Monastic Model Research Articles

Congregaciones religiosas, educación y escuela en Italia en el siglo XIX

This article traces the origins and development of about 140 new religious male and female congregations, established in Italy during the Nineteenth century. Starting from the Restoration period, the article frames the actions and choices of the new religious congregations with reference to the new scenarios produced by the revolutionary experience and by the changes introduced in ecclesiastical legislation and in the relations between State and Church during the Napoleonic era. At the same time, it deals with the unusual challenges the Church had to face due to both the secularization of mentality and customs and the increased educational needs and welfare of the post-revolutionary period. The author analyses some characteristics of these new religious institutions, most of which chose as privileged —and sometimes exclusive— activity of their apostolate the assistance (of poor and sick people, and of abandoned children and youth), the catechesis and animation of religious life in the parishes and, above all, the education of youth of both sexes and of different social classes. Firstly, the author describes the aspect related to the general adoption of the structure of religious congregations, which provides unequivocal evidence of the prevalence, also on the female side, of the traditional monastic model, of a vocation to religious life understood essentially as an active life devoted to charity, a synthesis between action and prayer, a commitment in the world through the assistance of others. The author’s reconstruction also shows how the idea of charity promoted by the new religious congregations was understood not simply as a commitment to provide assistance, but also, and above all, as an educational responsibility. Indeed, the new religious congregations considered education, school and parish catechesis as the most effective tools for Christians’ education. At the same time, school and education were also seen as the most direct and useful tool for relieving poverty and overcoming the marginalisation of the poorer classes and as the most effective tool for facilitating the successful integration of young working class men and women into society.

Tantryczne ciało rosyjskiego prezydenta – oświecony umysł czyngisydów. Polityka i nacjonalizm w buddyzmie buriat/mongolskim

The tantric body of the Russian president – chingisids’ enlightened mind. Politics and nationalism in Buryat / Mongolian BuddhismThis paper is devoted to the role of Buddhism in the construction of ethnonational identity in Buryatia and Mongolia. On the case of the phenomenon of deification of Russian presidents by Buryat lamas I have analyzed: historically conditioned compounds of Buddhism and politics of the Mongolian groups, the role of Buddhism in ethnic mobilization in Buryatia and Mongolia after the fall of Communism and features of ethnonational model of Buddhism in two neighboring regions. In post-socialist period Buddhism was involved in ethnonational political projects. As a result, an attempt was taken to restore the monastic model of Buddhism, which had functioned in the pre-revolutionary period. Local peculiarities of Mongolian Buddhism were reinforced in order to produce the difference between the (national) Mongolian/Buryat and tibetan Buddhism. In Buryatia, Buddhism became a distinctive element used for ethnic differentiation of Buryats – in opposition to the Orthodox Russians. In Mongolia, traditionalist position of Buddhism was opposed in some way to Christianity, the various factions of which are distributed together with “agendas of modernity” from Western countries. In tantric union with the president Buryat lamas produce harmony between two national identities: Russian – civic and Buryat – ethnonational. Deification of the state power and giving it the attributes of loving femininity is a practice obliging the authority to generosity, which is attributed to the White tara. It is a strategy of the weak, who agree to a game of domination, but they try to define its rules themselves. Looking more broadly it can be said that the Buryats as a national community appeared just as a result of this fusion with the Russian power. Because of this they were separated from the pre-national family of Mongolian peoples. Mongols, for similar purposes use Chingis khan identified with the Buddhist form of Vajrapani. As a result, nationalist narrative is set to famous past, but uses the ‘eternal’ values, achieves harmony of all its elements.

Science, sagesse et jouissance, d’Augustin à Charles de Bovelles

Can we find true bliss in any kind of knowledge or is it proper to wisdom only? In this essay I consider different medieval models of the relationship of knowledge to wisdom and pleasure, beginning with Augustine, then to monastic models, before turning to Scholastic models: the early Scholastic model of the relationship between knowledge is very different from the Aristotelian understanding of intellectual felicity developed by Scholastic philosophers and theologians in the thirteenth century. For Nicholas of Cusa (fifteenth century) intellectual pleasure is above any pleasure that can be attained by discursive reason; finally, I discuss Charles Bovelles’ (sixteenth century) synthesis between the neo-Platonic model of the relationship between knowledge and wisdom, which he himself devised, and Augustine’s understanding of the distinction between the two. Thus, after a long historical development we return to the beginning.

