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.
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List of figures and tables |
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vii | |
| Introduction: monasticism: crucial questions |
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1 | (10) |
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PART I Monasticism in transition: new challenges and globalization |
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11 | (68) |
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1 The Benedictine tradition since Vatican II: Catholic monasticism in the modern world |
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13 | (16) |
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2 Current mutations of the monastic novitiate: emerging institutional imperatives, new forms of obedience |
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29 | (17) |
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3 Does monasticism still have a future? Demographical evolution and monastic identity in Europe and outside Europe |
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46 | (17) |
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4 Economic management under a vow of poverty: monastic management in Burkina Faso |
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63 | (16) |
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PART II Monasticism as open door to society? |
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79 | (56) |
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5 Visiting abbeys: changing monastic identities and the attraction of abbeys |
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81 | (18) |
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6 Holy holidays: why is monastic tourism attractive? Insight from Italian Catholic monasticism |
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99 | (17) |
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7 Prayer in an American Cistercian monastery |
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116 | (19) |
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PART III From monasticism to monasticisms and new forms of spirituality |
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135 | (94) |
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8 A worldly monasticism: new Catholic spiritualities and secularisation of monastic culture in Latin America |
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137 | (17) |
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9 New monasticism as `reflexive spirituality': a case study of the Simple Way |
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154 | (19) |
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10 The Community of the Resurrection: a case study in the (re)emergence/evolution of Anglican/English monasticism |
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173 | (18) |
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11 The everyday life of monks: English Benedictine identity and the performance of proximity |
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191 | (18) |
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12 The making of the relational Christian self of new monastics in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada |
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209 | (20) |
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| Notes on contributors |
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229 | |
| Index |
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233 | |
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.
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