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 ...

The Churches in Britain have a long and distinguished record of commenting authoritatively on issues of economics and social justice, a tradition embracing the Anglican "Faith in the City" report in 1985, the Catholic statement "The Common Good" a decade later, and the more recent ecumenical document of 2005, "Prosperity with a Purpose".

It is far too soon to expect similarly weighty ...

In the Middle Ages, the financial crisis that has devastated Wall Street would no doubt have been likened to the wrath of God that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. One of America's biggest banks, Lehman Brothers, has filed for bankruptcy, throwing thousands out of work (including up to 5,000 at its London subsidiaries) and threatening a dangerous chain reaction throughout the global financial system. As in the story ...

Stephen Hawking's bestseller, A Brief History of Time, concludes with the passage that made the book famous. If a complete theory of subatomic physics were ever reached, he wrote, people would then be able "to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the ...

It may not decide who is to become the next President of the United States, but abortion is once again a hot issue as the 2008 election campaign is launched at the conclusion of the two party conventions. As during the campaign between John Kerry and George W. Bush four years ago, so attention has again focused on the Catholic vote - approximately a quarter of the whole - and how it will be affected by the strongly ...