1st Edition
Monasticism in Modern Times
This book presents a broad sociological perspective on the contemporary issues facing Christian monasticism. Since the founding work of Max Weber, the sociology of monasticism has received little attention. However, the field is now being revitalized by some new research. Focusing on Christian monks and nuns, the contributors explore continuity and discontinuity with the past in what superficially might appear a monolithic tradition. Contributors speak not only about monasticism in Europe and the United States but also in Africa and Latin America, a different landscape where the question of recruitment does not figure among issues considered as problematic.
Introduction. Monasticism: Crucial Questions
Isabelle Jonveaux and Stefania Palmisano
Part I: Monasticism in Transition: New Challenges and Globalization
Chapter 1. The Benedictine Tradition since Vatican II: Catholic Monasticism in the Modern World
Andrew P. Lynch
Chapter 2. Current Mutations of the Monastic Novitiate: Emerging Institutional Imperatives, New Forms of Obedience
Anna Clot-Garrell
Chapter 3. Does Monasticism Still Have a Future? Demographical Evolution and Monastic Identity in Europe and Outside Europe
Isabelle Jonveaux
Chapter 4. Economic Management under a Vow of Poverty: Monastic Management in Burkina Faso
Katrin Langewiesche
Part II: Monasticism, as Open Door to Society?
Chapter 5. Visiting Abbeys: Changing Monastic Identities and the Attraction of Abbeys
Louis van Tongeren
Chapter 6. Holy Holidays: Why is Monastic Tourism Attractive? Insight from Italian Catholic Monasticism
Monica GIlli and Stefania Palmisano
Chapter 7. Prayer in an American Cistercian Monastery
William L. Smith
Part III: From Monasticism to Monasticisms and New Forms of Spirituality
Chapter 8. A Worldly Monasticism: New Catholic Spiritualities and Secularisation of Monastic Culture in Latin America
Gustavo Andrés Ludueña
Chapter 9. New Monasticism as ‘Reflexive Spirituality’: A Case Study of the Simple Way
Laura F. Tennenhouse
Chapter 10. The Community of the Resurrection: A Case Study in the (Re)Emergence/Evolution of Anglican/English Monasticism
Janet Eccles and David Simon
Chapter 11. The Everyday Life of Monks: English Benedictine Identity and the Perf
Biography
Isabelle Jonveaux is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Graz, Austria. After completing her doctoral research about monastic economy in modern monasteries in Europe at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), and at the University of Trento (Italy), she continued post-doctoral research about asceticism in Catholic monasticism. She is currently preparing her habilitation (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) about secular asceticism and aspirations to simple life. Publications: Le Monastére au travail. Paris: Bayard, 2011, and Dieu en ligne. Paris: Bayard, 2013.
Stefania Palmisano is Lecturer in the Sociology of Organization and of the Sociology of Religious Organizations at the University of Turin; Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion in Lancaster University (UK) and at the Department of Sociology in Boston University. She is currently writing a book entitled Exploring New Monastic Communities to be published by Routledge.
