The Dalai Lama has represented Buddhism as a religion of non-violence, compassion, and world peace, but this does not reflect how monks learn their vocation. This book shows how monasteries use harsh methods to make monks of men, and how this tradition is changing as modernist reformers - like the Dalai Lama - adopt liberal and democratic ideals, such as natural rights and individual autonomy. In the first in-depth account of disciplinary practices at a Tibetan monastery in India, Michael Lempert looks closely at everyday education rites - from debate to reprimand and corporal punishment. His analysis explores how the idioms of violence inscribed in these socialization rites help produce educated, moral persons but in ways that trouble Tibetans who aspire to modernity. Bringing the study of language and social interaction to our understanding of Buddhism for the first time, Lempert shows and why liberal ideals are being acted out by monks in India, offering a provocative alternative view of liberalism as a globalizing discourse.

Bernard continually returns to the classical idea that the quality of desire shapes theological imagination. By attending to the multiple ways he develops and applies this insight, Beyond Measure uncovers a new depth of organic unity to the literary, philosophical, and theological strands densely interwoven through his writings. Bernard's apparent iconoclasm with respect to art, affectivity, and the humanity of Jesus is revealed as an alternative mystical aesthetic, congruent with his program for monastic reform. The central movement of Cistercian spirituality from the carnal to the spiritual is shown not to elide but to recapitulate the carnal in higher spiritual expression. Further, this approach provides fresh understanding of the ways in which Bernard is at once "last of the fathers" and "first of the moderns." In particular, a careful reading of works by Julia Kristeva and Jean-Luc Marion on Bernard reveals both the enduring brightness and vitality of his writing and the relevance of his work for people today.

2021 Association of Catholic Publishers third place award in inspirational How do you encounter the mystery of the other? This is the central question at the heart of spiritual direction and central to the human quest. Hineni-presence-is not an answer to the mystery but a response to the challenge. At a time when people on the edges of religion increasingly seek out spiritual direction as a way of confronting life's unanswerable questions, hineni indicates a fundamental reality beyond labels. And in an age that seems to suffer from disconnection, hineni indicates a way in. A helpful resource for anyone interested in spirituality beyond easy answers or (in)convenient labels, Hineni: In Imitation of Abraham is a stark exploration of what it truly means to be present-to yourself, to the one before you, and to the one we call God.

Over the last few decades, a number of works have appeared which have increased our knowledge and appreciation of the pre-modern Icelandic genre of fornaldarsoegur (often translated into English as legendary sagas, heroic sagas or the sagas of ancient times). This new work builds upon the preceding research but takes as a case study a short, late version of the genre. By looking at a peripheral narrative - one which many would exclude and ignore when considering the genre - new perspectives on many of the questions, which researchers put to this genre, can be provided. Illuga saga Gridarfostra turns out to be a story, which has served many functions for multiple audiences. By tracing the complete history of this work, from its origins, through multiple manuscript witnesses, its use in Scandinavian intellectual history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and through to the many poetic reworkings produced in Iceland up to the twentieth century, a comprehensive picture is produced which allows us to see how a short story can have a much fuller life than is immediately apparent if we look at it merely as a brief saga alongside its more extensive and polished generic siblings.

Winner of the Henry J. Benda Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, Justin McDaniel traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values. He depicts Buddhism as a series of overlapping processes, bringing fresh attention to the continuities of Theravada monastic communities that have endured despite regional and linguistic variations. Incorporating both primary and secondary sources from Thailand and Laos, he examines premodern inscriptional, codicological, anthropological, art historical, ecclesiastical, royal, and French colonial records. By looking at modern sermons, and even television programs and websites, he traces how pedagogical techniques found in premodern palm-leaf manuscripts are pervasive in modern education. As the first comprehensive study of monastic education in Thailand and Laos, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words will appeal to a wide audience of scholars and students interested in religious studies, anthropology, social and intellectual history, and pedagogy.

In this unprecedented introduction to Byzantine monasticism, based on the Conway Lectures she delivered at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, Alice-Mary Talbot surveys the various forms of monastic life in the Byzantine Empire between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. It includes chapters on male monastic communities (mostly cenobitic, but some idiorrhythmic in late Byzantium), nuns and nunneries, hermits and holy mountains, and a final chapter on alternative forms of monasticism, including recluses, stylites, wandering monks, holy fools, nuns disguised as monks, and unaffiliated monks and nuns. This original monograph does not attempt to be a history of Byzantine monasticism but rather emphasizes the multiplicity of ways in which Byzantine men and women could devote their lives to service to God, with an emphasis on the tension between the two basic modes of monastic life, cenobitic and eremitic. It stresses the individual character of each Byzantine monastic community in contrast to the monastic orders of the Western medieval world, and yet at the same time demonstrates that there were more connections between certain groups of monasteries than previously realized. The most original sections include an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing hermits in the wilderness, and special attention to enclosed monks (recluses) and urban monks and nuns who lived independently outside of monastic complexes. Throughout, Talbot highlights some of the distinctions between the monastic life of men and women, and makes comparisons of Byzantine monasticism with its Western medieval counterpart.

