Like an underground river, the monastic tradition keeps on resurging in a host of unexpected times and places. Secular Monasticism, A Journey describes one of its most recent incarnations. The founders and members of the Lindisfarne Community share with us their bold attempt to be a secular monastic religious order open to the exigencies of the contemporary world. Age-old wisdom once again reveals its perennial relevance in helping us learn how to be followers of Christ in God's today. Brother John, Taizé In the first five pages, I thought of ten people I know who should read this book: young people, old people, all people tired of taken-for-granted spirituality. Devour this book. Let it help you dream up a way of joining or creating a micro-community of prayer and action that frees you to experiment in following the ways of Christ. That´s what these folks have done. This story helps us imagine ourselves out of the boxes and buildings Christianity has become. The Rev. Dr. Dori Baker, Scholar-in-Residence, The Fund for Theological Education Lindisfarne Community has graciously accepted God's call to dance with the radical (and sometimes wearying) changes of our time. Like the Celts, they find meaning in their ongoing spiritual evolution through poetry and story, through a willingness to navigate the waters of the soul while remaining fiercely loyal to the good earth that bore us and nurtures us. Like the Celts, this family of secular monastics hungers more for mystical union with the Divine Mystery than for any trappings of earthly renown or success. Carl McColman, author and blogger (from the foreword)

Like an underground river, the monastic tradition keeps on resurging in a host of unexpected times and places. Secular Monasticism, A Journey describes one of its most recent incarnations. The founders and members of the Lindisfarne Community share with us their bold attempt to be a secular monastic religious order open to the exigencies of the contemporary world. Age-old wisdom once again reveals its perennial relevance in helping us learn how to be followers of Christ in Gods today. Brother John, Taiz In the first five pages, I thought of ten people I know who should read this book: young people, old people, all people tired of taken-for-granted spirituality. Devour this book. Let it help you dream up a way of joining or creating a micro-community of prayer and action that frees you to experiment in following the ways of Christ. Thats what these folks have done. This story helps us imagine ourselves out of the boxes and buildings Christianity has become. The Rev. Dr. Dori Baker, Scholar-in-Residence, The Fund for Theological Education Lindisfarne Community has graciously accepted Gods call to dance with the radical (and sometimes wearying) changes of our time. Like the Celts, they find meaning in their ongoing spiritual evolution through poetry and story, through a willingness to navigate the waters of the soul while remaining fiercely loyal to the good earth that bore us and nurtures us. Like the Celts, this family of secular monastics hungers more for mystical union with the Divine Mystery than for any trappings of earthly renown or success. Carl McColman, author and blogger (from the foreword)

Hugh Lawrence's book ranges right across Europe and the Middle East as well as reconstructing the internal life, experience and aims of the medieval cloister, he also explores the many-sided relationships between the monasteries and the secular world from which they drew recruits. This Third Edition contains new thoughts and perspectives throughout.

For three decades, Monastic Practices has been a valued resource for English-speaking aspirants to monastic life. In this revised edition, updated and expanded, Charles Cummings, OCSO, explores the common practices of the monastic life in order to rediscover them as viable means of leading persons to a deeper encounter with God. How do monks and nuns occupy themselves throughout the day? Have they modernized their lifestyle or is it still cluttered with medieval customs? Could any of the monastic practices be of use to those outside the monastery? A certain wisdom is necessary to know how to use such practices and how to give oneself to them until they lead one to God. After long monastic experience, Cummings shows us how the ordinary things we do constitute our path to God. In the art of living life, he argues, we are always beginners, searching for God through our concrete circumstances and actions.

In this study of the manner in which medieval nuns lived, Penelope Johnson challenges facile stereotypes of nuns living passively under monastic rule, finding instead that collectively they were empowered by their communal privileges and status to think and act without many of the subordinate attitudes of secular women. In the words of one abbess comparing nuns with monks, they were "different as to their sex but equal in their monastic profession." Johnson researched more than two dozen nunneries in northern France from the eleventh century through the thirteenth century, balancing a qualitative reading of medieval monastic documents with a quantitative analysis of a lengthy thirteenth-century visitation record which allows an important comparison of nuns and monks. A fascinating look at the world of medieval spirituality, this work enriches our understanding of women's role in premodern Europe and in church history.

The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism addresses, for the first time in one volume, multiple strands of Christian monastic practice. Forty-four essays consider historical and thematic aspects of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican traditions, as well as contemporary 'new monasticism'.

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.