A Benedictine Reader: 530-1530 (Volume 275)

by Hugh Feiss OSB (Editor), Ronald Pepin (Editor), Maureen M. O'Brien (Editor)

A Benedictine Reader, 530–1530 , has been more than twenty years in the making. A collaboration of a dozen scholars, this project gives as broad and deep a sense of the reality of the first one thousand years of Benedictine monasticism as can be done in one volume, using primary sources in English translation. The texts included are drawn from many different genres and from several languages and areas of Europe. The introduction to each of the thirty-two chapters aims to situate each author and text and to make connections with other texts and studies within and outside the Reader . The general introduction summarizes the main ideas and practices that are present in the Rule of Saint Benedict and in the first thousand years of Benedictine monasticism while suggesting questions that a reader might bring to the texts.

736 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2019

Reviews

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps the most striking and telling aspect of this volume is the utter lack of notable monastic literature that Benedictines did not produce over the course of a millennium! I guess Gregory the Great wasn't considered an option here, since he was not included. And nothing here comes close to the Cistercian literature produced in the High Middle Ages, except, perhaps, Hildegard of Bingen. The selections tell the story less of a order of monks bent toward mystical contemplation and more bent toward the continual effort of monastic reform and fidelity.

[Irene Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very in depth look at writings of Benedictine monks and nuns, as well as Priests and Theologians of 500 to 1500 in the European region. Some of it was quite mystical.