Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Can present-day monkism claim Augustine? Calvin says no. Augustine would not bind what Scripture leaves free, would not let monks live idle on other men’s goods, and made charity the chief rule so that the monastery would train ordinary piety and serve the unity of the Church. Modern monkism, he says, exacts dress, diet, and ceremony as if they were the faith itself, glories in idleness as a contemplative approach to the angels, and invents a new piety by which a few men become more perfect than the rest. They reserve the title of perfection for their own order, then retreat to the subterfuge that they only aspire to it more than others. They treat Christ’s commands as mere “evangelical counsels,” as if love of enemies and truthfulness were optional extras. The rich young ruler is no pro ...