The vow of stability

<p>Though monastic life is often imagined to be a flight from the world Benedictine monks take on the intense social commitment of life in close community. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork in a Catholic English Benedictine monastery <em>The vow of stability: An ethnography of monastic life </em>traces the monks' daily lives as they confront the eternal in the fabric of the everyday. </p><p></p><p>Bringing into focus the vow of stability - a lifelong commitment to the monastery and its community - this ethnography explores the rhythms and architecture that sustain shared life in a world of movement and fleeting interaction. At the same time it analyses those social processes that damage and undermine the monastic institution and those in contact with it - in particular the harm caused by sexual abuse. </p><p></p><p>Engaging with the everyday dynamics of life in close community while paying close attention to the time-depth of monastic history this is a study of how religious institutions endure and change through generations. </p>