Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Monasticism

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

The life and wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers is not only retained in historical volumes, but has been a constant presence throughout the development of the church. A formative influence since the time of the early Christians, this wisdom has the power to transform and nurture even today.

Using six fundamental aspects of desert monastic life as windows - The Cell, Patience, Praxis, Labor and Time, Solitude and Silence, and Humility - "Oasis of Wisdom" reveals the world that created the wisdom of early Christian monastic men and women. With this experiential approach to learning,...

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008

With infectious energy and a genuine gift for storytelling, Raymond A. Schroth recounts the history of Jesuits in the United States. The American Jesuits isn't simply a book for Catholics; it's for anyone who loves a well-told historical tale. For more than 450 years, Jesuit priests have traveled the globe out of a religious commitment to serve others. Their order, the Society of Jesus, is the largest religious order of men in the Catholic Church, with more than 20,000 members around the world and...

The Rule of St. Benedict continues to attract those who seek to live a deeper life, connected to Christ. But with such an ancient text, how can we authentically engage St. Benedict's Rule in a manner that is true to its profound insights--and to our own spiritual journey? Norvene Vest suggests that the answer lies in the way we read the Rule. "It shouldn't be studied like a book of regulations, or a school textbook. It should be read as lectio divina."

This profound yet very practical volume speaks to our urgent spiritual need. People yearn for an interior life deeply rooted in God,...

In fifty-four sermons following the liturgical year, Guerric reveals his deep familiarity with Scripture and his incisive mind, and tells succeeding generations al they know of his life and personality.

From the rich tradition of the Anglo-Saxon Church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, Benedicta Ward has selected prayers and passages for meditation from both Latin and Anglo-Saxon sources. The mixture of Latin and Celtic Christian cultures, distilled and appropriated by the Germanic Anglo-Saxons, produced a distinctive English spiritual tradition which embraced kings and princesses, abbesses and monks, cowherds and poets, soldiers and beggars, and birds and animals. It is possible through these passages to walk with these men and women as friends and see how their lives became...

Guerric of Igny (d. 1157) ranks with Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred of Rievaulx, and William of Saint Thierry as one of 'the four evangelists of Ca(R)teaux'. Yet he is known only through these Liturgical Sermons and a scattering of historical references.

Born probably at Tournai and educated in the humanities and theology at the noted cathedral school there, he visited the cistercian abbey of Clairvaux as a seasoned scholar, with no intention whatever of abandoning academic life for the cloister. Urged to stay by the always persuasive Abbot Bernard, however, 'without delay or looking...

The most scholarly of the remarkable nuns of Helfta composed these meditations, rituals, prayers, instructions on how to pray, chants, hymns, and litanies in the late thirteenth century. Her mastery of poetic prose attests to the level of women's education in the highly cultured abbey she entered as a child of five and never, so far as we know, left even once.

The twelfth-century abbot and contemplative known to history as The Mellifluous Teacher' wrote sermons for the entire Christmas liturgical cycle--from the first Sunday of Advent (four weeks before Christmas) to the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul (25 January). As he reflects on the wonder of the Incarnation, he reminds Christians still today that Christmas celebrates the awesome condescension of God-with-us, not a commercial carnival.