Stoicism & The Rule of St. Benedict
Angela Gilmour
My very simplistic, grass roots feedback on Stoicism and Christianity is a comparison of my experiences in following the Rule of St Benedict as a member of the Lay Community and my participation in the 2013 Stoic week as part of my personal development. The resources are from the contemporary paraphrase of the Rule “Always we Begin Again”. St Benedict was born into a world of turbulence and violence in 480CE seventy years after the fall of Rome. The core values of his rule are Stability, Obedience and Conversion of Life through the practice of openness and transformation.
Overarching Similarities Between Stoicism & Benedictine Spirituality
1. The first aspect of Stoicism, is that each of us has the capacity to make ourselves happy by developing virtues such as wisdom, justice and self control and by broadening our outlook on world.
St Benedict urges his followers to listen with the heart and the mind and to take up the greater weapon of fidelity to a way of living that transcends understanding. The first rule is simply this:
Live this life, and do whatever is done, in a spirit of thanksgiving.
Abandon attempts to achieve security, they are futile.
Give up the search for wealth, it is demeaning.
Quit the search for salvation, It is selfish.
And come to comfortable rest, in the certainty that those who participate in this life, with an attitude of thanksgiving will receive its full promise.
2. The second main aspect of Stoicism that resonates with me is that each human being and animal naturally wants to benefit others by their engagement in life as part of a family, community and as a member of a single brotherhood of like minded people.