The New Monastics
Imperfect but trying.
A topic of interest to me recently:
What they [those that withdrew from the Roman commonweal, including monastic communities] set themselves to achieve — often not recognizing fully what they were doing — was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point.... This time, however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers, they have already been governing us for quite some time.