Perceptive, breathtaking, intense, controversial Controversial author Sandra Schneiders projects a new model of religious life. While her underlying message is that religious life has a future full of hope, that life must be rethought within the radically new context of the post-Vatican II, postmodern millennium. This is necessary in order for religious life to continue to make sense. She describes religious life as organic, an intricate holistic system that can't be understood by disassembling its parts. Thus she situates it within the context of the world and of the Catholic Church. Both deeply exciting and genuinely consoling, the book-- --examines major questions of celibacy, permanent commitment,formation, community, vows, prayer, and more --tackles tough issues of patriarchy, feminism, the role of women in the Church, and female ordination --uses the paradigm of the Dark Night of the Soul to make sense of what has happened to religious since Vatican II --takes a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approach to suggest new meaning for the contemporary religious