Institutionalizing Penitential Life in Later Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Third Orders, Rules, and Canonical Legitimacy

In the early thirteenth century, informal communities of pious lay women in urban areas of Northern Europe came to the attention of the Church. These women lived in their own homes or small communities, and played a prominent role in secular society. However, these women soon found themselves both the subject of controversy, and increasingly steered toward a monastic model. Attempts were made to create and institutionalize a “middling” status. These primarily took the form of the creation of “third orders” or “tertiary groups” attached to official religious orders. Using the example of the so-called Franciscan third order, this article explores the evolution and institutionalization of penitential life from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries. It both traces the evolution of the fictive Franciscan penitential order, and places it in its wider context. In so doing, it explores the norms and controversies associated with this way of life in later medieval and early modern religious culture.

Sterven als symbolische performance van leiderschap: een kijk op de doodsbeschrijvingen van enkele elfde-eeuwse Lotharingische kloosterhervormers

Dying as symbolic performance of leadership : a view on the descriptions of the death of eleventh-century Lotharingian monastic reformers. This article focuses on the symbolic context of how several reform abbots of eleventh-century Lotharingia shaped their process of dying. The narrative sources that describe their deaths on the one hand continued the tradition of hagiographical topoi and monastic models of the proper way to die. On the other hand, the sources emphasize that these abbots had a very particular view on the process of dying. Through significant acts, symbolic last words, the presence of individuals belonging to their network at their deathbed and the choice of the location of their tomb, these leaders tried to symbolically represent the most important aspects of their leadership, so that they could continue to influence their flocks after their demise. As a result of these attitudes, study of “ abbatial deaths” likely contributes to our understanding of reform ideology in this period.

Departure, Homecoming

Departure, Homecoming Douglas E. Christie It was early on the morning of my departure. Faint light slanted into the small room where I sat waiting for my train. Nearby sat a small group of Russian Orthodox travelers. I had just spent the previous week with them together at Bose monastery in northern Italy. There was time before our trains departed, so I pulled out a book and began reading. They retired to a small waiting room nearby, placed an icon against the wall before them, and began chanting morning prayer. There were maybe nine of them, both women and men, and soon they began to attract the attention of other travelers in the station. But they continued on, seemingly oblivious to this, quietly chanting the psalms and from time to time crossing themselves and reverencing the icon. They were intent and committed to this work of prayer. I beheld them with a strange mixture of embarrassment (for their bold public declaration of faith) and admiration (for their humility and lack of self-consciousness). This was a group, I knew, for whom such regular practice had become a matter of cultural and spiritual survival in an increasingly secularized Russia; and they were not going to alter their practice while traveling abroad. Indeed it was essential in their ongoing effort to renew their own spiritual tradition and make a place for it in the world. Still, I was abashed by the simple transparency of their prayer here in this public place and found myself reflecting upon my own spiritual identity in a new light and considering again the character of my own commitments. Eventually, one of the women motioned for me to join them; after a moment of hesitation, I did so, little by little entering with them into that ancient ritual. I have thought about that moment often, especially when considering the complex question of how members of a spiritual tradition choose to engage both their own tradition and the world around them. And what considerations figure most importantly in determining when one is being called to focus attention narrowly on the renewal and retrieval of classical spiritual forms and practices (and perhaps adopt a fundamental posture of resistance toward one’s cultural milieu); and when one is being called to open oneself to broader influences and to a more open stance toward contemporary culture as a whole. This little community of Russian pilgrims had adopted a common and often-effective [End Page vii] strategy of careful and insistent retrieval of ancient forms of spiritual thought and practice. Only faithfulness to those forms, they were convinced, would enable them to recover a way of being in the world—and a way of experiencing God—that had become largely inaccessible to them in contemporary Russia. It was difficult to judge how self aware they were regarding the social and cultural meaning of their actions. But they seemed assured in their strategy—the narrowed focus and shrinking of horizons that characterized their approach to renewal. There was an undeniable audacity to this tiny remnant, especially in their determination to honor and remain faithful to their distinctive vision of life. I found it arresting and moving. Their approach to renewal stood in marked contrast to what I observed during my stay at Bose. The Bose community is also deeply respectful of the ancient forms; but they have developed a more flexible, open attitude toward renewal, viewing the forms as capable of continuous adaptation and reconfiguration. It is a relatively new monastic community (its founding is generally dated to 1965), although from its inception until the present day it has sought assiduously to follow the ancient traditions of Christian monastic living. Still, in its ecumenical and mixed-gender composition and in its unusual blending of traditionalism and progressivism, it transcends classical monastic models in important ways. In Italy, the monastery occupies an ambiguous place along the borderlands between the conservative and progressive elements in the Church, a position that has enabled it to reach out to a remarkably broad audience in contemporary Europe. Still, Bose’s particular model of monastic living has not been widely imitated; this, one suspects, is because of the inherent difficulty...

