Monasticism, differentiation and secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic movement’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Author
- Raf Vanderstraeten (UGent) and Hartmann Tyrell
- Organization
- Abstract
- Especially in his late work on the evolution of Western society, Talcott Parsons focused his attention on the differentiation of religion from the secular world in general, and the so-called monastic movement in this differentiation process in particular. He viewed the Christian monastic movement as a ‘major’ social development - a ‘seed bed movement’ that had been capable of ‘exerting a powerful and increasing evolutionary leverage on both the secular church and secular society.’ It secured a ‘place to stand,’ from which an explicit concern for the world could be perfected. Particularly within Protestantism, a differentiation from the world continued to incite Christianity’s interventionist, inner-worldly orientation. This article first critically reconstructs Parsons’ views on Protestantism, and then asks how recent developments in the monastic movement in other religious traditions shed light on the relation between religion and secular society. We particularly look at the ways in which the monastic movement in the Catholic church reacted to the secularization of society over recent centuries, and the ways in which the inner-worldly activism of active orders and congregations worked itself out both in the secular world and in the religious institutions themselves. In partial agreement with Parsons, we conclude that ‘strict coupling’ with secular systems is likely to endanger religion, and that forms of ‘loose coupling’ offer better prospects for the religious and monastic movements that aim to be active in the secular world.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01J1AGHKKC3748GEHNJG2E0F46
- MLA
- Vanderstraeten, Raf, and Hartmann Tyrell. “Monasticism, Differentiation and Secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic Movement’ in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations : Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory, edited by Monika Wohlrab-Sahr et al., De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 79–104, doi:10.1515/9783111386645-004.
- APA
- Vanderstraeten, R., & Tyrell, H. (2024). Monasticism, differentiation and secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic “monastic movement” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In M. Wohlrab-Sahr, D. Witte, & C. Kleine (Eds.), Historicizing secular-religious demarcations : interdisciplinary contributions to differentiation theory (pp. 79–104). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111386645-004
- Chicago author-date
- Vanderstraeten, Raf, and Hartmann Tyrell. 2024. “Monasticism, Differentiation and Secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic Movement’ in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” In Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations : Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory, edited by Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Daniel Witte, and Christoph Kleine, 79–104. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111386645-004.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Vanderstraeten, Raf, and Hartmann Tyrell. 2024. “Monasticism, Differentiation and Secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic Movement’ in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” In Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations : Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory, ed by. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Daniel Witte, and Christoph Kleine, 79–104. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783111386645-004.
- Vancouver
- 1.Vanderstraeten R, Tyrell H. Monasticism, differentiation and secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic “monastic movement” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In: Wohlrab-Sahr M, Witte D, Kleine C, editors. Historicizing secular-religious demarcations : interdisciplinary contributions to differentiation theory. De Gruyter; 2024. p. 79–104.
- IEEE
- [1]R. Vanderstraeten and H. Tyrell, “Monasticism, differentiation and secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic movement’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,” in Historicizing secular-religious demarcations : interdisciplinary contributions to differentiation theory, M. Wohlrab-Sahr, D. Witte, and C. Kleine, Eds. De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 79–104.
@incollection{01J1AGHKKC3748GEHNJG2E0F46,
abstract = {{Especially in his late work on the evolution of Western society, Talcott Parsons focused his attention on the differentiation of religion from the secular world in general, and the so-called monastic movement in this differentiation process in particular. He viewed the Christian monastic movement as a ‘major’ social development - a ‘seed bed movement’ that had been capable of ‘exerting a powerful and increasing evolutionary leverage on both the secular church and secular society.’ It secured a ‘place to stand,’ from which an explicit concern for the world could be perfected. Particularly within Protestantism, a differentiation from the world continued to incite Christianity’s interventionist, inner-worldly orientation. This article first critically reconstructs Parsons’ views on Protestantism, and then asks how recent developments in the monastic movement in other religious traditions shed light on the relation between religion and secular society. We particularly look at the ways in which the monastic movement in the Catholic church reacted to the secularization of society over recent centuries, and the ways in which the inner-worldly activism of active orders and congregations worked itself out both in the secular world and in the religious institutions themselves. In partial agreement with Parsons, we conclude that ‘strict coupling’ with secular systems is likely to endanger religion, and that forms of ‘loose coupling’ offer better prospects for the religious and monastic movements that aim to be active in the secular world.}},
author = {{Vanderstraeten, Raf and Tyrell, Hartmann}},
booktitle = {{Historicizing secular-religious demarcations : interdisciplinary contributions to differentiation theory}},
editor = {{Wohlrab-Sahr, Monika and Witte, Daniel and Kleine, Christoph}},
isbn = {{9783111386539}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{79--104}},
publisher = {{De Gruyter}},
series = {{Sonderband der Zeitschrift für Soziologie}},
title = {{Monasticism, differentiation and secularization : Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘monastic movement’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1515/9783111386645-004}},
year = {{2024}},
}
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