Title: a good idea, a bad edition
Product review: Unfortunately, the author's distortion of St. Benedict's text through using inclusive language and the highly subjective interpretations of his rule from a feminist political perspective ruin this work. The author makes a historical error by asserting early on in the text that St. Benedict saw the anchoritic life as being self centered and less than the cenobetic life. This is not true. The Cenobetic life is the life in community where one is schooled in asceticism. But those few who can successfully leave and enter into the anchoritic life have entered into the final and highest stage of asceticism. I would recommend that reader's consult a scholarly and historical translation and study of St. Benedict's rule and then work through the text with a spiritual director who is orthodox in faith and practice.
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