What is a rule if it seems to merge completely with life? And what is human life if in every gesture, every word, every silence it cannot be distinguished from the rule?

It is precisely these questions that Agamben’s new book seeks to answer through a passionate rereading of the fascinating and bottomless phenomenon that is Western monasticism from Pachomius to Saint Francis. Although the book reconstructs in detail the life of monks with their obsessive attention to timekeeping and rule, to ascetic techniques and liturgy, Agamben’s thesis is nonetheless that the true novelty of monasticism does not lie in the confusion of life and norm, but in the opening up of a new dimension in which, perhaps for the first time, “life” as such is affirmed in its autonomy, and the claim to “the highest poverty” and “use” poses a challenge to law that our time will still have to face.