Description
Book SynopsisIn contrast with the growing belief in society that traditional religious institutions are losing credibility, there has been renewed interest in monasteries going beyond what is strictly defined as religious. There are, for example, increasingly numerous requests for cooking and gardening courses as well as guided tours in monasteries, the appeal of monastic products and media interest in the subject. In parallel with a strong crisis in its recruitment, monasticism in the Western world is experiencing a period of innovation and experiments accompanied by unexpected popularity, as is evidenced by numerous films and publications. We hope that this book will deepen the understanding of the specificity of monastic life in the in the contemporary world, in a religious area, and from a sociological point of view.
Trade Review"This reader is an interesting document, with a specific focus on the widespread but underestimated social phenomenon of prayer, and the role it may play in different societies. The volume contributes to a broader empirical and theoretical understanding of prayer in a societal context." – Wim Vandewiele, University of Leuven / University of Antwerp / IKKS, in: Journal of Empirical Theology 28 (2015), 150-151
Table of ContentsContents: List of Contributors Introduction: The State of the Art in the Sociology of Monasticism xiii Part 1: Catholic Monasticism 1 Monastic Asceticism and Everyday Life - Salvatore Abbruzzese 2 Virtuosity, “Folklorisation” and Cultural Protest: Monasticism as a Laboratory of the Confrontation between Christianity and Modernity - Danièle Hervieu-Léger 3 Female Monasticism in Italy: A Sociological Investigation - Giovanni Dalpiaz 4 Ethnography of Cloistered Life: Field Work into Silence - Francesca Sbardella 5 Redefinition of the Role of Monks in Modern Society: Economy as Monastic Opportunity - Isabelle Jonveaux 6 An Innovative Return to Tradition: Catholic Monasticism Redux - Stefania Palmisano 7 New Spirituality in Old Monasteries? - Kees De Groot, Jos Pieper and Willem Putman Part 2: Ex Oriente lux: Other forms of Monasticism 8 Athos Outside of Athos: Orthodox Monasticism in the West - Laurent Denizeau 9 Spiritual Direction in Orthodox Monasticism: The Elder Beyond Weber’s Theory of Charisma - Maria Hämmerli 10 A National Monasticism? Monastic Politics of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Syria - Anna Poujeau 11 Contemplative Spirituality and the Intermonastic Encounter Movement - Timon Reichl 12 Experiencing the Liminal: Understanding Separation and Transition among Buddhist Monastic Women in Contemporary Britain - Caroline Starkey 13 A Space of Mountains within a Forest of Buildings? Urban Buddhist Monasteries in Contemporary Korea - Florence Galmiche Part 3 Methodology and Classical Authors of the Sociology of Monasticism 14 Studying Contemporary Monasticism in Italy: An Anthropological and Historical Perspective - Maria Chiara Giorda, Javier González Díez, Sara Hejazi 15 Monasticism and Society in Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch - Paul-André Turcotte 16 Séguy and the Monastic Utopia - Enzo Pace 17 A Sociology of Imagined Societies: Monasticism and Utopia - Jean Séguy Index
