Monastic Technologies (part 2 of 2 @ the Transpositions Art & Monasticism Symposium)
[I wrote this originally for the online Art & Monasticism Symposium, April 30 - May 5, through Transpositions, a collaborative effort of students associated with the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. This is part 2, and part 1 is here. It was featured alongside great posts by Christine Valters Paintner, Cole Matson, ...
Open-Source Monasticism (part 1 of 2 @ the Transpositions Art & Monasticism Symposium)
[I wrote this originally for the online Art & Monasticism Symposium, April 30 - May 5, through Transpositions, a collaborative effort of students associated with the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. This is part 1, and part 2 is here. It was featured alongside great posts by Christine Valters Paintner, Cole Matson, Preston Yancey, and Sr ...
Monastic Separateness & Engagement (part 4): a Challenge
[This series of posts, "The Elements of Monasticism" asks the question, what exactly is monasticism? "Separateness & Engagement" will unfold in a series of 4 posts (links: 1, 2, 3, 4).] Looking back at some of the questions I asked in part 1, the assumptions I unpacked in part 2, and the different perspectives I explored in part 3, here’s a 10-part ...
Monastic Separateness & Engagement (part 3): Monasticism in Society
[This series of posts, "The Elements of Monasticism" asks the question, what exactly is monasticism? "Separateness & Engagement" will unfold in a series of 4 posts (links: 1, 2, 3, 4).] A gem from Father Louis (aka Thomas Merton), in case you missed it a few weeks ago: The monastery is neither a museum nor an asylum. The monk remains in ...
Monastic Separateness & Engagement (part 2): Assumptions
[This series of posts, "The Elements of Monasticism" asks the question, what exactly is monasticism? "Separateness & Engagement" will unfold in a series of 4 posts (links: 1, 2, 3, 4).] The conflation I mentioned in part 1 represents one of a number of assumptions of how monastics exist in society. I will now attempt to summarize some other assumptions I’ve ...
Monastic Separateness & Engagement (part 1): Problematizing Separateness
[This series of posts, "The Elements of Monasticism" asks the question, what exactly is monasticism? "Separateness & Engagement" will unfold in a series of 4 posts (links: 1, 2, 3, 4).] Why put on the robe of the monk, and live aloof from the world in lonely pride? —Kabîr For monks are not a special sort of people, but only what all ...
The Elements (part 1): Conversatio Morum » “Conversion of Life”
[This series of posts, "The Elements of Monasticism" asks the question, what exactly is monasticism? The first three Elements are from the Catholic Benedictine tradition: Conversatio Morum, Stabilitas Loci, and Obedientia.] Conversatio Morum (or Convertio Morum) is interpreted variously: from merely “to live the Benedictine form of the cenobitic life” / “fidelity to the monastic life,” to ...
