In the spirit of Alain de Botton's 'Consolations of Philosophy', the Abbot Christopher Jamison, from BBC2's The Monastery suggests ways in which the teachings of St Benedict can be helpful in everyday life

In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster in West Sussex, the largest centre of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behaviour and lifestyle since its foundations in 1084.

Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night.

In a barbarous and fallen world, the monks of the Order of Leibowitz inherit the sacred relics and spend their lives copying, illuminating and interpreting the holy fragments. They vow to preserve ancient knowledge, but will man learn from his mistakes or will history repeat itself?

Ranging across Europe and the Middle East, this book reconstructs the internal life, experience and aims of the medieval cloister. It also explores the many-sided relationships between the monasteries and the secular world from which they drew recruits.

Explores the career and reforming programme of Chrodegang (c. 712-766), bishop of Metz.

David Foster is a Benedictine Monk of Downside Abbey and chaplain to Downside School. He has always been concerned to bring the riches of the monastic tradition to lay people as they struggle to live the Christian life in the modern world. Lectio Divina or the art of spiritual reading is an art which is all but lost outside monastic communities. But following St Benedict's opening command in his .

Brings together a selection of Cistercian Order's works. Featuring writings by St Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153), this bvolume also includes a description of Clairvaux, biogarphies of abbots and a series of stories, all drawing on the Scriptures to express personal forms of monastic theology.

Out of her long experience as a spiritual director, mentor and teacher, Margaret Guenther offers a warm and sensible guide for "the rest of us" to create a helpful and balanced rule of life to help us in our search for faith.

The four documents that make up the Rule of Saint Augustine, with two introductory essays

In this text, Gianni Vattimo explores the theme of faith and religion. He examines concepts of charity, truth, dogmatism, morality and sin through the lens of his own life, and at the centre is the enigma of belief which he identifies as an inevitable feature of our cultural and personal lives.

An illustrated book of poetry.