The rise of monasticism within the early Church of East and West to the time of Benedict. Cross-listed with HCHR 413.

The development of Western monastic life and reform movements from the early Middle Ages through the fifteenth century. Cross-listed with HCHR 415.

The decline of Western monasticism in the sixteenth century through its revival in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cross-listed with HCHR 417.

The multiplicity of expressions of monastic life: from intentional communities to heritages, from traditional Benedictine and Cistercian communities to ecumenical, inter-faith and Protestant communities, from solely vowed religious to various forms of affiliation of lay membership. The changing face of monasticism in the 21st century.

The Rule and its sources; exegesis of the text; issues of interpretation.

The history of Benedictine monastic structures of governance, including individual monasteries and congregations. The present laws governing monasteries. The rights and obligations of monastics. Visions for the future.

The liturgical shape of organized monastic life: the Liturgy of the Hours, the Eucharist, rites of admission and profession, the consecration of virgins, the blessing of abbots and abbesses, rites of the refectory, rites of hospitality, the washing of feet, rites concerning faults, sin, and reconciliation, rites for the sick, dying and dead.

The formation of the Christian in the context of the faith-giving community. Conversatio, stability and obedience. Conveying and supporting faith in the monastic context through eagerness for the work of God, for obedience and for humble service. Special emphasis on lectio divina. Examination of the ways monasticism has traditionally realized community: common prayer, common meals, common decision-making and common support of work.

The development of monastic spiritual theology will be studied from the perspective of monastic primary sources. Texts will be studied as guides and sourcebooks for models of monastic spiritual progress and human maturity. Special emphasis will be placed on: (1) the original meanings of "active" and "contemplative" in the vocabulary of early monasticism; (2) models of spiritual development in the early church and in the early monastic movement; (3) the interrelationship between the cenobitic and eremetic lifestyles; (4) the theory and practice of lectio divina; (5) the mystical interpretation of the scriptures and the practice of liturgical prayer; (6) monastic reform and renewal; (7) spiritual guidance in the monastic tradition. Cross-listed with SPIR 434.

The development of Christian asceticism will be studied from the perspective of primary sources, drawn chiefly from the Christian monastic tradition. Texts will be studied as guides and sourcebooks for models of conversion, growth in human maturity, and spiritual progress. Special emphasis will be place on: (1) classical and Christian understandings of ascesis; (2) repentance and the call to conversion as the basis for authentic ascetical practice; (3) the dynamic interrelationship between ascetical practice and contemplative vision; (4) philosophical and monastic models of virtue and vice; (5) the contrasting and interdependent asceticism of hermitage and cenobium; (6) friendship as the form and ascetical school of virtue; (7) spiritual exercises and the love of learning-implications for monastic reform and renewal. Cross-listed with SPIR 435.

This course will examine early Christian and monastic attitudes toward the biblical text and the interplay between the Bible and forms of prayer. Topics will include: methods of interpreting the Bible; ways of encountering the Bible (reading, memorization, meditation), kinds of early monastic prayer and their biblical basis. There will also be some attention to the subsequent history of those traditions and a consideration of present-day implications. Cross-listed with SPIR 436.

Fourth century Christianity gave birth to a spirituality which called women out of conventional understandings of wife, courtesan, and/or mother into lives of prayer, service, and the founding of communal households and monasteries. An exploration of writings by and about such foremothers on the monastic movement as Macrina, Melania, Paula, Eustochium, Marcella, Syncletica, Mary of Egypt, and Egeria, their social and historical realities, and their influence then and now.

This course explores important themes in the Rule of St. Benedict, such as doing good works in order to reach God’s kingdom, being an apprentice in the spiritual life, having the right interior dispositions (e.g., humility), and the usefulness of observances. In addition to reading the Rule, we will look at some materials from the historical context in which St. Benedict wrote and some contemporary treatments of related topics. This course will be valuable for those looking to engage the perennial wisdom of the Rule more deeply.

This course will examine how the Rule of Saint Benedict creates a community of moral obligation based in covenantal love, paying special attention to how these relationships today participate in and enact the covenantal love of Jesus Christ, true God and true human.

In this class we'll discuss ways in which the Benedictine values of stability, conversion of life, hospitality, respect for community, and prayer can form us in unexpected but important ways.

Growth is a dynamic process, and the Church’s spiritual traditions envision this with different accents and insights. How does Saint Benedict and the long monastic tradition following him describe spiritual growth? This course will investigate how certain Benedictine authors describe spiritual growth and the practices which accompany it, focusing on lectio divina, community life, and desire for God. Through both ancient and contemporary wisdom, we will explore how Saint Benedict and his followers can contribute to our own journey to God with one another today.

This course will look at the curious history of acedia, the 8th “bad thought” of the 4th century monastics. They considered acedia, anger, and pride to be the worst of the common temptations faced by people trying to live a monastic life. Acedia was considered especially treacherous, as it could cause a monk to lose all faith in God and abandon a life of prayer. By the 6th century acedia had been subsumed into sloth, as one of the “seven deadly sins,” and came to mean physical laziness rather than what the monks knew it to be: a profound inertia caused by spiritual despair. This course will look at that history and the implications of a rediscovery and reclaiming of acedia in the present day, including its emergence during the COVID pandemic.

In his Rule, Saint Benedict instructs monks to pray “the full complement of one hundred and fifty psalms every week” (RB 18:23). In light of this counsel and the traditional Benedictine psalmody that follows from it, this course will investigate the transformative spiritual wisdom of the Psalter that emerges when one studies and prays all of the psalms together. To do so, we will engage with contemporary scholarship on individual psalms and the theological development across the whole book. We will also consult traditional interpretations and prayerful uses of the Psalter, with an emphasis on Benedictine sources.

Brief overview of monastic liturgy, with a view toward its renewal since the Second Vatican Council; the nature of ritual in a monastic context; spiritualities of monastic prayer; music in monastic worship; and the place of Eucharist in monastic life.

This course considers the influences of Monastic Lives written between the 4 th and 7 th century, and places them in their literary, historical and theological contexts. It focusses especially on three Lives written by renowned church fathers: Athanasius’ Life of St. Antony, Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of St. Macrina and the Second book of Gregory the Great’s Dialogues. It considers ways in which the authors’ wider theological positions are conveyed in the Lives as well as ways these monastic Lives shed light on how these theologians foresaw their positions being lived out in a concrete way.