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The View from a Monastery: The Vowed Life and Its Cast of Many Characters | 
 enlarge | Author: Benet Tvedten
Creator: Kathleen Norris
Publisher: Paraclete Press (MA)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $12.44
You Save: $3.51 (22%)
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 898702
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 173
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 155725477X
Dewey Decimal Number: 255.1
EAN: 9781557254771
ASIN: 155725477X
Publication Date: October 2006
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| Customer Reviews:
 An insightful, true testimony March 4, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The View from a Monastery: The Vowed Life and its Cast of Many Characters is the spiritual memoir of Brother Benet Tvedten, who has been a Benedictine monk for almost fifty years. An inside look at not only the faith and commitment of monastic life, but also the foibles of monks as fallible human beings, Written in kindly, engaging prose, The View from a Monastery reflects on the values of stability and commitment to a humble way of life, and bonds of community. "Benedictines, Hutterites, and Native Americans are subjects of interest because we all live apart from mainstream society. We belong to 'intentional communities'. On a particular day, however, members of each group may be found shopping at Wal-Mart. After all, we are not totally withdrawn from the world." An insightful, true testimony to the ups, downs, and satisfactions of dedicating oneself to a monastic way of life.
 Charming but... December 19, 2006
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
The disclaimer on the back of the book reads "You are advised not to read 'The View from a Monastery' book if you will be disappointed to learn that monks are fully human and always fallible." This is true. You should read this book only if you are interested in reading entertaining stories about the unique lifestyle lived by Benedictine monks in the modern-day United States. I, unfortunately, read this disclaimer after I had read half the book. This book did not disappoint me and I do not think poorly of anyone in it, but I must say that it was not what I expected. I came to this book having felt the pull of the monastic lifestyle for my entire life. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to become a monk. I am still very interested in doing so, but I'm not so sure that Tvedten's monastery is the place I want to be for one reason, listed below:
It is not my place to pass judgment on those characterized in the book, but I will say that the attitude conveyed by Tvedten seems to excuse the selfishness and cynicism exhibited by different monks as something common and acceptable. True, the Benedictine lifestyle doesn't promise perfection but states that followers will attain "some degree of virtue". In the monastic life described by Tvedten, it seems that Benedictine virtue is not attained actively by pursing a monastic lifestyle, but is achieved passively by the fact that one has isolated oneself from the vices and temptations existing outside the monastery (and even then, Tvedten tells stories of how monks get around this limitation). In this way, life in a monastery becomes nothing more than a microcosm of the rest of the world -- the only exceptions being (1) monks live on a set schedule, (2) monks are celibate and (3) monks pray all the time. This changes monastic life from a spiritual pursuit where one surrenders oneself to God and turns it into some sort of rehab program where people go who are unable to live a spiritual life any other way.
After reading this book, I am still drawn to monastic life, but it will likely be lived in a monastery of one (myself) where all the world are my brothers and sisters. Only then will any lifestyle changes and life lessons be truly worthwhile. As somebody probably said: It is not a sacrifice to remove temptation, it is only a sacrifice to resist in the face of it -- only then can you learn from yourself what God intends you to learn.
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