Benedict's Rule: A Translation and Commentary

by Terrence G. Kardong

Benedict's A Translation and Commentary  is the first line-by-line exegesis of the entire Rule of Benedict written originally in English. This full commentary - predominately a literary and historical criticism - is based on and includes a new translation and is accompanied by essays on Benedict's spiritual doctrine. A monk who has striven to live according to the Rule of Benedict for thirty-five years, Father Kardong relates it to modern monastic life while examining the sources (Cassian, Augustine, and Basil) Benedict used to establish his Rule. Overviews - summaries of notes, source criticism, or structural criticism - follow some chapters, and a large bibliography of the current scholarship and source references are also included.  Benedict's A Translation and Commentary  also includes the Latin text of the  Regula Benedicti . This reference work is invaluable to libraries and to those who are called to interpret the Rule. It will be opened again and again. Indexed.

992 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2016

About the author

Father Terrence G. Kardong, OSB

Reviews

[Bryan Olin]

Really enjoyed reading this slowly, following the daily cycle starting May 1 and ending August 31.

I can now start to see why Alastair MacIntyre taunted readers of After Virtue with the hypothesis that we are waiting for the next St. Benedict. The Rule has lots to offer on providing a way of living together, advising on how to be a compassionate leader, being a follower, caring and serving others, being humble, living in balance or moderation, and continually making progress as an individual within this community.

While it indeed has its cringey 6th century material, it doesn't take much creativity to ready beyond and extrapolate what Benedict is saying to contemporary lives. And this is what MacIntyre meant, presaging our current atomistic world: Benedict has much to say about how we can treat each other more gently while still living a full life as an individual making progress. But it takes "ora et labora," prayer and work. Or, if you're not Christian, work and contemplation / meditation, serving others and careful self-reflection aimed at improvement.

I'm not a Catholic, or even very religious, but this really piqued my interest about how to live, stimulating my curiosity for other medieval texts to mine for useful ways to be in the world that have been lost, either by blanket judgements about the "Dark Ages" or dismissal because of links to religion. Going through the dark can be enlightening.

[Ephrem Arcement]

A balanced treatment is struck throughout this quite exhaustive commentary (except perhaps for his somewhat idiosyncratic views on the monastic habit). Kardong's commentary is a great gift to all monasteries in the Benedictine tradition, guiding us all as a wise elder into vibrant monastic living rooted in the wise rule for monks by the wise father of Western monasticism.