Differences

Abstract Monasticism is a historical and cultural phenomenon found in multiple and varied forms. How are we able to assign this same label convincingly to a variegated field of monastic practices and communities that sometimes seem to stand in tension with each other? ‘Differences’ considers monasticism in terms of two unifying pairs of themes: withdrawal and renunciation (as forms of spatial and bodily differentiation), and regimentation and routinization (as forms of social differentiation). It looks at how Buddhist and Jain monastic movements as well as early Christian monasticism were characterized by ritualized acts of withdrawal and renunciation, and then at different types of monastic settlements, including lavra, cenobitic, Dominican, and Franciscan types.