The Baha'i Faith is one of the fastest growing, but least studied, of the world's religions. Adherents view themselves as united by a universal belief that transcends national boundaries. Michael McMullen examines how the Baha'i develop and maintain this global identity. Taking the Baha'i community in Atlanta, Georgia, as a case in point, his book is the first to comprehensively examine the tenets of this little-understood faith.McMullen notes that, to the Baha'i, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed are all divinely sent teachers of 'the Truth', whose messages conform to the needs of their individual cultures and historical periods. But religion-which draws from the teaching of Baha'u'llah, a nineteenth-century Persian-encourages its members to think of themselves as global citizens. It also seeks to establish unity among its members through adherence to a Baha'i worldview. By examining the Atlanta Baha'i community, McMullen shows how this global identity is interpreted locally. He discusses such topics as: the organizational structure and authority relations in the Baha'i ""Administrative Order"; Baha'i evangelicalism; and the social boundaries between Baha'is and the wider culture.

A small and admiral memoir that records the experiences of a young Dutch student who spent a year and a half as a novice monk in a Japanese Zen Buddhist monastery.

After sixty years of living in a Cistercian community, Michael Casey combines his down-to-earth observations about the joys and challenges of living in community with an appreciation of the deeper meanings of cenobitic life, taking into account the changes in both theory and practice that have occurred in his lifetime. He invites his readers, especially monks and nuns, to reflect on their own experiences of community as a means of seeing a path forward into the future. Many of the key components of monastic community have kept the same names for more than a millennium. In an age of paradigm shift, Michael Casey invites readers to examine these essential practices of community life and to ask how they might be envisioned in a way that speaks to our contemporaries.

An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. In By Force and Fear, Anne Jacobson Schutte demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni's The Betrothed are badly off the mark.

Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archive, Schutte examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. She considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. Schutte also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, she finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into "entering religion." Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged. Schutte's innovative book will be of great interest to scholars of early modern Europe, especially those who work on religion, the Church, family, and gender."

Winner of the Henry J. Benda Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, Justin McDaniel traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values. He depicts Buddhism as a series of overlapping processes, bringing fresh attention to the continuities of Theravada monastic communities that have endured despite regional and linguistic variations. Incorporating both primary and secondary sources from Thailand and Laos, he examines premodern inscriptional, codicological, anthropological, art historical, ecclesiastical, royal, and French colonial records. By looking at modern sermons, and even television programs and websites, he traces how pedagogical techniques found in premodern palm-leaf manuscripts are pervasive in modern education. As the first comprehensive study of monastic education in Thailand and Laos, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words will appeal to a wide audience of scholars and students interested in religious studies, anthropology, social and intellectual history, and pedagogy.

La vita monastica non cessa di attrarre uomini e donne. Senza ulteriori "strategie" pastorali essa annuncia il Vangelo del Regno e invita a seguire Cristo, unico Salvatore del mondo. Ne era convinto san Gregorio Magno, ne era convinto san Bonifacio, apostolo della Germania. Ecco, allora, un piccolo libro per mettersi alla loro scuola, nella scia antica e tradizionale del monachesimo. Per poter seguire il Signore Gesu nella conversione della propria vita, nella fedelta ad un ideale e in un'obbedienza vera e liberatrice. In un parola, per essere nel nostro tempo monaci e missionari. La fraternita riconosce in san Bonifacio, vescovo e martire, apostolo della Germania, un riferimento perenne da approfondire e cui sempre ritornare per scoprire le radici della propria chiamata. In modo particolare egli e un punto di riferimento: Per la preminenza dell'Amore di Dio su ogni altra realta creata Per l'amore alla Chiesa universale, ad ogni Chiesa locale e al Romano Pontefice Per l'importanza della vita monastica e per l'attenzione alla cultura Per il desiderio di peregrinare pro amore Dei e il suo ardore missionario Per lo stile dell'evangelizzazione fondato sulla costituzione di comunita di monaci e monache Per la bellezza della vita fraterna e lo stile di amicizia che la anima Per l'appello continuo alla riforma della propria vita in vista della salvezza Per l'aspirazione a donare la vita al Signore e al suo Vangelo fino all'effusione del sangue