The course will discuss monastic cultures from different point of views, giving a general overview on the emergence of monastic communities and the main religious and secular principles of their existance. It will take into consideration the spiritual, religious, architectural, spatial, landscape and heritage aspects of monastic communities from different areas. Main focus will be given to various forms of Christian monasticism, but particular aspects of monastic life will discussed in a comparative manner, using examples of monasticism from other religions. The course will also explore the role different academic fields in our modern understanding of monastic cultures (historiographic approach) and this issue will also be contextualized in the historical roots of present-day monastic communities and their possible role in modern societies. History, religious studies, hagiography, archaeology, art history, landscape studies, anthropology, sociology as well as natural and cultural heritage issues in academic research, policy and management of monastic communities will be presented in the form of case studies. Special emphasis will be given to recent methodological questions (idea and reality approaches, spiritual questions, landscape concepts, spatial organization of monasteries, industrial activity, etc.) while policy and management issues (monastic landscape as heritage, religious tourism and heritage of pilgrimages, management of religious sites, etc.) will be presented on the basis of challanges emerging in modern monastic communities. The relationship between monastic communities and heritage communities will also be discussed. The case studies will focus on different ideas of monastic life and their interaction with the physical world that surrounded the monastic communities. They will be selected from Eastern and Western Christian monastic traditions including eremitic, coenobitic, urban and Mendicant examples. These monastic branches and traditions will also be discussed in the context of similar traditions emerging in Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. The chronological framework of the course is ranging from the Late Antiquity till the Early Modern Period, while policy and management issues are discussed in their twentieth and twenty first century context.
Full details here.