The authoritative essays, with 350 entries and 50 illustrations, written by top Merton Scholars, ar arranged alphabetically and cover the following themes: -Merton's Books, --Essential themes that emerge from his books, --persons who were important in his life, --the places where he lived out his life. An indispensable guide to the life and thought of one of the spiritual giants of the twentieth century.

In "The Warriors and the Bankers", the research and writing team of Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe bring their combined experiences to bear on the question asked for hundreds of years, What became of the Knights Templar? Arrested in 1307, dissolved in 1312 and executed by 1314, the Templars have been the subject of many theories concerning their possible survival. This book examines these theories against new evidence and information. Additionally the authors put forth, for the first time, a completely new theory that has caught the ears, eyes and attention of many readers. The ultimate conclusion is that the Templars did survive, virtually intact and that in a very direct sense, they may still be one of the most potent forces at work in the world at the start of the new Millennium. "The Warriors and the Bankers" is eminently readable and is intended for both the serious student of Templarism or simply the interested observer.

The murder in 2005 of an American nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, focused the world's attention on the plight of poor farmers in the Brazilian Amazon and their struggles against rapacious developers. Sister Dorothy had worked in Brazil for forty years. From a conventional nun in the pre-Vatican II era, she had developed a keen social conscience and, increasingly, a deep, mystical commitment to the integrity of Creation. These ideals combined in her advocacy for the rights of the poor and her defense of the imperiled rain forest. They also earned her the enmity of land-grabbing ranchers who repeatedly threatened her. "All I ask," she wrote, "is God's grace to help me keep on this journey, fighting for the people to have a more egalitarian life and that we learn to respect God's creation."

Published in book form for the first time, Thomas Merton's

Discussion around the bestseller The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher has led many people to want to know more about Benedictine principles.??????? Listen, my child. I want you to put the ear of your heart to the solid ground of the master's wisdom (what I received, I'm passing on to you). It's advice from a spiritual father who loves you-the sort of counsel you receive by letting it shape your whole life. Listening is hard work, but it's the essential work. It opens us up to the God we've rejected by only listening to ourselves. If you're ready to give up your addiction to yourself, this message is for you: to listen is to equip yourself with the best resources available to serve the real Master, Christ the Lord. So begins the famous opening paragraph of Benedict's Rule in Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's vital, new, contemporary paraphrase. The entire text of the Rule is here plus a lengthy introduction from Jonathan, and detailed explanatory notes throughout that explain difficult passages. The result is a classic re-introduced that will enliven any 21st century expression of religious community.

The records of the office-holding monks of Westminster Abbey are of major importance not only for life in the cloister, but also for that of society outside. Approx. 4000 items. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: A masterpiece of scholarly research and writing... This superb collection of financial records is now rendered easily accessible to scholars by means of a practical guide. May [B.H.]'s achievement prove tobe the long awaited model that future scholars will follow to the benefit of us all. The obedientiaries - office-holding monks - of Benedictine monasteries in the middle ages led a life of more privilege and freedom than is usually associated with the profound understanding of the monastic life in the Rule of St Benedict. The records of the obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey are a source of major importance, not only for life in the cloister, but alsofor that of society outside. The typical obedientiary rendered his final account at Michaelmas (29 September) each year, and nearly 2,000 such accounts survive, but other documents were also produced throughout the year. The entire number surviving, approximately four thousand items, is listed here under the title of the appropriate obedientiary (including abbot and prior); an in troduction to each list describes the principal subject-matter of the records. BARBARA HARVEY is emeritus fellow of Somerville College, Oxford; her other work includes Living and Dying in England, 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience and The Estates of Westminster Abbey in the Middle Ages.

