What is happiness? Does life have a meaning? If so, is that meaning available in an ordinary life? The philosopher Zena Hitz confronted these questions head-on when she spent several years living in a Christian religious community. Religious life -- the communal life chosen by monks, nuns, friars, and hermits -- has been a part of global Christianity since earliest times, but many of us struggle to understand what could drive a person to renounce wealth, sex, children, and ambition to live a life of prayer and sacrifice. Hitz's lively and accessible book explores questions about faith, sacrifice, asceticism and happiness through philosophy, stories, and examples from religious life. Drawing on personal experience as well as film, literature, history, biography, and theology, it demystifies an important element of contemporary culture, and provides a picture of human flourishing and happiness which challenges and enriches modern-day life.

‘We live in a time in which few people write about the lives of consecrated religious. In such a context, this book would have been a welcome contribution to the literature were it only half as intelligent and articulate as it actually is. But even if our bookstores were overflowing with commentaries on the religious life, ‘A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life’ would stand out for its distinctive and thoughtful approach, the breadth of its learning, and its willingness to speak to those entirely unfamiliar with, perhaps even hostile to, so much of what constitutes the great and unfathomable mystery of this life.’

Sister Carino Hodder Source: The Lamp

'Hitz the philosopher does some of her best work here … [a] stirring and beautiful book.'

James Matthew Wilson Source: National Review

‘Hitz’s perceptive, humane study is an ideal guide for anyone who suddenly finds someone they know hearing the call, or, even more, hears it themselves.’

Source: Washington Examiner

‘As a philosopher, her view of religious life is thought-provoking and distinct; as a practicing Catholic, it avoids both abstraction and sentimentality.’

Source: The Lamp

‘As in any lively conversation, Hitz’s book unfolds often freewheelingly and provocatively, resisting linear synopsis and predictable conclusions.’

Source: The Public Discourse

‘It is a book written from the heart and rooted in deep rumination on wide reading, careful observations, and first-hand experiences.’

Source: Current

‘Hitz invites her readers to question often unexamined assumptions about the comfort and security personal achievement can provide.’

Source: First Things