The Transformation of Religious Orders in Central and Eastern Europe

Sociological Insights

Stefania Palmisano, Isabelle Jonveaux, Marcin Jewdokimow, Stefania Palmisano, Isabelle Jonveaux, Marcin Jewdokimow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367757090
• eBook ISBN: 9781000373622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The first volume to explore various facets of contemporary change in consecrated religious life in selected Central and Eastern European countries, this book presents a series of studies of Catholic and Orthodox monasticism.

With attention to changes in the economy, everyday life, organisation and social presence of monastic orders, contributors shed light on the impact of 20th and 21st century social and cultural processes – such as communism and its collapse or the growth of new communication technologies – on life in the cloister.

Bringing together research from various locations in Central and Eastern Europe, it will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, religious studies and theology, with interests in religious orders and transformations of religious life from a social perspective.

1 Introduction

Marcin Jewdokimow, Isabelle Jonveaux and Stefania Palmisano

Religious life, a phenomenon encompassing such forms as monasticism, different types of religious orders or secular institutes, to name just a few in a broad range of different categories, in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)¹ underwent in the last decades deep transformations of the social and political context in which they take place. After the Second World War, Catholic religious life was either banned (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary), or restricted (Poland, Slovenia), while since 1989, it has been released from political control, regulation and attack which has led to both its revival and institutional, organisational and economic transformations. In this sense, due to the Communist experience, religious orders in Central and Eastern Europe have a specific recent history, quite distinct from their counterparts in Western Europe. However, looking at the number of vocations, hence quantitatively speaking, this history has not created exceptional conditions for the revival of Catholic religious life up until the present day. In most CEE countries after a rise in number from 1989, the monastic, vocational surge has come to a halt, and these countries now appear to follow the Western pattern, that is, a decrease in the number of women religious and also in both religious brothers and priests. With its +72 per cent increase in the number of religious priests, Poland remains the exception in Europe (Western and CEE); however, this country also shares a drop in the categories of women religious and religious brothers. Additionally, this increasing trend will probably be short-lived due to the ageing of the male population in religious orders and the fall in number of vocations to orders. Of course, the conditions of religious life cannot be assessed simply on the basis of the number of vocations. Behind this quantitative indicator there is a vast array of qualitative factors which nuance the big picture, such as the emergence of new religious forms, for example, new monastic communities, secular institutes, individual types of consecrated life or other hybrid forms which absorb elements of the old traditions in religious life, attracting sincere individuals, yet evading clear categorisation and institutional recognition due to which it is almost impossible to present their development quantitatively. That is why it is important to study religious life in CEE countries with a specific focus on their evolution and transformation since the fall of Communism.

This complicated picture of a fascinating yet rarely studied phenomenon is the terrain of investigations assembled in this volume. The Transformation of Religious Orders in Central and Eastern Europe: Sociological Insights is the first book aiming to explore various facets of contemporary change in religious life in selected Central and Eastern Europe countries by focusing on the phenomenon of religious orders. Presenting a series of chapters which refer to both Catholic and Orthodox monasticism, it scrutinises aspects of their contemporary transformations such as economy, everyday life, organisation and presence within society and the use of media and digital media. Contributors unveil the impact of 20th and 21st-century social and cultural processes on the life in the cloister. It brings together case studies from various locations throughout the European Union (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary) and beyond (Russia). We must acknowledge that there are only a few sociologists in Europe who concentrate on both CEE countries and the religious life, and most of them have contributed to this volume. Half of the chapters cover Poland as the book and the research have been funded by the National Science Centre (Poland). All chapters are contemporary case studies, concerning the period after 1945, with particular concentration on the period after 1989.

Even though religious orders have had a vital impact on different facets of social and religious life (for instance, Max Weber saw in monasticism a source of economic rationality, and that monastic orders had invented one of the most crucial practices of individualisation – auricular confession (Weber 1930)), the study of contemporary changes within religious life and the social relevance of religious orders, especially monastic orders, has not been sustained in the field of sociology. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge an increase in published work on monastic life since the 2010s, with volumes that compile different approaches in sociology of monastic life in Europe and outside Europe (Jonveaux, Pace and Palmisano 2014; Jonveaux and Palmisano 2017); sociological studies regarding different dimensions of mutations of monastic life in modern society (Jonveaux 2011, 2013, 2018a, 2018b); new monastic communities in Italy (Palmisano 2015); consecrated life and its sociological challenges in Poland (Jewdokimow 2020) or the socio-historical approach of monastic life and the re-foundations in France (Hervieu-Léger 2017). This gap is even more surprising if one considers that for the classics of sociology (from Durkheim to Simmel, from Troeltsch to Weber), understanding the world and its workings meant analysing its opposite – or, rather, the behaviour of those who deliberately removed themselves from it and consequently, the dialectic between societies of departure and of flight. Although these books also deal with some CEE countries, there are significantly fewer studies that seek to uncover this specific phenomenon in Central Eastern European countries where religious communities encountered difficult times during Communist regimes and, in comparison to Western European countries, developed different strategies of adaptation to new social and economic conditions after the collapse of those repressive regimes. An important contribution to the study of monasticism in the CEE countries is Monasticism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics, edited by Agnes Aneli Murzaku (2016). Even though the volume brings interesting social insights, it is not sociological but historical, which changes the theoretical framework. In comparison, contributors to our volume follow the sociological approach with empirical methods and seek to uncover both internal transformations of selected religious orders, mostly Catholic and Orthodox monasticism, and scrutinise their relationship in the external environment.