Abbo of Fleury was a prominent churchman of late tenth-century France--abbot of a major monastery, leader in the revival of learning in France and England, and the subject of a serious work of hagiography. Elizabeth Dachowski's study presents a coherent picture of this multifaceted man with an emphasis on his political alliances and the political considerations that colored his earliest biographical treatment. Unlike previous studies, Dachowski's book examines the entire career of Abbo, not just his role as abbot of Fleury. When viewed as a whole, Abbo's life demonstrates his devotion to the cause of pressing for monastic prerogatives in a climate of political change. Abbo's career vividly illustrates how the early Capetian kings and the French monastic communities began the symbiotic relationship that replaced the earlier Carolingian models. Despite a stormy beginning, Abbo had, by the time of his death, developed a mutually beneficial working relationship with the Capetian kings and had used papal prerogatives to give the abbey of Fleury a preeminent place among reformed monasteries of northern France. Thus, the monks of Fleury had strong incentives for portraying the early years of Abbo's abbacy as relatively free from conflict with the monarchy. Previous lives of Abbo have largely followed the view put forward by his first biographer, Aimoinus of Fleury, who wrote the Vita sancti Abbonis within a decade of Abbo's death. While Aimoinus clearly understood Abbo's goals and the importance of his accomplishment, he also had several other agendas, including a glossing over of earlier and later conflicts at Fleury and validation of an even closer (and more subservient) relationship with the Capetian monarchs under Abbo's successor, Gaulzin of Fleury. Abbo's achievements set the stage for the continuing prosperity and influence of Fleury but at the expense of Fleury's independence from the monarchy. With Abbo's death, the monastery's relationship with the French crown grew even closer, though Fleury continued to maintain its independence from the episcopacy.

This book provides an overview of medieval monasticism in Iceland, from its dawn to its downfall during the Reformation. Blends the evidence from material remains and written documents to highlight the realities of everyday life in the monasteries and nunneries operated in Iceland. describes the incorporation of monasticism in to the Icelandic society, the land of the Vikings, and thus how the monasteries coexisted with the natural and social environments on the island while keeping their general aims and objectives. shows that large social systems, such as monasticism, can cross social and natural borders without necessitating fundamental changes apart from those triggered by the constant coexistence of nature and culture inside the environment they exist within. debunks the myth that Icelandic monasteries, male or female were isolated, silent places or simple cells functioning principally as retirement homes for aristocrats. To be a member of an ecclesiastical institution did not mean a quiet, secluded life without any outside interaction, but rather active participation in the surrounding community. Is of interest for researchers in archaeology, osteology, and medieval history, in addition to all those interested in monasticism and the medieval history of Northern Europe.

Collected Studies CS1064 This collection of Giles Constable's key articles on medieval monastic and ecclesiastical history provides nothing less than a comprehensive overview of research in the field. The book provides an insight into monastic life in the Middle Ages - from Germany to Normandy and from England to Sicily.

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.

Forty papers link the study of the military orders' cultural life and output with their involvement in political and social conflicts during the medieval and early modern period. Divided into two volumes, focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe respectively, the collection brings together the most up-to-date research by experts from fifteen countries on a kaleidoscope of relevant themes and issues, thus offering a broad-ranging and at the same time very detailed study of the subject.

Forty papers link the study of the military orders' cultural life and output with their involvement in political and social conflicts during the medieval and early modern period. Divided into two volumes, focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe respectively, the collection brings together the most up-to-date research by experts from fifteen countries on a kaleidoscope of relevant themes and issues, thus offering a broad-ranging and at the same time very detailed study of the subject.

The great religious orders of Christianity - the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the Franciscans and the Jesuits - are well known for their monasteries, their learning, and their missions arouind the world. But in the Middle Ages, to some extent surviving to this day, there was another kind of religious order, one whose members' profession was to bear arms in defence of Christendom. From humble beginnings in the early 12th century, caring for the sick in the Holy Land and protecting pilgrims, the military religious orders spread out across Europe. Not only did they fight for the Holy Places, they helped push back Islam in Spain and what is now Portugal, and spread Christianity to the lands across the Baltic, then still pagan. The Knights of St John, the Knights Templar, the Knights of Santiago and of Calatrava, the Teutonic Knights and others played a fearsome, sometimes brutal and often neglected role in the history of Christianity. The wars, which they fought in the name of Christ, helped shape the world as we know it

Cloistered in an Italian library, leafing through dusty sixteenth-century manuscripts, historian P. Renée Baernstein stumbled on a mystery: The nuns of San Paolo, a vital part of community life in Milan, always busy with missionary or charity work, were suddenly in 1552 forced by the Inquisition to remain behind the thick stone walls of the convent.
An absorbing work of historical reconstruction, A Convent Tale paints a rich portrait of remarkable women forced to change, adapt and survive in the Counter-reformation world of Renaissance Italy. Baernstein traces how the nuns, stripped of their mission to transform Milan into a New Jerusalem, redirected their energies to securing their own families' political gain and status in the community.

