From the editor’s desk

Rule for an age of misrule

When the Cistercian monk and author Thomas Merton first visited the monastery that was to become his home, the Abbey of Gethsemani, he is said to have exclaimed that he had discovered the only real city in America. It was a comment that conveyed how well a place functions under the rule of St Benedict, with its emphasis on service, order, hospitality and communal life.

It has become a commonplace among some observers of monastic life, and particularly of the Benedictine order, to claim that the greatest contribution that those who follow the rule make is to embody a kind of archive of Western civilisation, a storehouse of culture and values that once shaped Europe.

The International Abbots' Congress, which has recently finished in Rome and to which Benedictine abbots travelled from around the world, put paid to any suggestion that this is a fossilised order. While vocations in the West are in decline, they are rising - as is commonly experienced in other orders - in Asia and Africa. And while there appears a disinclination to commit permanently to monastic life in Europe, Benedictine abbeys run not only highly popular schools but also guest houses and retreat centres on which they regularly hang their "No Vacancies" signs. This popularity certainly puts paid to any idea that Benedictinism's role is that of a cultural library. Rather, it can be put down to the desire of individuals for contact with a community that represents a still centre of prayer, stability and attentive listening. The rule teaches that the integrated life - a life where work and prayer and rest are woven together and balanced - is the good life.

But at a time of growing unease about society, and particularly the way that business has been conducted in the West, St Benedict's rule offers wider insights as well. While contemporary society has turned time into a continuum of work and consumption, which causes tremendous strain to family life, the rule is a reminder that work needs to be reconfigured to provide a more human environment. Economics seen through the prism of the rule is not a system whose only goal is production and exchange, but a means of human development and enhancement.

Dorothy Emmett wrote 50 years ago in Functions, Purposes and Powers that all organisations could learn from religious communities, for she spotted the connection between vocations and creativity. That creativity comes from an organisation focused on tasks and ideals and where people are free to be individuals as well as associate closely with their team. Such a focus in a monastery where the abbot leads his brethren, listening closely to the needs of the community, brings about a common life. For those in business, it offers a reminder that humankind flourishes best in situations of mutual dependence. That wisdom has been too long ignored in business, but mutuality, as expressed in the work of building societies, co-operatives and credit unions, may see its revival following the disastrous cut-throat, pay-later methods of recent years.

St Benedict does not comment directly on money, but he warns his monks of the need for humility, of the taint of avarice and the value of good stewardship. His rule is a rule of Christian anthropology, an understanding that society is best sustained by enabling the flourishing of all. It has survived for 14 centuries. Never has it been more needed than now.