Abstract
For decades there has been a controversial debate over how far religious faith communities are specifically engaged in ecological practices (EP). Therefore we studied four Austrian and two German Benedictine monasteries religious ethics and spirituality as a means of a driving force for initiating EP. We draw upon theories of organizational learning processes and capacity-building of sustainability to interpret our empirical findings. The majority of monasteries are highly engaged in EP, initiated either as an outcome of individual activities or through a specific mostly informally acting group, but rarely an organizationally or systematically integrated goal of the monasteries, or a focus of capacity building. Monasteries follow a technical and economic decision-making process in implementing EP. Spirituality plays a limited role in the initiation of EP. The environment of monasteries–acceptance or critique against ecological practices–influences the monasteries decisions. Institutionalization of ecological practices into the monasteries organizational structure is rare.
Highlights
To deepen our understanding of monastic reasoning of sustainability and the role of the Benedictine ethics1 we undertook an inter- and transdisciplinary research program, entitled ‘Dealing with creation’, in collaboration with four Austrian and two German Benedictine monasteries
Following a notion of a monk from monastery A that each monastery is an own cosmos with its own foundations, rules, practices and characteristics, we present the results for each case separately
We describe the circumstances under which innovations in ecological practices (EP) took place, their institutionalization, capacity building and related learning processes, and technical and economic factors influencing the engagement on EP
Summary
To deepen our understanding of monastic reasoning of sustainability and the role of the Benedictine ethics we undertook an inter- and transdisciplinary research program, entitled ‘Dealing with creation’, in collaboration with four Austrian and two German Benedictine monasteries These faith communities are of specific interest because they are characterized by their ethical foundations and spirituality, but their long-term commitment to fostering economic stability and diverse social (charitable) practices, and the long-term engagement in agriculture and forestry, i.e. their engagement in environmental sustainability (Benedict and Fry 1981; Bilgri 2004; Bilgri and Stadler 2004; Mallarach 2010). For Vonk, these principles ‘may stimulate a reflective change towards sustainable development with a lower impact on the environment’ (ibid: 233) These observations underline that the organizational structure, access to information and knowledge of sustainable practices and opportunities for reflective learning processes (i.e. capacity building of religious groups) might influence change in human-nature relations, and a new understanding of ecological practices in a spiritual context.
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