The struggle to find silence in the ancient monastic world – and now

• In our contemporary world, noise pollution has reached dangerous levels.

The World Health Organization has argued that “excessive noise” is a serious threat to human health.

• Kim Haines-Eitzen
• The Conversation

Studies have shown that excessive exposure to noise not only causes hearing loss but also leads to heart disease, poor sleep and hypertension.

In some parts of the world, a mysterious “droning sound,” similar to a “a diesel engine idling nearby,” has been described as “torture” for the small percent of the population that can hear it.

I’m a scholar of early Christianity and my research shows that monasticism developed in…

• The struggle to…