It is important to refine the religious vocabulary which is not highly specialised and not generally recognised. It is important for us in this volume to distinguish the different forms of religious life, in tune with our previous publication (Jonveaux, Pace and Palmisano 2014). Legally speaking, ‘consecrated life’ or ‘religious life’ means a life devoted to God, mostly by willing separation from the world in order to seek God. The definition in the 1983 Code of Canon Law’s (Codex iuris canonici) highlights that in this form of life, all practices follow evangelical counsels (chastity, obedience, poverty) in an attempt to imitate Christ (sequala Christi) and achieve a state of perfection. ‘Religious’ and ‘consecrated’ refer here to the plethora of religious institutions such as religious orders, new monastic communities or individual forms of consecrated life (such as consecrated virgins, ordo virigum), to name a few. Consecrated life is also characterised by a form of asceticism (askesis means ‘exercise’) which refers to a daily discipline in order to grow up in the relationship to God and the renunciation to the world. Asceticism includes the classic elements of self-discipline such as fasting, chastity and refraining from sleep but applies to all areas of individual and community life and adaptations to evolutions in society such as, for instance, the use of digital media (Jonveaux 2018). Historically speaking, monasticism may be treated as a first form of institutionalised religious life, practised in communal groups (which was preceded by individual, anachoretic forms cultivated by hermits). However, in the course of historical transformation (since the 12th century), non-monastic religious orders also began to emerge in the West, such as mendicant orders, for example, the male branches, Franciscans and Dominicans, canons regular and clerics regular. Monastic orders are also characterised by the vow of stability (stabilitas loci) that attaches the monk to a particular monastery. Monasticism as a concept contains the idea of this form of life. In Greek, monachos means ‘one’, ‘the same’, ‘indivisible’, ‘separated’ and ‘carefree’, that is, ‘angelic’ (Guillaumont 1979), the monk is one who is alone with God – these are the traits that may be applied as definitional categories for the religious in general, not only for monastics.² In comparison, the phenomenon of religious life today is composed not only of religious orders but also by other types or religious institutes such as associations of clerics and associations of laymen or laywomen, secular institutes and societies of apostolic life. The monastic heritage is presented in all these forms of legally recognised and institutionalised forms of religious life but may also be found in non-legally recognised and non-institutionalised forms of religious life, such as new monastic communities or individual types of consecrated life.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, an overall drop in the number of sisters, religious brothers and religious priests has been observed which seems to concur with the theory of secularisation. However, a detailed analysis shows that the drop is present in selected areas such as Western Europe, North America and Australia and Oceania, whereas in other regions we can observe an increase in numbers. From this quantitative perspective, the CEE region is highly interesting as it is marked by both tendencies – decreases and increases – and as such does not fit easily with the theory of secularisation. Concerning Catholic monasticism, CEE countries are also the place of foundations, or re-foundations, of communities, in comparison with Western Europe where many religious houses have closed in recent decades. Additionally, the phenomenon also corresponds clearly with the current debate on spirituality, as the tendency of this extreme decline in vocation to religious orders is accompanied by the emergence of new forms of consecrated life (secular institutes, new monastic communities, individual forms of consecrated life, etc.). Whereas for many centuries the terms ‘spiritual’ and ‘spirituality’ were associated with institutional religion, today they designate contexts of experience of the sacred and the transcendent often experienced outside organised churches and sometimes even in opposition to them. ‘Spiritual but not religious’ is the recurring formula with which an increasing number of individuals describe beliefs and practices where the paths of religion and spirituality part. As Robert Wuthnow (2001) claims, it is a ‘seeking spirituality’, erratic, experimental and different from ‘dwelling spirituality’, which prefers the familiar places of church, parish and congregation of belonging.