The petitions received and the letters sent by the Papal Chancery during the Late Middle Ages attest to the recognition of disability at the highest levels of the medieval Church. These documents acknowledge the existence of physical and/or mental impairments, with the papacy issuing dispensations allowing some supplicants to adapt their clerical missions according to their abilities. A disease, impairment, or old age could prevent both secular and regular clerics from fulfilling the duties of their divine office. Such conditions can, thus, be understood as forms of disability. In these cases, the Papal Chancery bore the responsibility for determining if disabled people were suitable to serve as clerics, with all the rights and duties of divine services. Whilst some petitioners were allowed to enter the clergy, or - in the case of currently serving churchmen - to stay more or less active in their work, others were compelled to resign their position and leave the clergy entirely. Petitions and papal letters lie at intersection of authorized, institutional policy and practical sources chronicling the lived experiences of disabled people in the Middle Ages. As such, they constitute an excellent analytical laboratory in which to study medieval disability in its relation to the papacy as an institution, alongside the impact of official ecclesiastical judgments on disabled lives.

In Subversive Habits, Shannen Dee Williams provides the first full history of Black Catholic nuns in the United States, hailing them as the forgotten prophets of Catholicism and democracy. Drawing on oral histories and previously sealed Church records, Williams demonstrates how master narratives of women's religious life and Catholic commitments to racial and gender justice fundamentally change when the lives and experiences of African American nuns are taken seriously. For Black Catholic women and girls, embracing the celibate religious state constituted a radical act of resistance to white supremacy and the sexual terrorism built into chattel slavery and segregation. Williams shows how Black sisters-such as Sister Mary Antona Ebo, who was the only Black member of the inaugural delegation of Catholic sisters to travel to Selma, Alabama, and join the Black voting rights marches of 1965-were pioneering religious leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, desegregation foot soldiers, Black Power activists, and womanist theologians. In the process, Williams calls attention to Catholic women's religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregation-and thus an important battleground in the long African American freedom struggle.

This is a groundbreaking study of the relationship between Christianity and collective violence in late nineteenth century China. Using American Baptist and English Presbyterian examples in the Guangdong province, the book examines the scale of Chinese conversions, the creation of Christian villages and the power relations between Christians, non-Christians and between different Christian denominations.
The spread of Christianity needs to be understood in the context of intense violence within and between villages and lineages, and patterns of conversion often following the lines of existing communal divisions.
This book is based on a very comprehensive foundation of data and the Protestant missionary and Chinese archival materials are supplemented with fieldwork data that were collected in several Christian villages.

`Deserves a resounding welcome from medievalists.' EHR This volume contains over 250 charters and other documents relating to four of the six hospitals established in medieval Bury. The core of the collection is the cartulary of St John's hospital, the domus Dei, but documentsrelating to the hospitals of St Nicholas, St Peter and St Saviour are also included. The charters relate mainly to the endowment of the hospitals by the abbot and convent, but there are also ordinances for the administration of the hospitals and for the establishment of chantries therein. The great majority of texts are presented in the form of a full English calendar, and there are English summaries of those printed in Latin. This is the first volume of the Suffolk Charter series to concentrate on Bury St Edmunds; it will be followed eventually by an edition of charters relating to the abbey's property in the borough. CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILLis Principal Lecturer in History, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, London.

On the night of September 6, 2011, terror called at the Amish home of the Millers. Answering a late-night knock from what appeared to be an Amish neighbor, Mrs. Miller opened the door to her five estranged adult sons, a daughter, and their spouses. It wasn't a friendly visit. Within moments, the men, wearing headlamps, had pulled their frightened father out of bed, pinned him into a chair, and--ignoring his tearful protests--sheared his hair and beard, leaving him razor-burned and dripping with blood. The women then turned on Mrs. Miller, yanking her prayer cap from her head and shredding it before cutting off her waist-long hair. About twenty minutes later, the attackers fled into the darkness, taking their parents' hair as a trophy for their community.