Centering Prayer and Attention of the Heart

Centering Prayer and Attention of the Heart Cynthia Bourgeault In the thirty years now since Centering Prayer first moved beyond the walls of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Massachusetts and became a lay groundswell, it has certainly implanted itself deeply and (one hopes) permanently in the canon of Christian contemplative practice. Yet it still jostles somewhat uneasily against the walls of received tradition. I am not speaking here of fundamentalist‐generated fear (“The devil will get you if you make your mind a blank”), but rather, of serious reservations on the part of some deeply formed in the Christian contemplative tradition that this prayer is somehow “breaking the rules.” In its classic presentations, Christian prayer is “progressive”; it passes through stages. And the contemplative stage is traditionally regarded as the highest, or most subtle. In the concluding words of a recent, thoughtful article by a well‐prepared commentator, “One does not take the kingdom by force.”1 Contemplation is approached by a gradual path leading from purgative to illuminative to unitive; from cataphatic to apophatic. The “ladder” of spiritual ascent is so deeply engrained on the Christian religious imagination that it seems virtually impossible to conceive of the journey in any other way. Contemplative prayer is “higher,” and it is approached only gradually through a long journey of purification and inner preparation. But is this in fact really so? “You have to experience duality for a long time until you see it’s not there,” said Thomas Merton at a conference given to the nuns of the Redwoods shortly before boarding the plane to Asia on the last leg of his human journey. “Don’t consider dualistic prayer on a lower level. The lower is higher. There are no levels. At any moment you can break through to the underlying unity which is God’s gift in Christ. In the end, Praise praises. Thanksgiving gives thanks. Jesus prays. Openness is all.”2 Certainly, these words of unitive, realized mastery make it clear that Merton “got there.” But how? Was this breakthrough insight the result of his long tread up the traditional ladder of ascent—in other words, is he “exhibit A” of the assertion that the classic monastic model works? Or is his unitive awakening something more akin to Dorothy in the final scene of The Wizard of Oz, when she realizes that all along the shoes that would carry her home have been right there on her feet? This is, of course, an impossible question to answer, and I do not intend to do so directly; only to use it as a kind of leverage. In the words of the poet Philip Booth, “How you get there is where you arrive,” and Merton’s journey could only have been Merton’s. And yet the door, once he found it, can only be seen as the timeless and universal gate. Like a few others before him and a few significant monastic others following in his wake (Thomas Keating most prominently), he simply, in my estimate, came upon that hidden back door or “wormhole” within the Christian path that transports one out of the “progressive” journey in linear time into the instantaneous, seamless fullness from which prayer is always emerging. And he found it in the same way that all who find it do so: in the gathering awareness that the cave of the heart is entered not only or even primarily through purification and concentration, but through surrender and release. This is this hidden, backdoor path that I wish to explore in the following essay. My thesis is that there has always been an alternative within Christian spiritual practice to the “ladder of ascent”: perhaps not as well known, but fully orthodox and in the end even more reliable, since it derives, ultimately, from the direct teaching and self‐understanding of Jesus himself. It is from this alternative pathway that Centering Prayer derives its legitimacy and its powerful capacity to heal and unify. Centering prayer as self‐emptying love First, let me give a quick summary of Centering Prayer, for those unfamiliar with its somewhat unusual methodology. As a method of meditation situated within the Christian contemplative tradition, Centering Prayer...

