The vow of stability: An ethnography of monastic life - (Hardback or Cased Book)

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.

• | Author: Richard D. G. Irvine
• | Publisher: Scottish Universities Press
• | Publication Date: May 20, 2025
• | Number of Pages: 00272 pages
• | Binding: Hardback or Cased Book
• | ISBN-10: 1917341091
• | ISBN-13: 9781917341097