Monastering: Moral economies of the monasteries of Benedictine tradition in the Czech Republic during the post-restitution era
Abstract
This article aims to analyse the moral economies of contemporary Czech monasteries in the process of state-church separation which started in 2013 with the implementation of the restitution law restoring the church properties. The continuity of lived monasticism in the Czech Republic was interrupted by the Communist regime which made consecrated life illegal and caused a discontinuity in the lives of the monastic communities and the use of monastic buildings.
Now, monastic properties were returned, and the communities try to find their reinterpretation of the monastic tradition and the tradition of the place in order to give meaning to their presence in the locality. We focus on societal negotiations of this meaning within newly established monastic economies and we interpret these negotiations as a part of a moral economy, drawing from the expanded conceptualisation of this term done by Didier Fassin.
We establish three "regions of contact" between the monasteries and "the world": the monastery as a cultural heritage, monastic economy and stewardship, and innovative reinterpretations of spiritual values. Within these regions, we describe how the exchanges of material and immaterial goods, values, norms and emotions build a new moral pact between the monasteries and their different counterparts.
We argue that the perception of monasteries is shifting from something belonging to the past, to the role of active and important actors in local and global societies and imaginations: places of everyday activities, economic partners and creators of relevant values not only for Christian believers.