REVIEW – The Monastic World: A 1,200-Year History, by Andrew Jotischky

The Monastic World: A 1,200-Year History Andrew Jotischky Yale University Press, 464 pages, £25 The sense of calm that guests experience when they step out of their hectic daily lives to spend time in a monastery can be deceptive. Stillness of atmosphere and soothing liturgical rhythm create an impression of “timelessness”. Yet, as Andrew Jotischky’s new work reminds us, monasticism is always evolving. Its development is a constant dialogue with material conditions and the pastoral needs of the Church. Histories of monasticism often begin with the third- and fourth-century so-called “flight into the desert” – of which Anthony of Egypt (251-356) has become the archetype. This is largely thanks to the literary craftsmanship of Athanasius of Alexandria’s (c. 296-373) <em>Life of Anthony</em>, composed within 20 years of its subject’s death. Today’s scholars are inclined, sceptically, to read the Life as more a manifesto for what monasticism should be, than as an historical portrait of Anthony himself. Athanasius’s <em>Life</em> accentuates a search for perfection through rigorous bodily privation and spiritual discipline. It also, implicitly, offers a paradoxical model of “eremitic community”. Anthony’s example balances the priority of solitude with practical needs for mutual support and the imperative for ascetical beginners to receive appropriate instruction from a master. The <em>Life</em>’s vivid descriptions of Anthony’s spiritual combat with embodied demons would, in time, inspire artists as diverse as Albrecht Dürer and Salvador Dalí. Desert monasticism attracted many thousands of people to modes of life sitting on a spectrum between “monastic cities” like Oxyrhynchus (reputed population 10,000) to cave-dwelling solitude. Modern historians have claimed catalysts for monasticism’s sudden popularity, ranging from a search for “dry martyrdom” after the waning of imperial persecution to a quest for release from oppressive taxation.&nbsp; Athanasius’s foregrounding of geographical remoteness, bodily mortification and attenuated sociability are a long way from the moderation and stress on community of the <em>Rule of St Benedict</em> (c. 530), which slowly became normative in the West. Anthony’s own practice also likely departed from prior forms of Christian monasticism. This, early sources hint, was probably far more urban and domestic in character. Christian monasticism mightn’t have begun in Egypt at all. The impression that it did might be an accident of uneven source survival: documents endure far better in the dry Egyptian desert than the moister atmosphere of Palestine or Syria: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Indeed, the Jewish Essene community at Qumran, in southern Judea, offers an obvious early model for communal living which it would have been strange for early Christians to overlook.&nbsp; Christian monasticism’s Eastern origins are taken “as read” by all scholars, but scope for useful comparisons of continuing developments between East and West is usually overlooked. Jotischky’s great strength&nbsp;lies in his ability to move back and forth across the line created by the “Great Schism” of 1054. Along the way&nbsp;he reminds us that, at the time, it wasn’t perceived as anything like as definitive as it now seems. &nbsp; One interesting juxtaposition is the book’s analogy between the precariousness of monasteries in the face of Viking raids in Northern Europe and frontier wars with non-Christians in the Holy Land. Patterns of relationship with both lay patrons and secular rulers are cross-indexed in thought-provoking ways.&nbsp; Yet there were also important differences. As the Middle Ages progressed, Benedictine abbots tended to become increasingly remote from their brethren socially and (through their residence in separate houses) even physically. Their relationship with their communities was conceived in increasingly juridical terms as “rulership”. In the East, conversely, the pattern retained the idea of the <em>hegemon</em> (superior) as a fatherly teacher and pastoral guide. The book’s argument is not only that parallels are illuminating, but that cross-pollination between East and West continued to enrich monastic experience. Greek- and Latin-rite monastics showed surprising flexibility in adapting to each others’ customs when exchanging hospitality. Appeal to the simplicity and rigour of Eastern practice became a&nbsp;topos&nbsp;of Western monastic returnees from the Holy Land anxious to foster reform at home. Jotischky’s synthesis is impressive, though some lacunae puzzle. The careful summary exposition of Benedict’s <em>Rule</em> is, unfortunately, not balanced with a like analysis of <em>The Rule of St Basil</em> – its nearest, if inexact, Eastern equivalent in terms of influence. Sensitive reflection on gendered disparities in Western monasticism isn’t matched by similar comparison of the differently textured experiences of Orthodox monks and nuns within their own sphere – especially regarding their expectations of enclosure. These points admitted, however, <em>The Monastic World</em> manifests a freshness of approach to an important subject, and will be welcome to many readers. <em>The Revd Alexander Faludy is an Anglican clergyman and freelance journalist</em> <strong><strong>This article appears in the October 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent, high-calibre, counter-cultural and orthodox Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.