Missionary Monks
by Edward Smither, Cascade Books, £20
It’s easy to presuppose a sharp division between globe-trotting missionaries and cloistered, contemplative monks. If we look at the millennium between 500 and 1500, however, assumptions are challenged. As Smither puts it, “If we don’t have monks in this period, then we really have little to talk about in the way of Christian mission.” Smither demonstrates that from the earliest stirrings of Christian monasticism in the Near East, evangelisation could be an important part of the job description.
