The book presents a Cistersian Experience in Medieval Denmark.

The life of the great Cistercian, St. Bernard, was translated into Portuguese from the first three books of Sancti Bernardi Vita Prima at Alcobaca. The surviving fifteenth-century manuscript constitutes an important example of the scholarship of that famous monastic center.

In the course of their investigations into Leonardo da Vinci and the Turin Shroud, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince found clues in the work of the great Renaissance artist that pointed to the existence of a secret underground religion. More clues were found in a twentieth-century London church. These were the beginnings of a quest through time and space that led the authors into the mysterious world of secret societies and such bodies as the Freemasons, the Knights Templar and the Cathars and finally back to the ideas and beliefs of the first century AD and a devastating new view of the real character and motives of the founder of Christianity and the roles of John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene. They reveal nothing less than a secret history, preserved through the centuries but encoded in works of art and even in the great Gothic cathedrals, whose revelation could shake the foundations of the Chruch.

The congregation is a distinctly American religious structure, and is often overlooked in traditional studies of religion. But one cannot understand American religion without understanding the congregation.Volume 1: "Portraits of Twelve Religious Communities" chronicles the founding, growth, and development of congregations that represent the diverse and complex reality of American local religious cultures. The contributors explore multiple issues, from the fate of American Protestantism to the rise of charismatic revivalism.Volume 2: "New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations" builds upon those historical studies, and addresses three crucial questions: Where is the congregation located on the broader map of American cultural and religious life? What are congregations' distinctive qualities, tasks, and roles in American culture? And, what patterns of leadership characterize congregations in America?These essays are an indispensable tool for understanding American congregations and American religion as a whole.

To understand the life and thought of Thomas Merton, one must understand him as a monk. After introducing his vocation and entrance into the Trappist order, this book highlights some of his basic spiritual presuppositions. Relying primarily on Merton's writing, Bonnie B. Thurston surveys his thought on fundamental aspects of monastic formation and spirituality, particularly obedience, silence, solitude, and prayer. She also addresses some of the temptations and popular misunderstandings surrounding monastic life. Accessible and conversational in style, the book suggests how monastic spirituality is relevant, not only for all Christians, but also for serious spiritual seekers.

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.

Between 1600 and 1800 around 4,000 Catholic women left England for a life of exile in the convents of France, Flanders, Portugal and America. These closed communities offered religious contemplation and safety, but also provided an environment of concentrated female intellectualism. The nuns' writings from this time form a unique resource.

Over the last few decades, within the Christian Church and in broader society, there has been an explosion of interestin the benefits and fruits of monastic spirituality and culture, both in its historical and contemporary contexts. Even where people have given up on the institutional churches, monasticism retains an integrity and magnetic appeal. This timely book explores what it is that makes monastic spirituality so attractive to so many people and how it can be incorporated into an individual's everyday life in practical ways. Chapters include: The appeal of monasticism; Different varieties of monastic experience; Monastic spirituality and personal development; Monastic spirituality and relationships; Monastic spirituality and work; Monastic spirituality and community living; Achieving balance; and Working out a rule of life.

Feminism, Absolutism, and Jansenism chronicles seventy years of Jansenist conflict and its complex intersection with power struggles between gallican bishops, Parlementaires, the Crown, and the pope. Daniella Kostroun focuses on the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs, whose community was disbanded by Louis XIV in 1709 as a threat to the state. Paradoxically, it was the nuns' adherence to their strict religious rule and the ideal of pious, innocent, and politically disinterested behavior that allowed them to challenge absolutism effectively. Adopting methods from cultural studies, feminism, and the Cambridge School of political thought, Kostroun examines how these nuns placed gender at the heart of the Jansenist challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of absolutism; they responded to royal persecution with a feminist defense of women's spiritual and rational equality and of the autonomy of the individual subject, thereby offering a bold challenge to the patriarchal and religious foundations of absolutism.

Demons--whether in embodied form or as inward temptation--make vivid appearances in early Christian monastic literature. In this finely written study of demonology and Christian spirituality in fourth- and fifth-century Egypt, David Brakke examines how the conception of the monk as a holy and virtuous being was shaped by the combative encounter with demons.

Brakke studies the "making of the monk" from two perspectives. First, he describes the social and religious identities that monastic authors imagined for the demon-fighting monk: the new martyr who fights against the pagan gods, the gnostic who believes he knows both the tricks of the demons and the secrets of God, and the prophet who discerns the hidden presence of Satan even among good Christians. Then he employs recent theoretical ideas about gender and racial stereotyping to interpret accounts of demon encounters, especially those in which demons appear as the Other--as Ethiopians, as women, or as pagan gods.

