• Hinduism

  / Philosophical sutras and the rise of the Six Schools of philosophy
• India

  / Religion
• lectern

• Buddhism

  / Popular religious practices
• Buddhism

  / Ordination
• Mahayana

  / Monastic and philosophical traditions

• Christianity

  / Monasticism
• Protestantism

  / Toleration
• The Protestant Heritage

  / The priesthood of all believers

• Jainism

  / Monks, nuns, and their practices
• religious symbolism and iconography

  / Ceremonial and ritualistic objects as indicators or bearers of the sacred or holy
• priesthood

  / Jainism and Buddhism

• religious experience

  / Types of religious experience and personality
• asceticism

  / Forms of religious asceticism.
• celibacy

  / Types of celibacy
• hermit
• religious dress
• religious dress

  / Buddhism

General

William M. Johnston (ed.), Encyclopedia of Monasticism, 2 vol. (2000), is a survey of monastic traditions around the world.

Hinduism

Hindu monasticism is studied in J.N. Farquhar, The Fighting Ascetics of India (1925), a classic by default, as virtually no other works dealing exclusively with the military orders of Hindu India have been written; and Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (1965, reprinted 1992), and The Ochre Robe, 2nd ed. (1980), partly autobiographical, which analyze the official and the esoteric monastic traditions in Hinduism.

Buddhism

Surveys of Buddhist monasticism are Richard W. Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (1988, reissued 1995); David Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors (1987, reissued 1992); Étienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism, trans. from the French by Sara Webb-Boin (1988); Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, trans. from the German by James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter, 2 vol. (1988–90, reissued 1994– ); Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundation (1989, reissued 1996); John Powers, Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (1995); Sukumar Dutt, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to Indian Culture (1962, reissued 2002), a classic work relating the monastic tradition to the other cultural traditions of India; R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (1979), an analysis of the role of monastic institutions in economic development in agrarian societies; Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich (eds.), The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture (1984, reissued 1995), a sociological examination of Buddhist monasticism in both its male and female forms; Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition (1990), on the rules (vinaya); Johannes Prip-Møller, Chinese Buddhist Monasteries, 3rd ed. (1982), an examination of the monastic ecology and discipline of the Chinese orders; David N. Gellner, Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy of Ritual (1992), an exploration of the gradual transformation of world-renouncing Buddhist monks into Tantric priests closely integrated into Nepal’s predominantly Hindu social order; Robert E. Buswell, Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea (1992), an inside look at a Korean Zen (Son in Korea) monastery that challenges Western stereotypes regarding Zen Buddhism; and Nicholas P. Kohler (ed.), Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World (1990), a very wide-ranging collection of articles in honour of Buddhadasa. Western Buddhism is assessed in Stephen Batchelor, The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (1994); and Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka, The Faces of Buddhism in America (1998).

Other Asian religions

Other works on Asian monasticism include John Campbell Oman, The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India (1903, reprinted 1984), a classic work that is a fair account of the monastic situation in both ancient and contemporary India; and G.S. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus, 2nd ed. (1964), an English-language survey. P.S. Jaini, “Ṣramanas: Their Conflict with Brahmanical Society,” in Joseph Elder (ed.), Chapters in Indian Civilization, rev. ed., 2 vol. (1970), is an excellent short account of the Jain monastic tradition juxtaposed with the Hindu and Buddhist orders.

Judaism and Islam

Although the monastic tradition is limited in both religions, there are still a number of good studies on monastic orders in both. Geza Vermes and Martin D. Goodman (eds.), The Essenes According to the Classical Sources (1989); and Michael A. Knibb, The Qumran Community (1987), provide useful introductions. E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (1949, reprinted 1973), is an important anthropological study of a regional Sufi tradition. J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (1971, reissued 1998); and Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975, reissued 2003), offer surveys of various Sufi orders.

Christianity

The foundational text of Western monasticism appears in Terrence Kardong, Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary (1996). The wisdom of the earliest monastics is discussed in Benedicta Ward (trans.), The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, rev. ed. (1985); and Norman Russell (trans.), The Lives of the Desert Fathers: The ‘Historia Monachorum in Aegypto’ (1980).

Western Christian monastic history is surveyed in Terrence Kardong, The Benedictines (1988, reissued 1990); and Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God: A History of Western Mysticism, 4 vol. (1991–98), a magisterial synthesis, rich in material on monastics. Walter Nigg, Warriors of God: The Great Religious Orders and Their Founders (1959, reissued 1972; originally published in German, 1953), provides an excellent account of the inceptors of monastic traditions, with special reference to the paramilitary trends in early monastic attitudes; and Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988, reissued 1991), is a highly influential study. C.H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (2001), is a thorough survey of monastic life in the Middle Ages. Two masterworks by a seminal historian are Dom David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England: A History of Its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council 940–1216, new ed. (2004), and The Religious Orders in England, 3 vol. (1948–59, reissued 1979).

Demetrios J. Constantelos, Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church: Its Faith, History, and Life, 3rd rev. and enlarged ed. (1998), is a useful introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy. Two reference works rich in articles on monastics are Ken Parry et al. (eds.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity (1999, reissued 2001); and Graham Speake (ed.), Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition (2000). A penetrating biography of the chief transmitter of Eastern Christian monasticism to the West is Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (1998). Chris A. Hellier, Monasteries of Greece (1996), is a study with nonpareil colour illustrations. Other good studies of Eastern Christian monasticism are John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: The Monasteries of Palestine, 314–631 (1994, reissued 1996); and Rosemary Morris, Monks and Laymen in Byzantium, 843–1118 (1995). Russian monastics are covered in Georges Florovsky, Ways of Russian Theology, trans. from the Russian by Robert L. Nichols, 2 vol. (1979, reissued 1987); and Dimitry Pospielovsky, The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia (1998).

Jo Ann Kay McNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia (1996), is a rich source of references presented from a feminist perspective. Other important studies of women’s monasticism are Bruce L. Venarde, Women’s Monasticism and Medieval Society: Nunneries in France and England, 890–1215 (1997), an elegant synthesis; Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (1987), an influential reinterpretation of food practices and their symbolism; Joan M. Petersen (ed. and trans.), Handmaids of the Lord: Contemporary Descriptions of Feminine Asceticism in the First Six Christian Centuries (1996), texts by and about early female monastics; Diane Watt (ed.), Medieval Women in Their Communities (1997); Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sexuality and Society, ca. 500–1100 (1998), a study of female monasteries and the saints they harboured; and Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith, Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836–1920 (1999).

A study of 20th-century monastic luminaries is Lawrence S. Cunningham, Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision (1999).

There are a number of good studies on the other Christian orders. C.H. Lawrence, The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society (1994); William J. Short, The Franciscans (1989); and William A. Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order (1966, reissued 1973), are good introductions. The general topic of warrior monks is discussed in Malcolm Barber and Helen J. Nicholson, The Military Orders: Fighting for the Faith and Caring for the Sick (1994). Malcolm Barber, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (1994), is the best treatment of the Templars. John W. O’Malley, The First Jesuits (2005), provides a good account of the origins of the Society of Jesus; and Jonathan Wright, God’s Soldiers: Adventure, Intrigue, and Power: A History of the Jesuits (2004), is a good introduction to the order’s history. Good introductions to Protestant monasticism are Kathryn Spink, A Universal Heart: The Life and Vision of Brother Roger of Taizé (1985); and Susan Mumm, Stolen Daughters, Virgin Mothers: Anglican Sisterhoods in Victorian Britain (1999).