Liturgical Press
The Radical Christian Life
The Radical Christian Life
Very little in this world stays fresh and life-giving for 1,500 years. But when that happens, we should ask ourselves why and what that has to do with us.
In The Radical Christian Life: A Year with Saint Benedict, Joan Chittister encourages us to look at these questions. In a masterful introductory essay, she considers how the insights and values of the sixth-century monk can illuminate today's search for a meaningful life. Then she leads us through the year with twelve stories from Benedict's life, one for each month, drawing nourishment from them with daily reflections that help us develop our own spiritual lives in this day and age.
What Readers Say...
"Sister Joan Chittister presents us with fruitful reading for our spiritually impoverished times."
—Notker Wolf, OSB, past Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order
Reader Resources
Read an Excerpt
Who are we now? And who do we want to be?
Most of all, where can we possibly go for a model of how to begin to be a radical Christian witness in a society in which we are almost totally remote from the centers of power and totally outside its centers of influence?
My suggestion is that we stop drawing our sense of human effectiveness from the periods of exploration and their destruction of native peoples, or from the period of industrialization and its displacement of people, or from the periods of the world wars and their extermination of peoples.
My suggestion is that little people—people like you and me—begin to look again to the sixth century and to the spiritual imagination and wondrous wisdom that made it new. Because that is really the good news.
--from The Radical Christian Life by Joan Chittister
Discussion Questions
Engage in meaningful discussions, think critically, and explore deeper insights with these thought-provoking questions.