Drawing on biographies of exceptional monks, collections of monastic sayings and stories, letters from ascetic teachers to their disciples, sermons, and community rules, Brakke crafts a compelling picture of the embattled religious celibate. "Demons and the Making of the Monk" is an insightful and innovative exploration of the development of Christian monasticism.

"Witness to Integrity" is a first-person account of the historic dispute between the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters (IHM) and James Francis McIntyre, the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles. Former Mother General of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters and president of the Immaculate Heart Community, Anita Caspary, IHM, tells her story of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters' motivations and struggles in their claim for authority and freedom to live a Christian life in accordance with their consciences. The conflicts that lead a part of the Immaculate Heart Sisters 'Community to become an ecumenical community are described with vividness.

Anita Caspary's personal narrative reflections provide in-depth details of the story that has captured media attention in books, television documentaries, and plays. In addition, the use of original sources from the Immaculate Heart Community archives that have not been open to the public assists in producing new insights and correcting inaccuracies and myths.

Chapters are The Accusation," *Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, - *Background and Beginnings, - *Called to be a Nun, - *Teacher, Professor, and Administrator, - *The Sixties and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, - *Cardinal James F. McIntyre, - *The Archdiocesan Visitations, - *The 1967 Chapter of Renewal: Creating the Vision, - *Embracing the Vision, - *The Cardinal's Response to Renewal, - *The Vatican Visitations, - *A Test Case for the Vatican, - *A New Life for Religious Women, - and *The Immaculate Heart Community. -

"Anita M. Caspary, IHM, PhD, was president of the Immaculate Heart College from 1957 to 1963. She was Mother General of the Immaculate Heart Sisters from 1963 to 1969 and president of the Immaculate Heart Community from 1970 to 1973. She is the author of several articles about the challenge of the Roman Catholic hierarchy by the Immaculate Heart Sisters and has taught in the graduate level for the last three decades. Currently, she writes and teaches poetry at the Immaculate Heart Community in Los Angeles, California.""

In "Colonial Habits" Kathryn Burns transforms our view of nuns as marginal recluses, making them central actors on the colonial stage. Beginning with the 1558 founding of South America's first convent, Burns shows that nuns in Cuzco played a vital part in subjugating Incas, creating a creole elite, and reproducing an Andean colonial order in which economic and spiritual interests were inextricably fused.
Based on unprecedented archival research, "Colonial Habits "demonstrates how nuns became leading guarantors of their city's social order by making loans, managing property, containing "unruly" women, and raising girls. Coining the phrase "spiritual economy" to analyze the intricate investments and relationships that enabled Cuzco's convents and their backers to thrive, Burns explains how, by the late 1700s, this economy had faltered badly, making convents an emblem of decay and a focal point for intense criticism of a failing colonial regime. By the nineteenth century, the nuns had retreated from their previous roles, marginalized in the construction of a new republican order.
Providing insight that can be extended well outside the Andes to the relationships articulated by convents across much of Europe, the Americas, and beyond, "Colonial Habits" will engage those interested in early modern economics, Latin American studies, women in religion, and the history of gender, class, and race.

This is the first study of the monastic movement in Palestine during the Byzantine period. The monasteries of the desert - in Jerusalem, Egypt, and Syria, played a key role in Byzantine society, and the `desert fathers' are well known even today as landmarks in the history of Christian spirituality. The book uses contemporary sources to discuss both how the monks actually lived, and their contribution to the doctrinal and spiritual debate.

Contents include: Anglo-Saxon and Later Whitby (Philip Rahtz); Antiquaries and Archaeology in and around Ripon Minster (R. A. Hall); The Early Monastic Church of Lastingham (Richard Gem and Malcolm Thurlby); The Romanesque Church of Selby Abbey (Eric Fernie); Observations on the Romanesque Crossing Tower, Transepts and Nave Aisles of Selby Abbey (Stuart Harrison and Malcolm Thurlby); Some Design Aspects of Kirkstall Abbey (Malcolm Thurlby); The 13th-century Choir and Transepts of Rivaulx Abbey (Lawrence R. Hoey).

This is an authoritative account of daily life in Westminster Abbey, one of medieval England's greatest monasteries. It is also a wide-ranging exploration of some major themes in the social history of the Middle Ages and early sixteenth century by a distinguished historian of that period. Barbara Harvey exploits the exceptionally rich archives of the Benedictine foundation at Westminster to the full, offering many vivid insights into the lives of the monks of Westminster, their dependents, and their benefactors. She examines the charitable practices of the monks, their food and drink, their illnesses and their deaths, the number and conditions of employment of their servants, and their controversial practice of granting corrodies (pensions made up in large measure of benefits in kind). All these topics Miss Harvey considers in the context both of religious institutions in general and of the secular world. Full of colour and interest, Living and Dying in England 1100-1540 is an original and highly readable contribution to medieval history and that of the early sixteenth century.

