This well-written, well-researched reference source brings together monastic life with particular attention to three traditions: Buddhist, Eastern Christian, and Western Christian."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2001.

There is no published account of the history of religious women in England before the Norman Conquest. Yet, female saints and abbesses, such as Hild of Whitby or Edith of Wilton, are among the most celebrated women recorded in Anglo-Saxon sources and their stories are of popular interest. This book offers the first general and critical assessment of female religious communities in early medieval England. It transforms our understanding of the different modes of religious vocation and institutional provision and thereby gives early medieval women's history a new foundation.

The articles in this volume deal with the history of the abbey of Cluny, both its relations with the outside world and its internal organisation and spirituality, from its foundation in 910 until the end of the twelfth century. After an opening article on the early history of Cluny, relating it to previous monasticism and the monastic world of the tenth century, there are a group of articles on how monks were admitted to Cluny, how they were organised, what they did, and on the monastery's privileges. Two articles are concerned with Cluny's relations with the abbey of Baume and another with Cluny and the First Crusade. Finally there are a group of articles on Cluny in the twelfth century. One deals with the relations between the abbots and the increasingly assertive townsmen of Cluny and another with the confused period following the death of Peter the Venerable, when there were a series of relatively short-term abbots, and one apparent anti-abbot.

Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom offers a new history of the field of Egyptian monastic archaeology. It is the first study in English to trace how scholars identified a space or site as monastic within the Egyptian landscape and how such identifications impacted perceptions of monasticism. Brooks Hedstrom then provides an ecohistory of Egypt's tripartite landscape to offer a reorientation of the perception of the physical landscape. She analyzes late-antique documentary evidence, early monastic literature, and ecclesiastical history before turning to the extensive archaeological evidence of Christian monastic settlements. In doing so, she illustrates the stark differences between idealized monastic landscape and the actual monastic landscape that was urbanized through monastic constructions. Drawing upon critical theories in landscape studies, materiality and phenomenology, Brooks Hedstrom looks at domestic settlements of non-monastic and monastic settlements to posit what features makes monastic settlements unique, thus offering a new history of monasticism in Egypt.

The history of Christian literature took a new turn in the 8th century when monks in the monasteries of Palestine began to write theology and saints' lives in Arabic; they also instituted a veritable programme for translating the Bible and other Christian texts from Greek (and Syriac) into the language of the Qur'an, the lingua franca of the Islamic caliphate. This is the subject of the present volume. Two key factors leading to this change, as Professor Griffith indicates, were that the confrontation with the developing theology of Islam created a direct need for apologetics to face this new religious challenge in its own language; and, second, simply that as the memory of Byzantine power waned, so too did the knowledge of Greek. Issues of particular interest in this apologetic literature are those of the freedom of the will, a key topic in the controversies between Melkites and Muslims, and of the legitimacy of icon veneration, a subject of great contemporary concern at the time of Iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire. L'histoire de la litterature chretienne a pris un nouveau tournant au 8 siecle lorsque les religieux des monasteres de Palestine commencerent A ecrire la theologie et la vie des saints en arabe. De mAme, ils instituerent un veritable programme de traduction de la Bible et autres textes chretiens du grec (et du syriaque) en langue corannique, la lingua franca du califat islamique. Tel est l'objet du present recueil. Deux facteurs determinants ayant conduit A ce changement, comme l'indique le professeur Griffith, etaient, en premier lieu, la confrontation avec une theologie islamique croissante, qui creait un besoin pressant pour les apologetiques de faire face A ce nouveau defi religieux dans la langue propre A celui-ci; en second lieu, au fur et A mesure que s'estompait la memoire du pourvoir byzantin, il en allait de mAme pour la connaissance que l'on avait de la langue grecque. Ces textes traitent de q

"Brides of Christ" invites the modern reader to follow the histories of colonial Mexican nuns inside the cloisters where they pursued a religious vocation or sought shelter from the world. Lavrin provides a complete overview of conventual life, including the early signs of vocation, the decision to enter a convent, profession, spiritual guidelines and devotional practices, governance, ceremonials, relations with male authorities and confessors, living arrangements, servants, sickness, and death rituals. Individual chapters deal with issues such as sexuality and the challenges to chastity in the cloisters and the little-known subject of the nuns' own writings as expressions of their spirituality. The foundation of convents for indigenous women receives special attention, because such religious communities existed nowhere else in the Spanish empire.

Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom offers a new history of the field of Egyptian monastic archaeology. It is the first study in English to trace how scholars identified a space or site as monastic within the Egyptian landscape and how such identifications impacted perceptions of monasticism. Brooks Hedstrom then provides an ecohistory of Egypt's tripartite landscape to offer a reorientation of the perception of the physical landscape. She analyzes late-antique documentary evidence, early monastic literature, and ecclesiastical history before turning to the extensive archaeological evidence of Christian monastic settlements. In doing so, she illustrates the stark differences between idealized monastic landscape and the actual monastic landscape that was urbanized through monastic constructions. Drawing upon critical theories in landscape studies, materiality and phenomenology, Brooks Hedstrom looks at domestic settlements of non-monastic and monastic settlements to posit what features makes monastic settlements unique, thus offering a new history of monasticism in Egypt.

For over a thousand years, Benedictine monks around the world have followed the daily pattern of morning, noon, and evening prayer known as the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office. Gathered from the Benedictine tradition, the prayers included in this book grew up around the celebration of the Divine Office-embellishing it, illuminating it, and echoing it for generations of the faithful. The Saint Benedict Prayer Book also reclaims little-known prayers (Little Offices, Commemorations, and Litanies) from long ago. For anyone seeking a way of prayer rooted in ancient wisdom, this little book offers a sure path.

First published twice in 1926, and again in 1934 with an updated bibliography, Cranage's The Home of the Monk is a small but useful introduction for the visitor to any English monastic site. Working from surviving architectural and documentary evidence, he examines the buildings section by section, explaining how each part of an abbey was used. He briefly explains the history of the various monastic orders which existed in medieval England, and their differences from one another. He also provides plans of what constituted the typical arrangements likely to be found in Benedictine, Augustinian, Cluniac and Cistercian houses. The book provides a useful starting point for further study of medieval religious houses, and a handy guide for the occasional visitor to such sites.

A brief meeting with a Buddhist nun in India made a deep impression on Christine Toomey. It sent her on a two-year, 60,000-mile odyssey to learn more about the contemporary women choosing in their thousands to become part of a long tradition of female spirituality that stretches back through the centuries and now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be female. In The Saffron Road, Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of Buddhist nuns to trace the routes by which the philosophy has spread from a solitary order in a remote area of India in the 5th century BC, via 1950s San Francisco where Zen was popularised by the Beat generation, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning her journey in the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels from Nepal, to India, through Burma, Japan and on to North America and Europe, along the way visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. Amongst those she talks to are a group of "kung fu" nuns, an acclaimed novelist, a princess, a concert violinist, a former BBC journalist, and a one-time Washington political aide. Through these conversations, the daily reality of the Buddhist existence is gradually revealed, together with the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana. Combining travelogue, history, interviews and personal reflection, The Saffron Road opens the door to a rarely glimpsed world of ritual, discipline and enlightenment.

Most anthropological and sociological studies of Buddhism have concentrated on village and rural Buddhism. This is a systematic anthropological study of monastic organization and monk-layman interaction in a purely urban context in the countries where Theravada Buddhism is practised, namely, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Laos and Thailand. The material presented is based on fieldwork carried out in Ayutthaya, Central Thailand. Dr Bunnag describes and analyses the socio-economic and ritual relations existing between the monk and the lay community, and she demonstrates the way in which the role of the monk is used by some men, wittingly or otherwise, as a social stepping-stone, in that for the son of a farmer a period in the monkhood can provide the education and contacts necessary to facilitate his assimilation into the urban lay community at a social and economic level which would otherwise have been impossible. Finally, Dr Bunnag places the material presented in a broader theoretical context by reviewing it in relation to anthropological discussions concerning the nature of Thai society as a whole.

This book is a comparative macrosociological study of the interaction between religious virtuosi and society in two civilizations: traditional Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism. Merging Weberian sociology with the Maussian tradition of gift-analysis, and criticizing the neglect of meaning in current comparative historical sociology, the author also argues the need for a multidimensional approach capable of addressing the part played by religious orientations in shaping the institutional strength and ideological power of religious elites in the historical framework of the Great Traditions.

