In this thread I will post quotations from the book "The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages" by Christopher Brookes.
Please bump if this thread interests you.
On living the good Christian life
>"From the very beginnings of Christianity the question has been asked: Can the good life, the Christian life, be led in the world; is it compatible with earthly joys and pleasures? -or must it, in its highest and truest forms, involve renunciation, stern discipline, an ascetic life, and celibacy?"
p.25
>>27126487
I'll give you a bump, but I'd rather read the whole thing. I'm going to see if I can buy it for kindle now.
On the early monk Origen
>"The greatest of them, Origen, made himself a eunuch for the kingdom's sake and preached an extreme asceticism; celibacy was to him as holy as martyrdom."
p.29
On the monastery of St. Benedict
>"As for the other common tension in monastic history, that between the inward and the outward view, Benedict's monastery was clearly a little world, an oasis of sanity in a barbarian kingdom."
p.50
>>27126522
Holy fucking shit kebabs. Anything vaguely scholarly for kindle is ridiculously expensive. Carry on with your thread.
On individuality within a communal setting
>"Communities can carry a single stamp, and the communal life has undoubtedly bred certain common characteristics. Yet the outsider who visits a lively [monastic] community today is commonly struck by the opposite impression: that the common life has sharpened and strengthened the individuality of many of its adherents."
p.95
>>27126597
I have it in paperback. I do recommend it but there is a great deal of focus on architectural developments etc which can be rather tangential at times.
On society's respect for monks
>"The religious ideas of the late tenth and early centuries were predominantly monastic. It was still widely held in the late eleventh century that only monks had more than a reasonable hope of salvation, and this induced many to seek refuge, at all periods in life, in the cloister, and motivated rich men and kings to the endowment of houses where fervent and continuous prayer could be offered for a safe passage to the gate of heaven."
p.102
On monasticism as a response to an evil world
>"The stern asceticism characteristic of many monastic leaders went hand in hand with a view that the world was almost wholly evil, even though at first created by God and good."
p.145
On justifying the monastic life
>"The heart of his message is that those who dwell far from men are often more austere, more heroic in their prayers and their fasting, but that those who live in cities can combine contemplation with good works and practical influence."
p.163
On the Cistercian order
>"It was the lay brothers who enabled the early Cistercian communities to be self-supporting, to be separate islands cut off from the world. The Cistercians were inspired by the vision of self-contained houses of monks cut off from the world described in the Rule of St Benedict, and by their knowledge of the way of life the monks of the desert [....] So they sought "desert places", by which they means peaceful and secluded."
p.173
On groups of wanderers forming their own monastic communities
>"From time to time little groups of penitents or wanderers gathered into a community; poverty and good works were their aim, or else they wished to live mainly withdrawn from the world."
p.222
On the monastery of "Fountains"
>"At Fountains we saw a world apart: a community as cut off from its neighbours as circumstances and human affairs allowed. [...] Fountains reflects an urgent desire to escape from the world"
p.252
Damn I thought I'd have more relevant quotations but I don't.
If anybody is interested in reading quotations from the book "This Virtual Life: Escapism and Simulation in Our Media World" by Andrew Evans then let me know and I will post.
>>27126943
Go ahead anon I'm interested