Beyond Their Gender: Contemporary Coptic Female Monasticism

The story of Coptic women monastics is usually dismissed when recounting the history of monasticism in Egypt. This essay attempts to document the achievements of women monastics in Egypt from the beginning of the twentieth century, lest their achievements be forgotten as were their predecessors’. The difficulty that such an attempt faces is the lack of available data. Women monastics are larger in number than their male counterpart yet historical accounts are silent or are scant on data. This essay will contribute to the accumulation of data on contemporary female monasticism in Egypt by documenting and recording some information about Coptic women moanstics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The essay introduces a range of monastic models in the Coptic Orthodox Church. These models witnessed rapid change by the end of the nineteenth century affected by the changing political and social climate in Egypt that transformed the status of women in the society. The ecclesial hierarchy gave special attention to the education of women. The women who joined the monastery in the early twentieth century reflected this change and they prepared the way for the college-educated women that joined the monasteries in the early nineteen sixties. These educated women transformed the role of female monastics and monasteries within the Egyptian Christian society. Monasteries became spiritual centers for women. These monastics became spiritual leaders and role models that inspires the younger generation of Coptic women. They contributed to the spiritual revival of monasticism in the church. Their vocation extended beyond the traditional monastic work. They built new monasteries in the desert, published books, contributed to the artistic revival of Coptic icons, and engaged in spiritual direction to monastery visitors. Their monastic model and spiritual example extended beyond the boundaries of Egypt to sister churches. This essay records the story of this transformation and mentions some of the pioneering figures that affected this new history of women monastics in Egypt.

The Sin and Punishment of Ananias and Saphira and the Discursive Construction of an Antithetical Monastic Model (2nd-10th c.).

Les Actes des Apôtres (5, 1-11) relatent la punition, par Pierre, d’Ananie et de Saphire, un couple qui voulait rejoindre l’Église primitive, mais qui avait gardé secrètement une partie du prix qu’il avait reçu pour la vente de sa propriété, au lieu de mettre tous ses biens en commun. Or, dans les milieux réformateurs de la première moitié du xe siècle, ce couple biblique apparaît comme un véritable contre-modèle cénobitique, au point qu’Ananie y est assimilé à un hérésiarque qui incarne le refus monastique d’abandonner ses biens propres. À travers l’analyse des diverses interprétations de cet épisode biblique, de l’époque patristique à l’âge proto-féodal, l’étude entend éclairer les différentes utilisations de la figure du couple, notamment dans la construction d’une conception particulière de l’existence monastique. D’abord envisagé comme une autorité dans la légitimation du pouvoir de sanction des clercs ou dans l’affirmation du dogme trinitaire, cet épisode biblique joue en effet un rôle majeur à la fois dans la définition de la vie communautaire et dans les modalités de la circulation des biens. Au terme de la période étudiée, les milieux monastiques réformateurs font converger ces deux dernières perspectives afin d’affirmer, à travers le contre-modèle d’Ananie et Saphire, leur aptitude à prendre en charge la société.

Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (review)

Reviewed by: Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church John Chryssavgis George Demacopolous. Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007. Pp. 274. $30.00. Originally a doctoral dissertation at the University of North Carolina on the pastoral strategies of Pope Gregory I, this book explores the struggles of five patristic authorities (Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, Augustine of Hippo, John Cassian, and Gregory I of Rome) to reconcile their ascetic principles with their pastoral responsibilities. With the exception of John Cassian, the authors were bishops of important medieval churches. All of them, however, sought to balance the tension between spiritual idealism and secular realism in diverse geographical and cultural contexts throughout early Christendom. The subtle varieties among their models of spiritual direction demonstrate both the complexity of the issue as well as the variable nature of Christianity during the foundational and formative decades of monasticism. In late antiquity, the rising number of Christians entering the priesthood faced a profoundly spiritual and pastoral dilemma: whether to adhere to a more traditional approach to church life, or to advocate a more monastic model of spiritual direction. The dilemma was between the more institutional or administrative approach and the more inspirational or charismatic approach. The truth is that the early Church never fully reconciled these two ways, even if, in the hands of individual bishops or charismatic leaders, it tended toward one or another direction. From the age of Constantine until late antiquity, the formal (or more "hierarchical") ecclesiastical institution and the charismatic (or more "lay") monastic tradition continued to be regarded as complementary and essential to [End Page 611] the integrity of the gospel and the church. Neither the church in the world nor the flight to the desert was without its respective weaknesses: monastics reminded the church of its unadmitted temptation toward complacency, while the church reminded monastics of their unrelenting tendency toward isolation (169). Over time, however, a gradual shift in ecclesiastical priority regarding spiritual direction—" from Athanasius' ambivalence to Gregory's systematic integration of the ascetic and the clerical traditions" (166)—would harden into a difference in practice with regard to ecclesiastical leadership. Demacopoulos explores spiritual direction in its social and political dimensions. Yet, out of the five ecclesiastical and monastic leaders examined in this book, Athanasius and Augustine alone are said to have "offered little (if any) endorsement of the spiritual father/spiritual disciple model of supervision. Athanasius described Antony as a spiritual father, but he never developed the model for himself; Augustine seems to have ignored it altogether. Perhaps this is because both Athanasius and Augustine spent much of their episcopacy in the throes of theological conflict" (167). While both bishops certainly display similarities in terms of the doctrinal pressures that shaped their ministries, and although Augustine clearly regarded himself as indirectly influenced by Athanasius, nevertheless there is surely something to be said about the way that Athanasius revered the "father of monasticism." For, if Athanasius does not explicitly articulate a theology of asceticism in his works, which are primarily shaped by the controversy and conflict that he addressed and refuted, yet he certainly incarnated the ascetic model of spiritual direction. Even if the ascetic pattern of spiritual formation was "not yet fully developed" (81), the great Alexandrian visionary was surely able to reconcile the ascetic and the clerical models within himself. Were it not for the activity of certain exceptional leaders, such as Athanasius and Basil, monasticism might well have devolved into a para-ecclesiastical movement, as it frequently both tended and threatened to do. Although Demacopoulos recognizes that "some readers will question [his] selection of authors" (20), his study would have benefited from comparison with the unique model of spiritual direction proposed by the renowned elders of Gaza, Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet. These charismatic monastics struggled to achieve and promote an extraordinary reconciliation between the establishment of the hierarchy (there are a number of letters to and about bishops), the experience of the desert in a secular world, and the formation of the laity (numerous letters are addressed by and directed to lay Christians). This book will appeal...

L'histoire des iconoclastes (review)

