Monasticism between Culture and Cultures

What does culture mean? A chain of texts as in ancient oriental monasticism with its Hellenistic background or in medieval Montecassino where monks create new traditions? Does it signify the identity of a population like that of the Aboriginals which European monks and sisters helped to promote already in the nineteenth century? Is culture nowadays not becoming a new religion which plagues many European monasteries? These are only some of the many items treated at the third international Monastic Symposium 'Monasticism between Culture and Cultures ' held in Rome, June 8-11, 2011, at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo. This volume presents the proceedings of the symposium under eight headings: Oriental Monasticism – Western Monasticism – Regulae Benedicti Studia – New Monastic Communities – Non-Christian Monasticism – Monasticism and Art – Postmodernism and Various Solutions. Noteworthy is the fact that the forty authors are not only theologians, philosophers, historians and philologists, but also sociologists and artists. This shows that each period must once more probe what kind of fuga mundi is the essence of monasticism. About the editors: Philipp e Nouzille, OSB, is the dean of the philosophical faculty of Sant’Anselmo. His fields of research are phenomenology and the interaction of philosophy and theology in medieval monastic theology. Michaela Pfeifer, O.Cist., professor emerita of the Monastic Institute of Sant’Anselmo and its coordinator from 2008 to 2011, specializes in the theology of the Rule of St. Benedict and in Cistercian spirituality.