Benedictines, Monasticism and Religious Orders, monasticism and religious orders -- middle ages, Italy, Saint Benedict, Heretics, Modernism 

This advice is from a spiritual father who loves you and gives you the sort of counsel that will shape your whole life.

"Listen, my child. I want you to put the ear of your heart to the solid ground of the master's wisdom (what I've received, I'm passing on to you). It's advice from a spiritual father who loves you - the sort of counsel you receive by letting it shape your whole life."

So begins the famous opening paragraph of Benedict's Rule in Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's vital, new, contemporary paraphrase. The entire text of the Rule is here plus a lengthy introduction from Jonathan, and detailed explanatory notes throughout that explain difficult passages. The result is a classic re-introduced that will enliven any twenty-first-century expression of religious community.

St. Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480-547), is considered the founder of western monasticism.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a leader of the new monastic movement and co-founder of Rutba House community in Durham, North Carolina. An associate minister at St. John's Baptist Church in Durham, he also directs the School for Conversion, a partnership among new monastic communities for alternative theological education. His other books include, The Wisdom of Stability, and, with Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.

Taken from the back cover.