The Contemplative Life: the monastic cowl (2020)

Post by guerrilla » Mon, May 10, 2021, 4:26 PM UTC

8fGTBjZxBcHq wrote: post #9

phrogdriver wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is even more striking that it's written in the first person, so the error sounds like it's coming from the monk and not the writer. For the HN reader not aware, the Cistercians "broke away" from the Benedictines in the 11th century and are still very much "in" the Catholic Church. My great uncle is a Trappist monk and I have great memories of visiting the monastery to see him as a child.

So I'm obviously not a monk but I've known some and that doesn't surprise me too much. Outside of some orders that highly value education, I think monastic life generally discourages knowing things for the sake of knowing them. The political origins of a monastic order are not spiritually or theologically significant to a monk in that order really. Like sure they should know but I can imagine how it would come about…

Post by vmilner » Mon, May 10, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #3

pfortuny wrote: post #2

"the Cistercians are an ancient order that broke away from the Catholic Church in medieval times" (in the abstract). No way, sorry. If you start saying this, you have proved that whatever follows is totally unreliable.

Agreed. It's also highly unusual to refer to them by the full "Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance" rather than their much more common and well-known name, "Trappists." It makes the whole article sound like it was written by someone who cares a lot about clothing and very little for the people who wear it and their reasons.

Post by guerrilla » Mon, May 10, 2021, 7:09 PM UTC

8fGTBjZxBcHq wrote: post #14

guerrilla wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit of an ironic take considering medieval science and philosophy...

I don't think their weighing of learning has changed just social needs changed around it. "Able to read the Bible" was considered important for monks so they were literate. It still is, but now everyone else is literate too so it's not notable anymore.