Reviewed by: L'histoire des iconoclastes Sophia Mergiali-Sahas and Daniel J. Sahas L'histoire des iconoclastes. By Marie-France Auzépy. [Bilans de recherché, 2.] (Paris: Association des Amis du Centre d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance. 2007. Pp. xvi, 386. €40,00 paperback. ISBN 978-2-916-71607-7.) The iconoclastic era (730–843) is one of conviction, passion, ideology, and "faith propaganda." As an "iconoclast" Auzépy could not have remained unaffected. The single thread that ties all her studies is her ideological conviction that the Isaurians and the iconoclasts were "the victims of a shouting historical injustice" (p. v). Thus a harvest of nineteen articles and a book chapter put into a single collection constitutes an ultimate effort at reinstating the Isaurian emperors and their fellow iconoclasts and at reshaping the face of the "grands perdants de l'histoire du viiie siècle" (p. 314) from the distortions of the iconophile sources. The brief Avant-propos makes a quick reference to the "dark ages," a period that Jonathan Shepard, editor of the Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire (2008), has titled "State of Emergency," which Auzépy used in 2005 to write a masterful chapter on the iconoclastic period. This chapter ("État d'urgence") now composes the introductory chapter of the collection. The thematic arrangement of the articles revolves around three axes: 1. "The Foundations of Orthodoxy:The Council of Nicaea II and the Patriarchate of Constantinople," 2. "The Reconstruction of the Past," and 3. "The Isaurians: A History en creux." In the first section, the author is attempting to track the iconophile urge to write the history of their opponents. To them, the iconoclasts were not even Christians but Jews or Saracens; not human but beasts, [End Page 776] lions, and dragons. Most of the section's six articles reference the Acts of Nicaea II (787), with one article citing the Adversus Constantinum Caballinum. The articles in the second section refer to the institutionalization of the "history of the iconoclasts" and the consequences of such a distorted "history." An analysis of the Vita Stephani the Young shows, according to Auzépy, a saint who died not because of his veneration of icons but because of his participation in a plot against the emperor. Thus, this is a hagiological work aiming at transforming a political person into a martyr in defense of the icons. The destruction of the icon of Christ at the Chalke gate that this writing presents as the causal event that brought about the eruption of iconoclasm is, again according to Auzépy, a later invention of the early-ninth century as it contains elements from the reign of empress Irene (797–802). Auzépy also challenges the attachment of John of Damascus to Mar Sabas as an invention of Sabaitic hagiography on the premise that the Damascene was a monk not of the Judean lavra of Mar Sabbas but of the Monastery of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. The third section contains articles in which Auzépy, taking greater risks, has sought to touch the faint footprints of the iconoclasts. In her opinion, iconoclasm configured the imperial response to the threat that the New Israel may be wiped out for insulting God by its idolatrous practices. Here, the relations between the Isaurians and the Carolingians gain distinction. The vacuum posed by Byzantine sources is filled by Western ones from the Carolingian and the papal court. The vitality of the Isaurian foreign policy is evident here, which served as a model for the Carolingians. The Libri Carolini, where the theologians of Charles the Great refuted the theology of the icons of Nicaea II, reveals a close relationship between Carolingians and Isaurians. In her work to restore the history and the image of the iconoclasts Auzépy uses the lives of saints who were considered iconoclasts. Through them, a sanctity expressed in the world through good deeds emerges, different from the monastic model of sanctity that is based on spiritual exercise and the miraculous. Another aspect of the iconoclasts was their opposition to the veneration of holy relics. As she has immersed herself into what she calls the pleasant opportunities for imagination offered by...

Tradition and imagination in the creation of a new monastic model in contemporary Hispanic America

From an anthropological and historical perspective, and focusing mainly on the Argentinean situation, this article analyses Catholic male monasticism in Hispanic America, with the particular objective of evaluating the crisis, religious change and monastic imagination identified in contemporary Benedictine communities. It is argued that imagination, as a process of symbol production, has been intrinsically related to the practice of a new monastic spirituality; it has in fact been the force behind the appearance of religious experiences ideologically anchored in early Christian traditions. Empirical data on the Benedictine Order in Argentina suggests that at least three models of consecrated life can be identified in twentieth century Hispanic America, namely, the ministerial model, the social model and the patristic model. Research leads to the conclusion that these paradigms emerged through processes of imagination applied to the reinvention of tradition – creatively but, also, conservatively – in a global context in which both the monastic institution and society face changing demands.

Pitfalls of Intellection: Pedagogical Concerns on Mount Athos

This paper is based on the findings of social anthropological fieldwork which was carried out in one of the principal monasteries of Mount Athos between June 1991 and January 1993. In the article, I explore the logic of pedagogical concerns on Mt. Athos, and compare it with that of western monastic models. By briefly revisiting the historic rift between the Greek and Latin Churches, I seek to highlight some of the deeper theological foundations on which the Athonite attitude to education rests. More specifically, I concentrate on the importance which ritual participation acquires in the socialization of Athonite novices, and discuss the implications which this has for the religi ous life of Orthodox Greeks. I also dwell upon the anti-intellectualist attitudes that one often encounters on Athos, and examine the social implications which this orientation has for coenobitic life on the Mountain.