The great city of Alexandria is undoubtedly the cradle of Egyptian Christianity, where the Catechetical School was established in the second century and became a leading center in the study of biblical exegesis and theology. According to tradition, St. Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Alexandria in the middle of the first century and was martyred in that city, which was to become the residence of Egypt's Coptic patriarchs for nearly eleven centuries. By the fourth century Egyptian monasticism had began to flourish in the Egyptian deserts and countryside. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine the various aspects of Coptic civilization in Alexandria and its environs, and in the Egyptian deserts, over the past two millennia. The contributions explore Coptic art, archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The impact of Alexandrian theology and its cultural heritage as well as the archaeology of its 'university' are highlighted. Christian epigraphy in the Kharga Oasis, the art and architecture of the Bagawat cemetery, and the archaeological site of Kellis (Ismant al-Kharab) with its Manichaean texts are also discussed.

The first account of the dissolution of the monasteries for fifty years-exploring its profound impact on the people of Tudor England "This is a book about people, though, not ideas, and as a detailed account of an extraordinary human drama with a cast of thousands, it is an exceptional piece of historical writing."-Lucy Wooding, Times Literary Supplement Shortly before Easter, 1540 saw the end of almost a millennium of monastic life in England. Until then religious houses had acted as a focus for education, literary, and artistic expression and even the creation of regional and national identity. Their closure, carried out in just four years between 1536 and 1540, caused a dislocation of people and a disruption of life not seen in England since the Norman Conquest. Drawing on the records of national and regional archives as well as archaeological remains, James Clark explores the little-known lives of the last men and women who lived in England's monasteries before the Reformation. Clark challenges received wisdom, showing that buildings were not immediately demolished and Henry VIII's subjects were so attached to the religious houses that they kept fixtures and fittings as souvenirs. This rich, vivid history brings back into focus the prominent place of abbeys, priories, and friaries in the lives of the English people.

Franciscan Lectio is for all those on a spiritual journey who long to see the world more beautifully and deeply and become more attentive and present. An ancient tradition dating back to the third century, lectio divina has long served as an avenue of contemplative prayer, but the practice has often been systematized, intellectualized, or only practiced by monastics. Few authors have attempted to universalize lectio using contemporary language or approach it from a Franciscan perspective. St. Paul says that the Word of God is alive and active in our hearing, and if the incarnation is true, then the Word can be experienced in all places. Lectio, therefore, is not only a spiritual practice for reading sacred texts but can be applied to any felt experience. Our experiences, too, are sacred: we need only to acknowledge their depth and beauty. In the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, we can see the God of all creation who has always been "hidden in plain sight"-a presence that shows forth in every created thing. In Franciscan Lectio, Fr. Dan Riley comes alongside us in our own encounters with lectio and inspires our spiritual imagination through story, art, poetry, nature, Franciscan mysticism, and Scripture - helping us to see that all of life is unitive and sacred.

Can the Christian life be lived alone? When her husband left Christianity several years into their marriage, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook was left "spiritually single"-struggling to live the Christian life on her own, taking her kids to church by herself, and wrestling with her own questions and doubts. In this memoir, Kielsmeier-Cook tells the story of her mixed-faith marriage and how she found community in an unexpected place: an order of Catholic nuns in her neighborhood. As she spent time with them and learned about female Catholic saints, she began to see that she was not "spiritually single" after all-and that no one really is.

In From Faith to Works: How Religion Inspires Confidence, Community, and Sacrifice, Michael K. Abel builds on key principles from past theories of religion and group solidarity to determine the origins of religious confidence and explain the essential role doctrinal content plays in the establishment of cohesive religious communities. This book addresses an enduring question: Why do people sacrifice their own personal interests to conform to religious expectations? While religious adherents have long acknowledged their faith as a primary motivator of action, social scientists have tended to minimize its importance. From Faith to Works rectifies this shortcoming by placing faith at the center of its analysis. The information presented in this book will appeal to readers of all faiths as well as those of no faith. Combining theoretical arguments and compelling statistics, From Faith to Works proves a fascinating and unique contribution to social scientific thinking on religion.

In No Jim Crow Church, Louis Venters recounts the unlikely emergence of a cohesive, interracial fellowship in South Carolina, tracing the history of the community from the end of the nineteenth century through the Civil Rights era. By joiing the Baha'i faith, blacks and whites not only defied Jim Crow but also rejected their society's religious and social restrictions. The religion which emphasizes the spiritual unity of all humankind, arrived in the United States from the Middle East via northern urban areas. As early as 1910, Baha'i teachers began settling in South Carolina. Venters presents an organizational, social, and intellectual history of South Carolina's early Baha'i movement and relates developments within the community to changes in society at large, with particular attention to race relations and the civil rights struggle.