What is the Religious Life?

The Year of Consecrated Life invited Catholics to reflect on and celebrate the witness of those who have dedicated their lives entirely to God. But what exactly is the Religious Life? In this concise and insightful book, Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, offers a clear introduction to its origins, development, and enduring spiritual significance in the life of the Church.

Drawing from Scripture and the early Christian tradition, Nichols traces the emergence of Religious Life from the Gospels and the Apostolic Age through the monastic movements of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Cappadocia. He follows its growth in the Latin West through figures such as St. Augustine, St. John Cassian, St. Benedict, and St. Thomas Aquinas, showing how these foundations continue to nourish modern religious orders and new movements.

Nichols explains that Religious Life is not a collection of separate trees but one great tree with many branches. The tree is the monastic estate; the branches are the diverse forms of life and missions within the Church that grow from its contemplative roots. All religious communities—ancient or new—draw life from this same monastic spirit and are called to recover it as their common foundation.

About the Author

Aidan Nichols, OP, is a member of the Dominican community at Blackfriars, Cambridge, and the author of numerous books on Eastern and Western theology and Church history.