Four similar beard-cutting attacks followed, disfiguring nine victims and generating a tsunami of media coverage. While pundits and late-night talk shows made light of the attacks and poked fun at the Amish way of life, FBI investigators gathered evidence about troubling activities in a maverick Amish community near Bergholz, Ohio--and the volatile behavior of its leader, Bishop Samuel Mullet.

Ten men and six women from the Bergholz community were arrested and found guilty a year later of 87 felony charges involving conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice. In a precedent-setting decision, all of the defendants, including Bishop Mullet and his two ministers, were convicted of federal hate crimes. It was the first time since the 2009 passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that assailants had been found guilty for religiously motivated hate crimes within the same faith community.

"Renegade Amish" goes behind the scenes to tell the full story of the Bergholz barbers: the attacks, the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath. In a riveting narrative reminiscent of a true crime classic, scholar Donald B. Kraybill weaves a dark and troubling story in which a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace of these traditionally nonviolent people, compelling some of them to install locks on their doors and arm themselves with pepper spray.

The country's foremost authority on Amish society, Kraybill spent six months assisting federal prosecutors with the case against the Bergholz defendants and served as an expert witness during the trial. Informed by trial transcripts and his interviews of ex-Bergholz Amish, relatives of Bishop Mullet, victims of the attacks, Amish leaders, and the jury foreman, "Renegade Amish" delves into the factors that transformed the Bergholz Amish from a typical Amish community into one embracing revenge and retaliation.

Kraybill gives voice to the terror and pain experienced by the victims, along with the deep shame that accompanied their disfigurement--a factor that figured prominently in the decision to apply the federal hate crime law. Built on Kraybill's deep knowledge of Amish life and his contacts within many Amish communities, "Renegade Amish" highlights one of the strangest and most publicized sagas in contemporary Amish history.

An invaluable collection of primary sources for the study of eighteenth-century convent life. Between 1728 and 1744 the Catholic lawyer Mannock Strickland (1673-1744) acted as agent for English nuns living on the Continent, including St Monica's, Louvain, the Brussels Dominicans and the Dunkirk Benedictines. Most convent archives perished at the French Revolution, but Strickland's papers survived in the archives of Mapledurham House, Oxfordshire, offering a unique insight into the workings of English convents. These extraordinary documents reveal the reality of exile for a group of formidable yet vulnerable women, "doubly dead" to English law. Two hundred letters tell stories of hardship, isolation, severe winters, war, starvation, Jacobite intrigue and international finance. They show that convent bursars became skilled at playing international exchange markets yet remained at the mercy of unscrupulous investors. The letters are presented here with full notes; a thorough introduction sets theletters, cash day books, bills of exchange and other documents in context. Richard G. Williams is Librarian and Archivist of Mapledurham House; he has also held senior posts at the University of Warwick, Imperial College London, Birkbeck College London and at Yale University.

This book provides an overview of medieval monasticism in Iceland, from its dawn to its downfall during the Reformation. Blends the evidence from material remains and written documents to highlight the realities of everyday life in the monasteries and nunneries operated in Iceland. describes the incorporation of monasticism in to the Icelandic society, the land of the Vikings, and thus how the monasteries coexisted with the natural and social environments on the island while keeping their general aims and objectives. shows that large social systems, such as monasticism, can cross social and natural borders without necessitating fundamental changes apart from those triggered by the constant coexistence of nature and culture inside the environment they exist within. debunks the myth that Icelandic monasteries, male or female were isolated, silent places or simple cells functioning principally as retirement homes for aristocrats. To be a member of an ecclesiastical institution did not mean a quiet, secluded life without any outside interaction, but rather active participation in the surrounding community. Is of interest for researchers in archaeology, osteology, and medieval history, in addition to all those interested in monasticism and the medieval history of Northern Europe.

The first volume to explore various facets of contemporary change in consecrated religious life in selected Central and Eastern European countries, this book presents a series of studies of Catholic and Orthodox monasticism. With attention to changes in the economy, everyday life, organisation and social presence of monastic orders, contributors shed light on the impact of 20th and 21st century social and cultural processes - such as communism and its collapse or the growth of new communication technologies - on life in the cloister. Bringing together research from various locations in Central and Eastern Europe, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, religious studies and theology, with interests in religious orders and transformations of religious life from a social perspective.