Christian Wisdom in Silicon Valley: Tech Company Embraces the Rule of St. Benedict
Do you remember "What would Jesus do?" Here's a new question: What would Benedict do?
You've probably heard something about the Rule of Saint Benedict, a famous work written in the sixth century by Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism. For fifteen hundred years The Rule has guided monks in their shared religious life by encouraging prayer, obedience, and manual labor. It also served as a foundation for the idea of a written constitution and the rule of law across medieval Europe.
Which brings us to today. D. Richard Hipp is the founder of a public domain database management engine called SQLite that's used in major browsers, smart phones, Adobe, and Skype. Hipp is asking a question almost never heard in the high-tech world: What would Benedict do? Hipp, a professing Christian, has put forward a new set of community standards for SQLite programmers based on the Rule of Saint Benedict.
The Rule, and now the community standards of SQLite, include the following duties: "First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole strength. Then, love your neighbor as yourself. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal."
Digging a little deeper into the Rule of Saint Benedict, we find these admonitions, most of which come straight from God's Word: "Be not proud. Be not addicted to wine. Be not a great eater. Be not drowsy. Be not lazy. Be not a grumbler. Be not a detractor. Put your hope in God. Attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good you see in yourself. Recognize always that evil is your own doing, and to impute it to yourself."
As Christianity Today's Kate Shellnutt reports, SQLite's developers are on board, pledging to "govern their interactions with each other, with their clients, and with the larger SQLite user community in accordance with the 'instruments of good works' from the fourth chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict."
Amazing.
Read more about Christian Wisdom in Silicon Valley: Tech Company Embraces the Rule of St. Benedict on The Christian Post.