Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Monasticism

Seen by many as a contemporary classic, Janwillem van de Wetering's small and admirable memoir records the experiences of a young Dutch student--later a widely celebrated mystery writer--who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery. As Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, author of Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, has written, The Empty Mirror "should be very encouraging for other Western seekers."

It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with A Glimpse of Nothingness and Afterzen.

The Ancrene Wisse is a spiritual guide forfemale recluses, written at the request ofthree young anchoresses who were voluntarily enclosed for life within small cells. Withrare sensitivity and discernment, LindaGeorgianna analyzes this complex and skillfully composed treatise and examines its detailed portrayal of the rich, sometimes rewarding and sometimes frustrating innerlife of the solitary. Georgianna sees inthe author's practical and spiritual counsel, ranging from advice on owning a cat to theconfession of sin, an assumption that exterior and interior realities are...

It is often assumed that early Christian asceticism drew its followers completely away from worldly concerns into the realm of pure spirituality. But the life and thought of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (AD 328-73), shows just how worldly--and deeply political--ascetic theology could be. David Brakke examines this important church leader's efforts to reconcile asceticism's compelling intensity with the more conventional needs of the families and everyday believers on whom the Church relied for support and stability. Brakke describes how Athanasius joined with other fourth century...

The abbey of Bec was founded in the eleventh century and was one of the best-known and most influential monasteries in Normandy. Celebrated for its high standard of religious life and its intellectual activity, Bec also had an exceptional degree of institutional independence.

The three treatises collected and translated in this volume - Tractatus de professionibus monachorum ('The Profession of Monks'), De professionibus abbatum ('The Profession of Abbots'), and De libertate Beccensis monasterii ('On the Liberty of the Monastery of Bec') - are a striking...

Taking the Rule's balance of prayer, conversion of life, commitment, study, work relationships, and solitude, this practical spiritual guide explores the Rule's application for ordinary people living outside a monastery. A bestseller