Religion : Monasticism

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. The Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity and completely rejected the Catholic Church and all its trappings, regarding it as the Church of Satan. Alarmed at the success of Catharism, the Church founded the Inquisition and launched the Albigensian Crusade to exterminate the heresy. Martin recounts the Cathars' story and the myths associated with them. more...

Price: $9.99

This volume includes a collection of essays of scholars from several disciplines and focuses on the art produced for the Franciscans in Italy from the 13th to the 15th century. They contain a wide range of subject matter (fresco, panel, stained glass window) and a variety of approaches. more...

Price: $199.00

María de San José Salazar (1548-1603) took the veil as a Discalced ("barefoot") Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa of Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform and serving as prioress of the Seville and Lisbon convents. Within the parameters of the strict Catholic Reformation in Spain, María fiercely defended women's rights to define their own spiritual experience and to teach, inspire, and lead other women in reforming their church. . María wrote this book as a defense of the Discalced practice of setting aside two hours each day for conversation, music, and staging of religious plays. Casting the book in the form of a dialogue, María demonstrates through fictional conversations among a group of nuns during their hours of recreation how women could serve as very effective spiritual teachers for each other. The book includes one of the first biographical portraits of Teresa and Maria's personal account of the troubled founding of the Discalced convent at Seville, as well as her tribulations as an Inquisitional suspect. Rich in allusions to women's affective relationships in the early modern convent, Book for the Hour of Recreation also serves as an example of how a woman might write when relatively free of clerical censorship and expectations. A detailed introduction and notes by Alison Weber provide historical and biographical context for Amanda Powell's fluid translation. more...

Price: $22.00

A study of how John Cassian, a fifth-century Gallic author, tried to direct and reshape the development of Western monasticism. Richard J. Goodrich focuses on how Cassian's ascetic treatises were tailored to persuade a wealthy, aristocratic audience to adopt a more stringent, Christ-centred monastic life. - ;Richard J. Goodrich examines the attempt by the fifth-century ascetic writer John Cassian to influence and shape the development of Western monasticism. Goodrich's close analysis of Cassian's earliest work (The Institutes) focuses on his interaction with the values and preconceptions of a traditional Roman elite, as well as his engagement with contemporary writers. By placing The Institutes in context, Goodrich demonstrates just how revolutionary this foundational. work was for its time and milieu. - ;There is much to recommend in this well-written, thoughtful and clearly structured study. - Winrich Lohr, Ecclesiastical History more...

Price: $120.00

The sixties were a time of restlessness, inner turmoil, and exuberance for Merton during which he closely followed the careening development of political and social activism – Martin Luther King, Jr., and the March on Selma, the Catholic Worker Movement, the Vietnam war, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Volume 5 chronicles the approach of Merton’s fiftieth birthday and marks his move to Mount Olivet, his hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where he was finally able to fully embrace the joys and challenges of solitary life: ‘In the hermitage, one must pray of go to seed. The pretense of prayer will not suffice. Just sitting will not suffice . . . Solitude puts you with your back to the wall (or your face to it!), and this is good’ (13 October, 1964). more...

Price: $13.99