A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach Marcin Jewdokimow A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach Marcin Jewdokimow A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach Translated by Grzegorz Czemiel Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW Warszawa 2020 Reviewers: dr hab. Sławomir Mandes, dr Mateusz Tutak Translation: Grzegorz Czemiel Cover design: Wojciech Bryda Typographic design, composition and typesetting: Renata Witkowska Funding The book was financed with the resources from the National Science Centre (Poland), decision number: UMO-2016/21/B/HS6/01057. Przetłumaczenie na język angielski i wydanie pierwszej polskiej socjologicznej monografii na temat klasztorów pt. “Klasztor w perspektywie socjologicznej: w poszukiwaniu nowego ujęcia” – zadanie sfinansowane w ramach umowy 601/P-DUN/2019 ze środków Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego przeznaczonych na działalność upowszechniającą naukę. Translation into English and publication of the first Polish sociological monograph on the monasteries “A Monastery in a Sociological Perspective: Seeking for a New Approach” – a task financed under contract 601/P-DUN/2019 from the resources of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for acivities towards disseminating of science. © Copyright by Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW Warszawa 2020 Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW w Warszawie ul. Dewajtis 5, 01-815 Warszawa tel. 22 561 89 23 e-mail: [email protected] www.wydawnictwo.uksw.edu.pl ISBN: 978-83-8090-704-1 (wersja drukowana) 978-83-8090-705-8 (wersja elektroniczna) Print and binding: volumina.pl Daniel Krzanowski ul. Ks. Witolda 7-9, 71-063 Szczecin In memory of Rev. Professor Witold Zdaniewicz and Professor Jerzy Kłoczowski Table of Contents Introduction to the English edition 11 Introduction 13 Chapter One. Transformations of religious life. Historical perspective and basic definitions 23 Theological accounts of consecrated life 23 The history of religious life from the fourth century to the 1970s 35 Secularization of monasteries 48 Revival of monasteries in the nineteenth and twentieth century 51 The history of religious orders in Poland 54 Secularization of monasteries in Poland 59 The revival of monasteries in the nineteenth and twentieth century 63 Religious orders and the development of civilization 66 Chapter Two. Changes in religious life since the 1970s in quantitative terms 71 Global perspective 71 European perspective 79 Changes in Central and Eastern European countries 86 Religious priests and religious brothers in various types of religious orders 90 Religious orders in Poland today – number and scope of activity 92 Changes in the number of religious – explanatory hypotheses 100 8 Table of Contents Chapter Three. Sociological studies of religious orders 111 Max Weber’s studies in monasticism 112 Rachfahl’s criticism of the connection between monastic and Puritan asceticism 123 Silber’s theory of the autonomization of the economic sphere 126 Orders and the disciplinary society in Michel Foucault’s work 127 Sociological studies of religious orders since the turn of the 1960s and 1970s 134 Research focusing on religious orders 136 Areas of sociological research on monasticism 141 Sociological concepts of religious life 142 Socio-historical analyses 148 The American tradition: religious orders as organizations, and the Weberian tradition 149 Monographic studies 153 Economy 156 New monastic communities 159 Studies of Central and Eastern Europe 160 Studies of religious life outside Europe and North America 162 Vocations to religious life 164 Sexual offences and violations in the context of religious life 164 The Polish tradition of studies of religious orders 166 The concept of the sociology of religious orders developed by Rev. Witold Zdaniewicz 171 Studies by Sr Jadwiga Cyman 176 Marta Trzebiatowska’s studies of women religious 180 Monastic inspirations beyond sociology – an additional note 181 Towards a relational sociology of religious life: from order-centred perspective to a relational approach 182 Table of Contents 9 Chapter Four. Original research on Cistercian monasteries in relation to tourism, economy, and collective memory 193 A note on methodology 193 Development and specificity of the Cistercians in Poland and around the world 196 Relations connected with tourism, economy, and promotion 207 Tourism, development, and the economy in local discourse 216 Tourism and changes in the functioning of monasteries 221 Relations with the collective memory 224 Conclusion 239 Appendix 1. Scenario for individual interviews (Szczyrzyc, Jędrzejów, Sulejów, Bierzwnik) 243 Appendix 2. Scenario for individual interviews (Wąchock) 247 Methodological appendix 249 References 