Monasticism is a social and religious phenomenon which originated in antiquity and which still remains relevant in the twenty-first century. But what, exactly, is it, and how is it distinguished from other kinds of religious and non-religious practice? In this Very Short Introduction Stephen J. Davis discusses the history of monasticism, from our earliest evidence for it, and the different types which have developed from antiquity to the present day....

Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, her infirmarian aide Sister Anne, and Brother Thomas, a troubled monk, head for Wynethorpe Castle to help a dangerously ill child, but their task is complicated by the murder of an important guest.

Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them is a historical novel like no other, one that immerses the reader in the dailiness of history, rather than history as the given sequence of events that, in time, it comes to seem. Time ebbs and flows and characters come and go in this novel, set in the era of the Black Death, about a Benedictine convent of no great note. The nuns do their chores, and seek to maintain and improve the fabric of their...

In a radical vision for the future of Christianity, New York Times bestselling author and American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches are hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing...

Still recovering from a near fatal winter fever, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndale travels to Amesbury Priory in May of 1272 to visit her aunt Beatrice, acting prioress. There she must solve the mystery of a vengeful "ghost" who is killing people.

"It is Autumn, 1282. Edward I, more often hammering the Scots, is at war with Wales and it is not going as well as he wished. Everyone is edgy on both sides of the loosely defined border between England and Wales. Crucial battles have been lost. Raids are common. Death is a constant threat. Prioress Eleanor is escorting her younger brother, Robert, and his wife, who is in labor, from their Marcher lands to greater safety at a Wynethorpe manor in a...