The vow of stability
An ethnography of monastic life
| dc.contributor.author | Irvine, Richard | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-05-26T11:32:42Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-05-26T11:32:42Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/102691 | |
| dc.description.abstract | 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, this book 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. | en_US |
| dc.language | English | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVS Religious institutions and organizations::QRVS5 Religious communities and monasticism | en_US |
| dc.subject.other | religious life;Catholic monasticism;Benedictine monks;mysticism;liturgy | en_US |
| dc.title | The vow of stability | en_US |
| dc.title.alternative | An ethnography of monastic life | en_US |
| dc.type | book | |
| oapen.identifier.doi | 10.62637/sup.bilp1551 | en_US |
| oapen.relation.isPublishedBy | 984b8c7a-f4e3-4f9f-83c3-063f813e262b | en_US |
| oapen.relation.isbn | 9781917341080 | en_US |
| oapen.relation.isbn | 9781917341097 | en_US |
| oapen.relation.isbn | 9781917341103 | en_US |
| oapen.pages | 274 | en_US |

