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A brief description of the content of the book In the first and second chapters, I analyse the changes of monasticism in historical and statistical terms. The first chapter, based on historical sources, covers the history of monastic life from its dawn at the beginning of our era until the 1970s; it also presents the basic theological definitions of this phenomenon. Analyses point to a number of social factors that are associated with the transformation of monasticism, and thus constitute it as an object of sociological research. The second chapter, developed on the basis of analyses of church statistics, covers the period from the 1970s until 2015, when the edition of "Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae" (ASE) ends – ASE is the main source of data for analyses presented in this chapter. The author's analysis nuances the widespread hypothesis about the current "crisis" of religious life, showing that (1) the quantitative decline of nuns and religious priests and brothers does not affect all continents and all European countries (an important exception for religious priests is here in Poland), (2) the current situation can be seen as the next stage in the evolution of the idea of monasticism, not the "crisis" because from the second half of the twentieth century there is the development of institutions attempting to implement the idea of monasticism in a new way (for instance secular institutes or so-called new monastic communities). The third chapter presents the analysis of the sociological state of art in relation to the indicated issue and proposes the relational approach, expanding the area of monastic study from the analysis of internal institutional transformations, including the issues of vocations, onto relations in the social environment, including the discourse on monasteries. The fourth chapter presents the discussion of the results of author's research on Cistercian monasteries in the local context, to which the relational approach was implemented, which was the author's contribution to the development of research into this phenomenon. Research shows that despite the low number of vocations, monasteries function in a series of relationships (related to economics, tourism, collective memory), which are also initiated by local social actors other than monks, and for secular purposes. Thus, the change in the cognitive perspective allows us to see that the monasteries function in changed and not only religious relationships, being important institutions in the life of local communities, also outside the religious context. A detailed discussion The first chapter is devoted to the discussion of basic concepts and history of the phenomenon from its beginning at the beginning of our era until the 1970s. The discussion of concepts is necessary because this phenomenon is usually described by theological terms. The widest concept covering various forms of religious life, whose participants declare and practice separation from the world in order to reach God, is a consecrated life, a life dedicated to God. As defined by the Code of Canon Law of 1983, it is a form of life that takes place in
Wojtek Jezierski, Total St Gall. Medieval Monastery as a Disciplinary Institution, Stockholm 2010
Can we think of a Benedictine cloister around the year 1000 as reminiscent of a modern prison or a mental asylum? Was the monastery a medieval type of Erving Goffman's 'total institution' or Benthanian panopticon thoroughly structuring the thoughts and practices of its inmates? What did the power relations between the groups of monks in medieval St Gall look like? Wojtek Jezierski's thesis explores and expands the connection between the medieval forms of monastic life and modern social theories. It investigates the patterns of persecution and exclusion, the exercise of power and surveillance, as well as violent conflicts between the conventuals and their abbots. It analyzes also the social components of monastic habitus and subjectivity in the monasteries of St Gall, Fulda, Bury St Edmunds and others. Finally, the study examines the strategies monks used to cope with the demands made on them by the external lay world, i.e. the political, social, and cultural liaisons between claustrum and saeculum. Wojtek Jezierski (b. 1979) studied history and social anthropology the University of Warsaw. He conducts research at the Department of History and the centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm University. This book is his PhD thesis.