The Monastery Rules
The Monastery Rules

Author: Berthe Jansen

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2018-09-25

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0520297008

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At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Monastery Rules discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan Buddhist societies and how that position was informed by the far-reaching relationship of monastic Buddhism with Tibetan society, economy, law, and culture. Jansen focuses her study on monastic guidelines, or bca’ yig. The first study of its kind to examine the genre in detail, the book contains an exploration of its parallels in other Buddhist cultures, its connection to the Vinaya, and its value as socio-historical source-material. The guidelines are witness to certain socio-economic changes, while also containing rules that aim to change the monastery in order to preserve it. Jansen argues that the monastic institutions’ influence on society was maintained not merely due to prevailing power-relations, but also because of certain deep-rooted Buddhist beliefs.

The Monastic Rules
The Monastic Rules

Author: Saint Augustine (of Hippo)

Publisher: New City Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1565481305

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The four documents that make up the Rule of Saint Augustine, with two introductory essays

St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries
St. Benedict's Rule for Monasteries

Author: Saint Benedict (Abbot of Monte Cassino.)

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 1950

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9780814606445

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A handy, pocket-sized edition of St. Benedict's Rule with sections dated so that the Rule may be read three times a year.

The Rule of Saint Augustine
The Rule of Saint Augustine

Author: Hugh Of St Victor

Publisher:

Published: 2021-03-06

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13:

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The Rule of Saint Augustine, written Augustine of Hippo (354-430), is a brief document which served as a guide for the servants of God. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The Rule addresses chastity, poverty, obedience, worldliness, labor, hierarchy, charity, prayer, fasting and abstinence, care of the sick, silence and host of other questions. It came into use on a wide scale from the twelfth century onwards and continues to be employed today by many orders, including the Dominicans, Servites, Mercederians, Norbertines, and Augustinians. The Commentary, traditionally attributed to Hugh of St. Victor (c.1096 -1141), offers a wealth of insight on this important document. This edition was translated from the original Latin by Dom Aloysius Smith and formatted for publication by Chaucer House Press.

The Highest Poverty
The Highest Poverty

Author: Giorgio Agamben

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2013-04-17

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 0804786747

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The acclaimed philosopher and author of Homo Sacer contemplates the possibility of true human freedom through a deep analysis of monastic stricture. What is a rule, if it appears to become confused with life? And what is a human life, if, in every one of its gestures, of its words, and of its silences, it cannot be distinguished from the rule? It is to these questions that Giorgio Agamben’s new book turns by means of an impassioned reading of the phenomenon of Western monasticism from Pachomius to St. Francis. The Highest Poverty meticulously reconstructs the lives of monks, with their obsessive attention to temporal articulation and to the Rule, to ascetic techniques and to liturgy. But Agamben’s thesis is that the true novelty of monasticism lies not in the confusion between life and norm, but in the discovery of a new dimension, in which “life” is affirmed in its autonomy, and in which the claim of the “highest poverty” and “use” challenges the law in ways that we must still grapple with today. How can we think a form-of-life, that is, a human life released from the grip of law, and a use of bodies and of the world that never becomes an appropriation? How can we think life as something not subject to ownership but only for common use?

The Canons of Our Fathers
The Canons of Our Fathers

Author: Bentley Layton

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-09-18

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0191019224

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This book is the first publication of a very early set of Christian monastic rules from Roman Egypt, accompanied by four preliminary chapters discussing their historical and social context and their character as rules. These rules were found quoted in the writings of the great Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute. Designed for a federation of monks and nuns who banded together about 360 CE—forming the so-called "White Monastery Federation"—the rules date back to the fourth and fifth centuries. New historical evidence is presented for the founding of the Federation. Providing almost the earliest evidence for Christian communal (cenobitic) monasticism, the rules depict many intimate aspects of ascetic practice. Details of monastic daily life are mentioned in passing in the rules, and the author uses these details to describe their picture of monastic life under five general topics: the monastery as a physical plant, the human makeup of the community, ascetic observances, the hierarchy of authority, and the daily liturgy. The book includes a clear English translation of the rules accompanied by the original Coptic text, amounting to five hundred and ninety-five entries.

The Rule of St. Benedict in English
The Rule of St. Benedict in English

Author:

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2016-11-18

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 0814645321

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For fifteen centuries Benedictine monasticism has been governed by a Rule that is at once strong enough to instill order and yet flexible enough to have relevance fifteen-hundred years later. This pocket-sized, English-only edition is perfect for individual or group study.

Strangers to the City
Strangers to the City

Author: Michael Casey

Publisher: Paraclete Press

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 155725950X

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Michael Casey, a monk and scholar who has been publishing his wise teachings on the Rule of St. Benedict for decades, turns to the particular Benedictine values that he considers most urgent for Christians to incorporate into their lives today. Eloquent and incisive, Casey invites readers to accept that gospel living - seen in the light of the Rule - involves accepting the challenge of being different from the secular culture around us. He encourages readers to set clear goals and objectives, to be honest about the practical ways in which priorities may have to change to meet these goals, and to have the courage to implement these changes both daily and for the future. Casey presents thoughtful reflections on the beliefs and values of asceticism, silence, leisure, reading, chastity, and poverty - putting these traditional Benedictine values into the context of modern life and the spiritual aspirations of people today. Strangers to the City is a book for all who are interested in learning more about the dynamics of spiritual growth from the monastic experience.