Pre-Benedictine Monasticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 2

Pre-Benedictine Monasticism is volume 2 of Initiation into the Monastic Tradition, the edition of Merton's novitiate conferences in the Monastic Wisdom series of Cistercian Publications (distributed by the Liturgical Press), edited by Patrick F. O'Connell and published in 2006. As master of novices at Gethsemani from 1955 to 1965, Merton was responsible for the formation of young men preparing for monastic profession, and he wrote out and taught a broad series of courses on the monastic tradition, which he called an initiation into that tradition. This volume prints his notes for the course on monasticism before Saint Benedict. The volume carries a contribution by the scholar of Syriac Christianity Sidney H. Griffith.