Benedictine Monasticism
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Writes rule in about 540
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The
form of monastic life for about 500 years in the West
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Dominates in Europe, and it is still with us today
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500 years after Benedict’s life, monasticism starts taking on different forms
Carthusians were one order that developed; no one knew what it was like except Carthusian monks
who left the order
Carthusians let a film crew in to document their life – they don’t speak unless in special meetings
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Get together 8 times a day outside of mass to pray the divine office; have one communal meal a
week, otherwise they have ‘chapters’
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2 things fundamental in understanding pre-modern religion
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Cosmology (conception/study of the universe)
3 features:
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1) Natural world testifies to divine purpose and action (catifiler turning into butterfly is a work of
only God – God-like figure is active in the world
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2) God was implicated in the very existence of society (society only can exist with some sort of
God as a foundation – idea of natural law….there are certain laws which constitute moral
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- Spring '11
- Worms
- Monastery, monks, Monte Cassino, Benedictine monasticism, Western Christian religion
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