The Why’s, How’s, and Where’s of Deep Reading: A Convivium for Bibliophiles

with Rev. Stephen C. Rowan, PhD

August 11 – 13, 2025
Saint Benedict Guesthouse & Abbey Library

The Mount Angel Institute is pleased to offer a “convivium” (a “banquet” of presentations and discussion) on Deep Reading, one of the “rich ways” of Benedictine Life. In an age of digital communication and distractions, a decline in the study of the humanities, and with less leisure or encouragement to ponder deeply the wisdom within the pages of a book, the convivium is an opportunity to renew a bibliophile’s commitment to the act of reading.

Presentations and discussion will consider why reading is an irreplaceable way of knowing, especially in a post-Gutenberg, digital age; how to read “closely” in order to see deeply into a text’s meaning and its implications for the reader; and the advantages of  a library for finding books and reading them with pleasure.

Selected texts for discussion will include “Greenleaf,” a short story by Flannery O’Connor; letters and short speeches by Abraham Lincoln; sonnets and short poems by Keats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Dickinson and others.

Discussions will be held in the internationally acclaimed Alvar Aalto Library – on the grounds of Mount Angel Abbey – which will be closed to the public during the Convivium.

This retreat is sponsored by the Mount Angel Institute.

Meals and accommodations are available at the Mount Angel Guesthouse.
For more information and reservations, please contact Br. Anselm Flores at mai.coordinator@mtangel.edu