Monastic History books

January 2, 2019 5:09 PM

What books are good historical accounts of monastic traditions around the world?

I'm looking for books or essays that:
- are good, solid scholarly research
- focus on monastic traditions, in particular their economic, social, political, technological circumstances
- cover small or large time spans
- may have a slight bias towards an interest in Eastern or at least mystical traditions

posted by zenja72 to Religion & Philosophy (4 answers total)

The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century
It's not from the Eastern traditions, but Bernard of Clairvaux is one of the big names in Christian mysticism.
posted by MrBadExample at 6:45 PM on January 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor is a short memoir of time spent at St. Wandrille, Solesmes, with the Trappists, and at Cappadocia. It's personal, but Leigh Fermor is a notoriously erudite and well-read writer and he covers a ton of historical ground.
posted by caek at 8:49 PM on January 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

RW Southern is always a great place to start. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages discusses medieval monastic traditions (albeit not exclusively). There's also The monks of Canterbury and the murder of Archbishop Becket, which might be difficult to lay hands on. Desert Christians by William Harmless is a solid resource about early western monasticism.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:23 AM on January 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

I read Jocelin of Brakelond's Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds during my undergrad and I remember enjoying it. It is pretty irreverent, in relative terms, and talks about the abbey's financial and political struggles in an unvarnished way. It, for instance, opens with a full account of the abbey's debts to various lenders.
posted by a dangerous ruin at 1:12 PM on January 6, 2019