Enlightened Monks. The German Benedictines, 1750–1803. Oxford: 2011.

Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism, 2013

This essay will suggest the main elements of western monastic mysticism as found in its classic texts. Among them is the Rule of Benedict (RB), whose few but precious references to spiritual experience place it firmly within a literary tradition based on translated eastern monastic writings, the Latin monastic synthesis of John Cassian, and the burgeoning regulae of western monasticism. Indeed, it is misleading to speak of "Benedictine" mysticism, as if Benedict had a distinctive approach to the spiritual life. In the RB we see an eminently mainstream presentation of ascetic theology and catch glimpses of an understanding of prayer that emphasizes themes drawn from other monastic texts. Those texts were read within a theological environment shaped most of all by the Bible and its major Latin interpreters. In this survey I therefore begin with that biblical grounding of monastic religious experience, and the corollary importance of the study of Latin as the key to the sacred text and its interpreters. Then I will review the monastic literature available in the west at the time of Benedict, with particular attention to the influence of John Cassian (ca. 365-ca. 435), whose writings provided an early conduit to the west for the monastic teaching of the east. Benedict's inclusion of Augustine's writings among his authoritative sources points to what would become the classic western monastic synthesis of Augustine's Platonically-infused mysticism and the biblically-centered prayer of the eastern monastic tradition with its emphasis on compunction. The result was to be classically expressed in the writings of Gregory the Great (540-604), which would become staple monastic texts in the centuries after Benedict. As the RB slowly became influential and then assumed a privileged 2 role in the monastic reforms of the Frankish empire from the mid-eighth century onwards, the "Benedictine" monasticism that emerged from this process rested upon a deep foundation that had been built during more than 350 years of western monastic experimentation.

Lectures CM407 - Christian Monasticism Lecturer: Rev. Prof. Ugo-Maria Er. Dio Blackfriars The history of monasticism is one of the strangest problems in the history of the world. For monasticism ranks among the most powerful influences which have shaped the destinies of Christendom and of civilisation; and the attempt to analyse it is more than usually difficult, because the good and the evil in it, are blended together almost inextricably. To those who contemplate it from a distance, wrapped in a romantic haze of glory, it may appear a sublime and heroic effort after superhuman excellence. To others, approaching it more closely and examining it more dispassionately, it seems essentially faulty in principle, though accidentally productive of good results at certain times and under certain conditions. They regard the blemishes, which from the first marred the beauty of its heavenward aspirations, as well as the more glaring vices of its later phases, as inseparable from its very being. To them it is not so much a thing excellent in itself, though sometimes perverted, as a radical mistake from the first, though provoked into existence by circumstances; not an aiming too high, but an aiming in the wrong direction. By declaring “war against nature,” to use the phrase of one of its panegyrists, it is, in their eyes, virtually “fighting against God.” In their judgment it degrades man into a machine. In their estimation the monk shunning the conflict with the world is not simply deserting his post, but courting temptations of another kind quite as perilous to his well-being. In brief, far from being an integral and essential part of Christianity, it is in their estimation a morbid excrescence. What proportion of truth is in each of these conflicting theories, a careful study of the facts, so far as they can be ascertained from history, may help to determine.

The Merton Annual, 2007

Prayer and Thought in Monastic Tradition. Essays in Honour of Benedicta Ward SLG, ed. Santha Bhattacharji, Rowan Williams, and Dominic Mattos , 2014

Th e last 50 years have seen more revisions in understanding the history of Christian monasticism than any comparable period since the Reformation. Some new evidence has been discovered, but the changes have come mostly as a result of reading more broadly than the traditional monastic canon, and reading the familiar texts with the tools of modern historical-critical scholarship. Th e implications for monastic history of the approaches that created the nineteenth-century upheaval in biblical criticism became clear only in the latter part of the twentieth century. Although these new perspectives are now taken for granted in academic circles, they have yet to make a serious impact on the historical self-understanding of monks and nuns. Some may reasonably argue that there is no reason they should, and that the traditional interpretations of monastic history and the traditional corpus of monastic literature have served well and continue to nourish new monastic generations. But as someone who, like Sister Benedicta, inhabits the realms of both vowed monastic life and the modern academy, I feel it necessary and important to make the eff ort to bridge them in the hope that both will benefi t. My own interest in frontiers between regions and cultures, and in the transmission of ideas across those frontiers, has made me all the more sensitive to the shortcomings of some of the standard monastic narratives, and correspondingly excited about eff orts to revisit them for the sake of better understanding of the sources of monasticism and of its continuing potential for transforming the church and the world. Th e present essay, off ered in tribute to one who models for so many of us both monastic fi delity and scholarly rigour, must be modest in scope. I will consider some of the basic assumptions of traditional accounts of the origins of monasticism in the Christian east, and then turn to analogous problems with the received narrative of the rise of Benedictine monasticism in the west.

Missionalia, 2015

Given the growing contemporary interest among Christians of all traditions in monastic spirituality, the latter is discussed with reference to the most famous 20th-century monastic, former Protestant turned Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. Despite centuries of Reformed suspicion and disapproval of monasticism, it is asked whether, despite dogmatic differences, there are not elements of this "Roman Catholic" spiritualitye.g. monastic spiritual practices and virtues-worth reconsidering and incorporating into Reformed spirituality, especially given the challenges Christians face in the 21st century, or whether elements of this spirituality did, in fact, not survive outside its monastic context within the Reformed tradition.

Critical Monks. The German Benedictines, 1680-1740, 2019

Grove Music Online, 2019

A broad survey of Benedictine monasticism from the time of Benedict to the present with sections on the Benedictine Office and music and monasticism. The bibliography (completed 2017) is divided by topic.

A Not-So-Unexciting Life. Essays on Benedictine History and Spirituality in Honor of Michael Casey, OCSO, ed. Carmel Posa, SLG (Collegeville, Liturgical Press), 2017

Religions, 2021

The monastic tradition has its roots in the New Testament practices of withdrawing into the desert, following a celibate lifestyle and disciplines of fasting. After the empire became Christian in the 4th century these ascetic disciplines evolved into monastic communities. While these took various forms, they developed a shared literature, gained a recognised place in the church, while taking different ways of life in the various settings in the life of the church. Western and Eastern traditions of monastic life developed their own styles of life. However, these should be recognised as being formed by and belonging to the same tradition, and showing how it can adapt to specific social and ecclesiastical conditions. In the modern world, this monastic way of life continues to bring renewal to the church in the ‘new monasticism’ which adapts traditional monastic practices to contemporary life. New monastic communities engage in evangelism, serve and identify with the marginalised, offer...