The vow of stability

An ethnography of monastic life

von Richard D. G. Irvine

272 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Though monastic life is often imagined to be a flight from the world, Benedictine monks take on the intense social commitment of life in close community. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork in a Catholic English Benedictine monastery, The vow of stability: An ethnography of monastic life traces the monks' daily lives as they confront the eternal in the fabric of the everyday. Bringing into focus the vow of stability - a lifelong commitment to the monastery and its community - this ethnography explores the rhythms and architecture that sustain shared life in a world of movement and fleeting interaction. At the same time, it analyses those social processes that damage and undermine the monastic institution and those in contact with it - in particular the harm caused by sexual abuse. Engaging with the everyday dynamics of life in close community while paying close attention to the time-depth of monastic history, this is a study of how religious institutions endure and change through generations.

• Themen: Gesellschaft und Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie und Anthropologie Anthropologie Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie, Ethnographie
• ISBN: 9781917341097
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 20.05.2025
• Größe: 240 x 161 mm
• Verlag: Scottish Universities Press