Karagatsiot Voluntary Associations: "Out of love for our village"

This paper is based on the findings of social anthropological fieldwork which was carried out in one of the principal monasteries of Mount Athos between June 1991 and January 1993. In the article, I explore the logic of pedagogical concerns on Mt. Athos, and compare it with that of western monastic models. By briefly revisiting the historic rift between the Greek and Latin Churches, I seek to highlight some of the deeper theological foundations on which the Athonite attitude to education rests. More specifically, I concentrate on the importance which ritual participation acquires in the socialization of Athonite novices, and discuss the implications which this has for the religious life of Orthodox Greeks. I also dwell upon the anti-intellectualist attitudes that one often encounters on Athos, and examine the social implications which this orientation has for coenobitic life on the Mountain.

Judaism in Practice from the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period (review)

edited by Lawrence Fine. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001. 537 pp. $22.95. Along with Buddhism, Taoism, Shamanism, is not an entity, but rather a concept, connected, sometimes very strongly, to other concepts. Thus the very title Judaism in Practice embeds a relation between the concept and that of Religion, no matter how you define the two. In turn, Religion is never thought of without Christianity, the tradition which proclaims itself the originary religion. A rich product of collaboration of 33 scholars from various fields of Jewish Studies, in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period is a selection of documents, well known and less-known, from the time following the completion of the Talmud up until the emergence of secularized Jewry. This book is the ninth volume in the Princeton Readings in Religion series. The series focuses on religions as they are practiced rather than on the way they are presented in their respective canonic literatures. The documents, prefaced by scholarly explanations, are divided into seven sections, showing the practical, i.e., non-doctrinal aspects of the traditional Jewish life in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In his introduction to the volume, Lawrence Fine surveys its structure and design. He suggests that in practice, as opposed to in canon, has produced great diversity and variation not only in the life of ordinary people but also in the development of rituals, ethics and aesthetic, mysticism, communities, and concepts of gender. The first two sections focus on communal rituals and those related to the life of individuals from birth to death, with special emphasis on the way in which women and children engaged in prayer and liturgy, both in creative imagination and in routine. The third section deals with conflicts between ideal and real in the ritual settings of studying the Torah. For example, assimilated from Christianity a monastic model of learning which could never be implemented in full. In addition to showing the influences of Islamic and Christian attitudes on Jewish learning, this section emphasizes the importance of communal emotional ties to the activity of learning itself. The fourth section takes the reader from the mainstream of the individual and communal rituals to the life of geographically marginal communities and sects, as the latter represent a non-typical way of being non-typical. The section shows how distancing -- symbolic (Karaites) or geographical (Jewish communities in China) -- from the center sharpens and shapes the norm as a response to a deviation. The fifth section leads the reader from the communal and individual rituals (marginal or not) to the visual aspects of rituals, as well as to the laws and controversies that govern them. …

Préserver l'action au sein de la clôture : le compromis des Ursulines de Toulouse (1604-1616)

Preserving action within the cloister : The compromise of the Toulouse Ursulines, 1604-1616 In 1604, the Ursuline congregation of Toulouse refused the monastic model to focus upon the catechising of local girls. Yet, in 1609, the "congrégées" decided to become cloistered nuns. What led them to this seemingly paradoxical decision ? At a time when their female apostolic mission was a stake, the Ursulines embraced claustration as a means to preserve their vocation. By 1616, they obtained papal permission to open the convent doors and teach day classes to externs ; in this way, they allied their catechising vocation with monastic stability and became one of the most renowned religious congregations of "Ancien Régime" France.

The Thoughtful Prison: A Monastic Model for Prison Scholarly Communities

The Thoughtful Prison: A Monastic Model for Prison Scholarly Communities