The present volume contains most of the papers given at the second international symposium which took place from 31st May to 3rd June 2006 in Rome at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo. The phenomenon of monasticism is not an alternative to the Church, nor even to society, but it does present its own autonomy, the fruit of the ecclesial vocation of the monk, as well as its contemporary presence in the world. What began life as a marginal movement and a prophetic and critical voice against a certain model of the Church which had become completely identified with the power-structures of its time, was almost immediately ratified by the Church herself as part of her existence in the world. An attempt has been made to understand the ‘today’ of the monastic vocation, and to be able to pinpoint its ‘tomorrow’ by reconsidering the nature of the relationship between the Church, the world, and monasticism in different periods throughout history. The vastness and extreme diversification of the monastic phenomenon has been divided into three major thematically-consistent sections: Western Monasticism; Eastern Monasticism; and Studies on the Rule of St Benedict.