The Monk and the Book, Megan Ha...

The New Monastic Movement is a vibrant source of renewal for the church's life and mission. Many involved in this movement have quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer's conviction that the church must recover ancient spiritual disciplines if it is to effectively engage "the powers that be." "Melodies of a New Monasticism" adopts a musical metaphor of polyphony (the combination of two or more lines of music) to articulate the way that these early Christian virtues can be woven together in community. Creati...

For Peace and For Good is the history of the influential Anglican religious order, the Community of St Francis. Written with the full co-operation of the community, it sets their story against the wider backdrop of the lives of St Clare and St Francis, and the extraordinary surge of women's vocations to the religious life during the Catholic revival in the Church of England. It explores the lives of its founding members, its growth, the various branch houses, and the work and ministries in whic...

2021 Catholic Media Association Award first place award in backlist beauty Benedictine Daily Prayer provides an everyday edition of the Divine Office for people who desire to pray with the church in a simple manner. Based on fifteen hundred years of liturgical prayer within the Benedictine monastic tradition, Benedictine Daily Prayer offers a rich diet of classic office hymnody, psalmody, and Scripture. This fully revised edition includes: A new organization for the Office of Vigils, structured...

Saint Columban: His Life, Rule, and Legacy contains a new English translation of a commentary on the entire Rule of Columban. Columban was a sixth-century Irish monk who compiled a written rule of life for the three monasteries he founded in France: Anegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. This volume also includes the first English translation of the Regula cuiusdam Patris ad Virgines, or the Rule of Walbert, compiled by the seventh-century Count Walbert from various earlier rules designed for women, i...

In his introduction to this commentary on the Rule of Benedict, Abbot Georg Holzherr offers this analogy: "The Rule is comparable to an old heavy red wine that is enjoyed in small sips. . . . Head and heart, soul and mind should taste the words of the Rule, just as the eye enjoys the color of the wine while tongue, nose, and mouth take in the delightful gift of God each in their own way." In this new translation, based on the completely revised seventh edition of DieBenediktsregel, Holzherr ha...

Van de kartuizers zegt men dat zij een speciale en heilige relatie met boek en bibliotheek hebben. Volgens de master narrative onderscheiden de monniken van Bruno zich in de omvang van hun collecties, de zorg voor het boek en de spirituele representatie van beide. Dat iconische verhaal evoceert enkel de handschriftentijd. De ontdekking van de zeldzaam gedetailleerde en meticuleuze bibliotheekcatalogus (1742) van de Roermondse kartuis Bethlehem,...

Convents were an important part of medieval monastic life, but only now, with the upsurge of interest in women's history, are they beginning to receive the attention they deserve. The prevailing view has been that female monasticism was bankrupt, spiritually and socially as well as financially, but Professor Oliva shows the reality to have been otherwise. In her study of the eleven female monasteries in the diocese of Norwich between 1350-1540, the convents emerge as integral parts of the local...

In late 20th-century India, Christian-Hindu dialogue was forever transformed following the opening of Shantivanam, the first Christian ashram in the country. Mario I. Aguilar brings together the histories of the five pioneers of Christian-Hindu dialogue and their involvement with the ashram, to explore what they learnt and taught about communion between the two religions, and the wide ranging consequences of their work.The author expertly threads together the lives and friendships between these...

The Egyptian hermit Onuphrios was said to have lived entirely on dates, and perhaps the most famous of all hermits, John the Baptist, on locusts and wild honey. Was it really possible to sustain life on so little food? The history of monasticism is defined by the fierce and passionate abandonment of the ordinary comforts of life, the most striking being food and drink. A Hermit's Cookbook opens with stories and pen-portraits of the Desert Fathers of early Christianity and their followers who wer...

St. Elizabeth was a grand daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland, and the sister of the last Czarina Alexandra. Following the assassination of her husband, the Grand Duke Serge, in 1905, she became a nun. This short work sets forth in the Grand Duchess's own words her vision for monastic life in inner city early twentieth century Moscow. The style is very different from that of better-known monastic rules, as for example of St. Benedict. Through it the reader is offered a glimps...

The Gesta Normannorum ducum and Historia ecclesiastica of Orderic Vitalis are widely regarded as landmarks in the development of European historical writing and, as such, are essential sources of medieval history forstudents and scholars alike. The essays here consider Orderic's life and works, presenting new research on existing topics within Orderic studies and opening up new directions for future analysis and debate. They offer fresh interpretations from across the disciplines of medieval man...