Asceticism in Modern Times
Challenging Monastic Pillars in a New Twenty-first-century Catholic Monastery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v4.i1.16445Keywords:
Catholicism, Asceticism, New Monasticism, Invention of TraditionAbstract
In this paper I examine how ascetic practices – consubstantial with monastic life of every kind and in every age – have been reinterpreted in the context of New Monasticism, a phenomenon which emerged at the end of the 1970s at the heart of contemporary Catholic monasticism. Starting from empirical research carried out in the most important Italian neo-monastic community, I aim to show how, in its efforts to respond to accusations of “being out of date” and “trivial” which have been levelled at contemporary monasticism, this community has become the interpreter of a process of “invention of monastic tradition” which restores a particular reinterpretation of the grammar of monastic asceticism. An analysis of these changes allows us to throw light on a transformed religious universe in which if, on one hand, traditional concepts of Catholic doctrine have been emptied of their original meanings, on the other they are taking on new ones, sometimes far from, or out of tune with, orthodox guidelines.
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References
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Hervieu-Léger, Danielle. 2012. “Tenersi fuori dal mondo: Le diverse valenze dell’extramondanità monastica,” Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 2, 185–202.
Hillery, George A. 1992. The Monastery: A Study in Freedom, Love, and Community. Westport- London: Praeger.
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Lawrence, C. H. 1984. Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. London and New York: Longman.
Ludueña Gustavo. 2000. “Ora et Labora: Ethos y Cosmovision entre los Monjes de San Benito en el Proceso Cotidiano,” Mitológicas, 15, 49–73.
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Recchi, Silvia. 2004. Novità e tradizione nella vita consacrata. Milan: Ancora.
Rocca, Giancarlo. 1994. Presente e futuro nella vita consacrata. Rome: EDB.
Sbardella, Francesca. 2012. “Famiglia monastica: Costruzione di corpi e di campi sonori in Famiglia monastica,” in Francesca Sbardella, ed., Prassi aggregative di isolamento. Bologna: Patròn.
Séguy, Jean. 1971. “Les sociétés imaginées: Monachisme et utopie,” in Annales: Économie, Sociétés, Civilisation, 26.2, 328–54.
—1984. “Pour une sociologie de l’ordre religieux,” in Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 57.1, 55–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/assr.1984.2306
Schurr, Victor, and Bernhard Häring. 1967. La predicazione della morale dopo il concilio. Rome: Edizioni Paoline.
Schneiders, Sandra. 1986. New Wineskins: Re-imagining Religious Life Today. Mawah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Seidler, John, and Katherine Meyer. 1989. Conflict and Change in the Catholic Church. Piscataway Township, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Stinissen, Wilfrid. 2004. La notte è la mia luce. Rome: Città Nuova Editrice
Torcivia, Mario. 2001. Guida alle nuove comunità monastiche italiane. Casale Monferrato: Piemme.
Turner, Brian S. 2012. The Body and Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Valantasis, Richard. 2008. The Making of the Self: Ancient and Modern Asceticism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
Walter, Tony. 1996. The Eclipse of Eternity: A Sociology of the Afterlife. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Woodcock Tentler, Leslie. 2011. “Souls and Bodies,” in Michael J. Lacey and Francis Oakley, eds. The Crisis of Authority in Catholic Modernity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 293–315.
Weber, M. 1999. Economia e società. Turin: Edizioni di Comunità, 594. Orig. edn: 1922. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tubingen.
Bell, R. M. 1985. Holy Anorexia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bosgraaf, Emke. 2008. “Asceticism in Transition: Exploring the Concepts of Memory, Performance and Ambiguity, in 20th Century Dutch Monastic Life,” Numen 55, 536–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852708X338068
Colosio, Innocenzo. 1976. “Agonia della mistica nell’attuale congiuntura ecclesiale?,” La nuova rivista di ascetica e mistica, 1.2, 16–34.
Delamont, Sara. 2006. “Ethnography and Participant Observation,” in Clive Seale, Giampietro Gobo, Jaber F. Gubrium and David Silverman, eds, Qualitative Research Practice. London: Sage, 205–17.
Finke, Roger. 1997. “An Orderly Return to Tradition: Explaining the Recruitment of Members into Catholic Religious Orders,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36.2, 218–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1387554
Freiberger, Oliver, ed. 2006. Asceticism and its Critics: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garelli, Franco. 1995. “Credenze ed esperienza religiosa,” in Vincenzo Cesareo, Roberto Cipriani, Franco Garelli, Clemente Lanzetti and Giancarlo Rovati, eds, La religiosità in Italia. Milan: Mondadori, 73–95.
—2011. Religione all’italiana: L’anima del paese messa a nudo. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Hervieu-Léger, Danielle. 2012. “Tenersi fuori dal mondo: Le diverse valenze dell’extramondanità monastica,” Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 2, 185–202.
