Ethiopian monasticism

Abstract

Available literature on Ethiopian monasticism, in English or other European languages, falls broadly into three groups. These include a small number of major works written some years ago, of which Stephen Kaplan's The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianisation of the Early Solomonic Empire and Kirsten Stoffregen Pedersen's Les Éthiopiens are examples, and a number of historical theses (some published as books) written more recently under the supervision of Professor Bertrand Hirsch at the Sorbonne, Paris. Chapters dealing with monasticism are to be found in more general works on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, such as Christine Chaillot's The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Tradition, which is based on first-hand observation and aims mainly to give a factual overview rather than a detailed analysis, and there are a number of substantial encyclopaedia entries, for example, in the Oxford History of Christian Worship, to which readers who are not specialists in this area might refer. The author here reviews some of the literature and briefly explains the ecclesial and monastic context to which it refers.