253 Index 275 Introduction to the English edition This book was originally published in Polish in 2018. The English translation dif- fers from the Polish version in one significant respect. I have since departed from treating monasticism as a generic term functioning as the source of all other forms of consecrated life. In this edition it is used as a specialist term referring solely to ordo monasticus. Consequently, this change involves returning to a well-es- tablished terminological framework, which I attempted to circumvent or even undermine in the Polish edition. However, after two further years of research on the question of consecrated life, which abounded in discussions with monks and nuns, I have arrived at the conclusion that the preservation of widespread and recognizable terminology can better contribute to fostering the reception of this work, and might facilitate advancements in developing a sociological perspective on consecrated life. These goals would be more difficult to achieve were I to en- force a point of view deemed controversial by some of those leading a consecrated life, as well as theologians and historians. This does not change the fact that I still subscribe to the claims – developed in accordance with my understanding of Max Weber’s intentions – that the monastic spirit should be sought in other Catholic institutionalized forms of religious life (or ones undergoing institutionalization), which strive towards God by using diverse techniques of retreating from the world (which does not necessarily mean advocating “the Benedict option”). In other words, this change is strategic insofar as I believe it allows me to outline a spe- cific approach to consecrated life – an approach taken by me as well as by other sociologists and anthropologists – which is not at all threatening, subversive, or “inappropriate” to all concerned, but instead creates space where it would be possible to meet and discuss. Technically speaking, in this edition I have departed from using the concept of monasticism as a synonym of consecrated and religious life, and use it solely in reference to orders from the family of ordo monasticus. 12 Introduction to the English edition Wherever it was possible (due to the availability of certain publications), quo- tations and bibliographical references have been changed from Polish translations to original editions. Also, some minor errors found in the Polish edition have been corrected as well as one major mistake concerning the number of women religious in South America, which dropped by almost 20% (and not increased by almost 160%) between 1974 and 2015. Warsaw, 23 April 2019 Introduction Monasteries, which constitute an expression of the idea of monastic life, have re- ceived little attention in sociological literature since the times of Max Weber. This situation does not seem very surprising because his analyses of the significance of this form of life for economic ethics and its development come across – in my view – as hermetic to the extent that, without deeper historical knowledge, they discourage potential continuators and critics.1 Similarly to Michel Foucault (1975), Weber identified rationalizing tendencies in Christian monasticism as a vital source of modernity, at the same time discerning instrumentalized aspects of monastic life in the everyday life of contemporary people, although they may not be fully aware of this. Comparisons of contemporary sociological research on Catholic monasticism with Weber’s texts reveal that today’s approach appears narrow and order-centred on the background of a much broader perspective assumed by the author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (2005), who regarded monasticism not just as an independent subject of study, but also as a gateway to reflection on the construction of the contemporary world. Sociologists began returning to this so- cial phenomenon around fifty years after Weber’s death, already before the Second Vatican Council, which revolutionized the understanding of this form of life, at the same time initiating its “revival” and “modernization.” It is difficult to agree with the thesis that this Council led to a crisis of this form of life, although some claim so (cf. Dialanni 1993; Finke 1997; Finke, Stark 1992; Wittberg 1994). It rather constituted one of the many factors that have contributed to the current “crisis” (cf. Ebaugh 1977, 1993; Greeley 1972; Ebaugh, Lorence, Chafetz 1996; Finke, Stark 2000), which manifests in the falling number of women religious (nuns and sisters), 1 Criticism of parallels between Protestant and Catholic asceticism was marginal in comparison to the broader discussion of his ideas. It was only in the 1990s that Ilana Friedrich Silber (1995) engaged more deeply with his theses on monasticism. Before