Monastic elements have also been a reservoir of meanings and practices for other institutions. One may observe the ‘borrowing’ of elements of consecrated life by other religious institutions and communities, for example, the Taizé Community (which is an ecumenical community). Vatican II’s suggested reforms for the Catholic world initiated a period of innovation and experimentation in monastic life accompanied by unexpected popularity, as is evidenced by various films and publications. The public success of Die große Stille (2005), Des hommes et des dieux (2010) and of the television reality show Ab ins Kloster (2019, 2020) in Germany testifies that monasticism is still today, in our so-called secularised society, capable of arousing interest, and not simply for religious reasons. This is further confirmed by the European boom in monastic tourism: one must book solitude in advance because, as the newspapers of various countries report, the number of tourists who wish to spend a holiday in a monastery or to make a pilgrimage is increasing exponentially year after year. The vitality of monasticism is clearly noticed in the secular sphere: there is a growing recognition of monks, nuns, monasteries, monastic cuisine or craft work in popular culture, but consecrated people are also becoming more visible in digital spaces via monastic websites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles of their communities or of themselves (Jonveaux 2013). The qualitative approach reveals that monasteries with perhaps only a few monks and nuns may still be relevant social actors in a local context due to their cultural and economic significance (Jewdokimow 2020). Monasticism is also attractive because of its spiritual and cultural dimensions as a source of inspiration for secular organisations, for example, a desire to situate their management practices in the Rule of St Benedict, to redefine the approach of sustainable development inspired by monastic values or for individuals visiting monasteries and cultural monuments as tourists. Add to this the growing number of requests for cooking and gardening courses, guided tours in abbeys, the appeal of monastic products of various sorts, especially fresh produce and hand-made goods, and media interest in the subject. Paradoxically, while monastic vocations are in free fall, monastic life is increasingly attractive to society. This mosaic of relationship is clearly connected with a broader sociological debate on the decrease of traditional forms of religiosity and the flowering of spirituality. The monasteries and other forms of religious life seem to encompass both traits at once and, therefore, we believe that the study of religious orders in CEE countries will fuel the debate on secularisation processes in this region.

Within our book, we concentrate on two dimensions of transformation of the phenomenon: internal (internal organisation of monasteries and religious life in general) and external (relationships among the religious and religious orders and external actors and institutions). We pose the following questions: How has the post-Soviet context impacted religious orders, mostly monastic, in their internal fabric and external relationships? To what extent have they transformed in relation to the economy, everyday life, organisation, vocation and position in society? How do they rebuild their community, sometimes after a long interruption, and how do they renegotiate their position in a new social context in a post-Communism period? We also focus on new monastic communities seeking to be further adjusted to the contemporary context. It should be stressed that our chapters discuss the phenomenon of both male and female communities (female communities seldom come under scrutiny). Contributors examine various sociological concepts such as (lived) spirituality, secularisation or economy. The contributions to this book challenge the thesis on the general crisis and decline of religious orders in Europe. On the contrary, they show that depending on the individual country, there are different processes that should be taken into account while assessing the condition of religious orders and they observe that the decrease is not a general tendency.

The studies presented in the book rely mostly on qualitative research (individual in-depth interviews, participant observation, content analysis of websites and other materials produced by religious brothers and sisters) conducted by both new and well-established international scholars in the field, both sociologists and anthropologists. However, in order to put the case studies in its proper context, the quantitative data are also provided.

To conclude, studying religious orders today in a sociological perspective uncovers little known phenomena which is a relevant element of religious life and may contribute to the exploration of the topics of secularisation and spirituality.

Acknowledgements

The publication of this book was funded by The National Research Centre (Poland) – UMO-2016/21/B/HS6/01057.

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Following the Introduction (Chapter 1), there are eight chapters:

In Chapter 2, ‘Changes in religious life since the 1970s in quantitative terms – situation in the CEE countries in the context of global transformations’, Marcin Jewdokimow aims to analyse changes in the number of women religious, religious priests and religious brothers since the 1970s in Roman Catholic religious orders. The analysis focuses on changes in perspective of both entire continents and selected countries, primarily in Europe. The detailed analysis of these areas constructs a necessary background on which the trends in CEE may be interpreted. It addresses two questions: To what extent do trends in CEE countries mirror global and European ones? Do CEE countries as a group which moved away from Communism have something in common in regard to Catholic religious life? The following analysis is based primarily on statistical data from Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, the Vatican statistical yearbook published only in paper format and supplemented by data acquired...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Changes in religious life since the 1970s in quantitative terms – situation in the CEE countries in the context of global transformations
• 3 Clericalisation and the search for identity in Roman Catholic religious institutes in Poland at the turn of the 21st century
• 4 Female religious congregations in Poland in the face of changes from Communism to the transformation period (1945–2000)
• 5 The economy of Polish monasteries: between the charismatic and routinisation stage
• 6 The reinvention of tradition: the moral economy of monastic life in the Czech Republic
• 7 New Monastic Communities in Poland
• 8 The presence of religious orders in Hungarian society
• 9 Orthodox monasteries as pilgrimage sites in contemporary Russia
• Index