Presents Father Columba's chapter-by-chapter commentary designed to help others share St Benedict's words and approach to living the Christian life. The book draws on the author's lifetime of living and teaching the Rule, of his mission experience and on his work with the growing Oblate movement.

Since the 6th century, this has been one of the most influential documents of Western thought and civilization. Full of plain wisdom, the words of St. Benedict are a guide for work, prayer, study, and community life.

The Kievan Caves Monastery was for centuries the most important Ukrainian monastic establishment. It was the outstanding center of literary production, and its monks served throughout the territory of Rus' as bishops and monastic superiors. The most detailed source for the monastery early history is its "Paterik," a thirteenth-century compilation containing stories reaching back to the monastery's foundation in the mideleventh century. Muriel Heppell now makes available the first complete English translation of the Paterik. With an introduction, map, and several appendices, Muriel Heppell discusses the work's Byzantine background and also sets it in its historical context.

The "Harvard Library of Early Ukrainian Literature" is one portion of the Harvard Project in Commemoration of the Millennium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine sponsored by the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University. The "Library" encompasses literary activity in Rus'-Ukraine from its beginning in the mid-eleventh century through the end of the eighteenth century. Included are ecclesiastical and secular works written in a variety of languages, such as Church Slavonic, Old Rus', Ruthenian (Middle Ukrainian), Polish, and Latin. This linguistic diversity reflects the cultural pluralism of Ukrainian intellectual life in the medieval and early-modern periods. The "Library" consists of three parts: "Texts," which publishes original works, in facsimile whenever appropriate; "English Translations"; and "Ukrainian Translations." Each volume begins with an introductory essay by a specialist. The two translation series also include maps, appendices, and indices. A cumulative index to the entire "Library" is planned.

Property Rights in the Late Medieval Discussion on Franciscan Poverty contributes to our understanding of the history of the concept of individual natural rights by tracing the controversies surrounding the Franciscan ideal of absolute poverty from the 1250s to the 1320s. Virpi Makinen, Th.D., analyzes the complex legal, moral, and theological arguments for and against the Franciscan ideal of giving up all rights over property - an ideal that the Franciscans argued was in perfect imitation of Christ and the Apostles. Makinen pays particular attention to the concepts of rights, especially to the distinctions between dominion (dominium), right (ius) and factual use (usus facti). She discusses the arguments made by both the defenders of the Franciscan claim of apostolic poverty (Bonaventure and Bonagratia of Bergamo) and the attackers, most of whom were secular clerics (such as William of Saint-Amour, Gerard of Abbeville, Henry of Ghent, and Godfrey of Fontaines). Makinen then analyzes the support the Order received from the papacy, and how this support was undermined by Pope John XXII's vehement attack on the Franciscans in the 1320s. The book shows how the debate concerning Franciscan poverty gave rise to a new language of rights, which paved the way to the idea of individual natural rights.

"Oneness" considers the role small-group monastic life plays within the life of the contemporary church. Using a focus on the life, practice and history of the Shepherds Law community as a starting point, the book broadens the discussion to consider the how such communities negotiate the boundary between the solitary life and life within their community. Contributions include: Sarah Foot on Northumbria's long tradition Peta Dunstan on Monasticism in the 19th century Andrew Louth on the Skete George Guiver on the monastic sacrament in life, liturgy, saints and buildings Dom Xavier Perrin on Gregorian chant and monastic life Christopher Irvine and Ralph Pattison on the buildings of Shepherds Law in their context With an afterword by Rowan Williams

Founded in 910 by Duke William of Aquitaine, the abbey of Cluny rose to prominence in the eleventh century as the most influential and opulent center for monastic devotion in medieval Europe. While the twelfth century brought challenges, both internal and external, the Cluniacs showed remarkable adaptability in the changing religious climate of the high Middle Ages. Written by international experts representing a range of academic disciplines, the contributions to this volume examine the rich textual and material sources for Cluny's history, offering not only a thorough introduction to the distinctive character of Cluniac monasticism in the Middle Ages, but also the lineaments of a detailed research agenda for the next generation of historians. Contributors are: Isabelle Rose, Steven Vanderputten, Marc Saurette, Denyse Riche, Susan Boynton, Anne Baud, Sebastien Barret, Robert Berkhofer III, Isabelle Cochelin, Michael Hanchen, Gert Melville, Eliana Magnani, Constance B. Bouchard, Benjamin Pohl, and Scott G. Bruce.