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Pax vobiscum!
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http://home.microsoft.com/reading/features.asp
For those with no browsers I'll append the text here
(though it's probably illegal):
Cyber-Monks of New Mexico
=========================
When the Vatican decided to build a state-of-the-art
Web site for Jubilee 2000, the Roman Catholic
Church's celebration of the new millennium and the
2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, it
turned to an unlikely source: a small Benedictine
monastery called Christ in the Desert, located about
75 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the
Chama Canyon National Wilderness.
As Brother M. Aquinas Woodworth, a 31-year-old
former programmer and systems analyst from Denver,
describes it, the monks at Christ in the Desert had
moved onto the Internet out of necessity.
"About three years ago we began receiving a large
number of new brothers. In one 12-month period we
received 12 new brothers," he explained from Rome in
an e-mail interview. "This put a significant
financial strain on the monastery, because our
existing means of income, including the guest house
and a small gift shop, were no longer enough to
support the community.
"This all happened about the time that the Web took
off, in late 1994. We saw in the Web an opportunity
to establish a new work for the community. Web
design is ideal for us: It can be adapted to our
monastic schedule, we don't have to leave our desert
solitude, it is a fully creative and human work, and
it provides a good income to support the community."
From the Desert to the Vatican
When the monks at Christ in the Desert viewed the
original Vatican Web site, a simple site launched in
late 1995, they e-mailed the Vatican and offered
their services. The result is a large, multinational
project, centered in Rome, to create a site linking
millions of believers around the globe.
"To experience the turn of a millennium is a very
extraordinary thing," comments Brother Aquinas, who
is currently based in Rome as a consultant to the
team of Italian designers constructing the
site. "But to be involved in the work of designing
the symbolic center of the entire eventfor it is
evident that the technology of the Web will be the
primary characteristic of the new millenniumis a
very rare privilege, and we are excited by the
creative and technical possibilities of the
project."
In the process, the monks of Christ in the Desert
are reviving the ancient art of illumination, using
the tools of multimedia to enrich and enhance
Scripture and other religious texts for the
faithful.
Illuminating Scripture through Scripting
"Apart from the particulars of any medium," Brother
Aquinas explains, "ink and parchment, or HTML and
Javathe fundamental work of the ancient scribes was
to take the ideas expressed in a text and then
illuminate those ideas to the senses, so that the
ideas would have a more complete impact on the
reader than words alone. The ancient scribes did
this with the media available to them in their
age. We are attempting to do the same thing with the
media of our age.
"The Web really gives the scribe some incredible
tools for this workimages, streaming audio and
video, 3-D rendering, etc.which means that we have
the opportunity to illuminate ideas very fully and
powerfully to the entire human person, in all of his
or her senses."
To some, the idea of celebrating Christ's birth with
"a showcase for new technology" might seem
incongruous, like fancying up St. Peter's with a
light-and-sound show. To devout technophiles like
the monks of Christ in the Desert, however, there is
no contradiction.
"Technology is an exceptionally pure expression of
human creativity in God's image," Brother Aquinas
explains. "When people create technology, they are
simply fulfilling their nature in God's image.
"We immediately recognized in this work the
connection it gave us with a very ancient monastic
tradition. The very creative nature of the work is
important. We can employ all sorts of talents in the
community, from technical programming work to the
skills of our artists and iconographers. The entire
labor is a rich, creative collaboration. Work is an
essential part of monastic life . . . and thus the
richly creative nature of Web site design adds a
great deal to our life."
Linking the Monastic Community
The Jubilee 2000 project will draw on the skills of
Benedictine nuns and monks all over the world, most
of whom will work from their home monasteries. Part
of the project will be an international "virtual
scriptorium," in which members of the design team
can communicate and collaborate on the
work. Eventually, the Jubilee 2000 Web site will
provide online access to the treasures in the
Vatican Museums, as well as "illuminated" versions
of scripture and other sacred texts. One
possibility: a three-dimensional rendering of
St. Peter's Basilica, providing an online tour of
the Basilica and the priceless art within.
"If a visitor took an interest in a particular
section or piece of artsay, Michelangelo's
"Piet�"then that could be linked to many resources:
passages from Scripture which the sculpture
illuminates, theological reflections on the same
theme, other related pieces of art, etc. The art
would lead the visitor to an idea which could be
'drilled down' to its theological and philosophical
roots."
Ultimately, the link between monastic life and new
technology is unsurprising: It was medieval monks,
after all, who helped bring about the revolution in
early book-printing. The monks at Christ in the
Desert, as Brother Aquinas points out, are only
carrying on a venerable tradition:
"When agriculture was the economic foundation of
society, monks were at the forefront of developing
agricultural technology. Saint Benedict, the founder
of the Benedictines, is considered the patron of
Europe because his monasteries quite literally built
Europe, with extraordinary innovation and managerial
expertise in the technology of agriculture, and in
economics and architecture and medicine and politics
and literature. We're only following in his
footsteps."
Richard Martin is a writer for PreText, a multimedia
content and design company in Seattle.
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� 1997 Microsoft Corporation
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