Product Description

Many Christians today are rediscovering the wisdom of St. Benedict's ancient rule, David Robinson, a Presbyterian minister and father of three teenage boys, has adapted Benedict's enduring monastic way of life to his contemporary family.

In The Family Cloister Robinson relates the seven key teachings from the Rule that are helping his family maintain peace and stability. These are: Family Design, Family Spirituality, Family Discipline, Family Health, Family Life Together, Family Service and Hospitality, and Family Growth.

Families face many difficult decisions today. The Family Cloister addresses the major issues including, as Robinson states them, family community and individuality, participation and separation, discipline and freedom, and stability and mobility. Christian families of all sizes will find Robinson's advice Scripturally accurate, timely, and most of all, practical and down-to-earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #691564 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
David Robinson lives in Cannon Beach, Oregon with his wife, three sons and black lab. He serves as pastor of Community Presbyterian Church, Cannon Beach, and has worked as a pastor for the past 15 years.

Customer Reviews

Home Run for the Family
What a fresh perspective on family life. Having read a number of books about family life and raising children in a messed up world, this book has given my wife and I a new look at being a family.

Combining the tradition of the Benedictine order and his own experience, David Robinson's first book challenges the hectic lifestyle which so many families are caught up in today. It suggests a framework within which to truly be a family.

Habits shape our lives. And this great book, suggests we create wonderful habits to shape our family life. I'd like to say more, but as this fine work encouraged me, I am off to spend time with my family

The Adventure of Parenting
Vincent Van Gogh painted a family scene titled "First Steps", a portrait of a father working in the family garden having just laid down his hoe to kneel down with open arms to receive his daughter. The mother has just stepped through a little white garden gate with a one year old baby girl dressed in a pink dress, has set the little girl down to take her "first steps" into Daddy's arms. Behind the family, an apple tree is in full springtime blossom with the humble cottage in the background.

This painting captures the essence of "The Family Cloister", parents and children taking first steps together in the family garden where the fruitful and adventurous love labor of raising kids takes place all across the planet.

I've just become a Benedictine Oblate and believe "The Family Cloister" will be an encouragement to any other Oblate parents who are wrestling with ways to implement the practical-spiritual vision of St. Benedict within the cloister of daily parenting.

Doesn't quite pull it off
The theory sounds like it would work: take the basics of how a monasatery is run and apply it to raising a family. I don't think the author pulls if off well. I was especially affronted at his ideas about using separation as a means of discipline for children. His use of the concept is not like, the same thing as a time out for a three year old. It's not an awful book or anything, he just didn't convince me that the monastic life is transferrable to a family situation.