Hillery, George A. 1992. The Monastery: A Study in Freedom, Love, and Community. Westport- London: Praeger.
Irvine, Richard D. G. 2011. “Eating in Silence in an English Benedictine Monastery, in Food and Faith,” in Trudy Eden and Kenneth Albala, eds, Christian Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 221–37.
Jonveaux, Isabelle. 2010. “Asceticism: An Endangered Value? Mutations of Asceticism in Contemporary Monasticism,” in Ahlbäck Tore, ed., Religion and the Body. Äbo – Finland: The Donner Institute for Research, 186–96.
—2011. Le monastère au travail: Le royaume de Dieu au défi de l’économie. Paris: Bayard.
—2012. “Monachesimo europeo ed economia,” Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa, 2, 203–16.
Jotischky, Andrew. 2011. A Hermit’s Cookbook. London and New York: Continuum.
Lacey, Michael J., and Francis Oakley, eds. 2011. The Crisis of Authority in Catholic Modernity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199778775.001.0001
Lambert, Yves. 2000. “Religion, modernité, ultramodernité: Une analyse en terme de ‘tournant axial,’” Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 109, 87–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/assr.20178
Landron, Olivier. 2004. Les communautés nouvelles: Nouveaux visages du catholicisme français. Paris: Éditions du Cerf.
Lawrence, C. H. 1984. Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. London and New York: Longman.
Ludueña Gustavo. 2000. “Ora et Labora: Ethos y Cosmovision entre los Monjes de San Benito en el Proceso Cotidiano,” Mitológicas, 15, 49–73.
Moulin, Léo. 1978. La vie quotidienne des religieux aux Moyen Age X-Xve siècle. Paris: Hachette.
Neri, Antonio. 1995. Nuove forme di vita consacrata. Rome: Pontificia Università lateranense, Istitutum Utriusque Juris.
Newman, Martha G. 2006. “Disciplining the Body, Disciplining the Will: Hypocrisy and Asceticism in Cistercian Monasticism,” in Oliver Freiberger, ed., Asceticism and its Critics: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 91–116.
Palmisano, Stefania. 2013. “The Paradoxes of New Monasticism in Consumer Society,” in Tuomas Martikainen and François Gauthier, eds, Religion in Consumer Society: Brands, Consumers and Markets. Farnham: Ashgate, 93–112.
—2014. “An Innovative Return to Tradition: Italian Catholic Monasticism Redux?,” in Isabelle Jonveaux, Enzo Pace and Stefania Palmisano, eds, Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, Vol. 5, Sociology of Monasticism: Between Innovation and Tradition. Leiden; Brill, ch. 6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004283503_007
Paciolla, Sebastiano. 2001. Il diritto dei religiosi, Appunti e note per il Corso di Formatori dell’Ordine Cistercense (Pro manuscripto). Rome: Curia Generalizia O. Cist.
Recchi, Silvia. 2004. Novità e tradizione nella vita consacrata. Milan: Ancora.
Rocca, Giancarlo. 1994. Presente e futuro nella vita consacrata. Rome: EDB.
Sbardella, Francesca. 2012. “Famiglia monastica: Costruzione di corpi e di campi sonori in Famiglia monastica,” in Francesca Sbardella, ed., Prassi aggregative di isolamento. Bologna: Patròn.
Séguy, Jean. 1971. “Les sociétés imaginées: Monachisme et utopie,” in Annales: Économie, Sociétés, Civilisation, 26.2, 328–54.
—1984. “Pour une sociologie de l’ordre religieux,” in Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 57.1, 55–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/assr.1984.2306
Schurr, Victor, and Bernhard Häring. 1967. La predicazione della morale dopo il concilio. Rome: Edizioni Paoline.
Schneiders, Sandra. 1986. New Wineskins: Re-imagining Religious Life Today. Mawah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Seidler, John, and Katherine Meyer. 1989. Conflict and Change in the Catholic Church. Piscataway Township, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Stinissen, Wilfrid. 2004. La notte è la mia luce. Rome: Città Nuova Editrice
Torcivia, Mario. 2001. Guida alle nuove comunità monastiche italiane. Casale Monferrato: Piemme.
Turner, Brian S. 2012. The Body and Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Valantasis, Richard. 2008. The Making of the Self: Ancient and Modern Asceticism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
Walter, Tony. 1996. The Eclipse of Eternity: A Sociology of the Afterlife. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Woodcock Tentler, Leslie. 2011. “Souls and Bodies,” in Michael J. Lacey and Francis Oakley, eds. The Crisis of Authority in Catholic Modernity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 293–315.
Weber, M. 1999. Economia e società. Turin: Edizioni di Comunità, 594. Orig. edn: 1922. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tubingen.
Published
2015-08-03
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Palmisano, S. (2015). Asceticism in Modern Times: Challenging Monastic Pillars in a New Twenty-first-century Catholic Monastery. Fieldwork in Religion, 9(2), 202-223. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.v4.i1.16445
