Religious Monastery as Cultural Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

In different religions, monasteries were designed as socially and culturally out-worldly institutions devoted to spiritual growth and training of the followers, even though their actual connection to the world outside the walls was greater than assumed. Hence, in their history, religious monasteries have played different roles which have transformed along with cultural, social, political and economic processes. Together with social and political processes of secularization and differentiation, their economic and political power has diminished. In the Christian context, waves of secularization have demolished not only their power but also their presence in the social landscape. Today, one witnesses a dramatic the drop in vocations, which causes a falling number of religious brother and sisters. This process has a great impact on monasteries understood as both homes for the religious and buildings, redesigned for secularized goals. A key word in this process is cultural heritage, which is being defined and realized differently. On the one hand, in the search for income, the religious advance tools to attract tourists and pilgrims such as monastic products or holiday retreats offers, developing cultural connection with the contemporary cultural and economic regime, and, as a result, adding cultural meaning to their sacred homes. On the other hand, vanished monasteries are being “rebranded” into hotels or local attractions, which aims at magnetizing tourists and increase private and local income. Last but not least, monasteries recognized as culturally relevant are being defined by states and institutions as spots of national, regional and local identities. In all cases, one observes the process of transformation of meaning and functions of the monasteries which stand for adaptations to the new conditions. This process also takes place in social media and cultural production where monasteries are being represented as cultural resources by the religious and secular actors.

In this Special Issue entitled “Religious Monastery as Cultural Heritage”, we would like to elaborate upon the transformation of monasteries into cultural heritage focusing on different aspect of this process. We welcome papers that investigate monasteries as cultural heritage addressing the following questions:

• How contemporary culture deals with monasteries, how monasteries are being presented in social media and cultural production in general and how religious brothers and sisters represents their space of retreats in cultural texts;
• How religious brothers and sisters redefine monasteries for economic and other goals by the use of cultural tools and how they understand this new fate in social and theological perspectives;
• How governments and institutions develop cultural aspects of monasteries and care about their heritage (actions, discourses);
• How private investors, local communities, and individuals deals with monastic heritage, how they economize them and look after it.

Prof. Dr. Marcin Jewdokimow
Guest Editor

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• monastery
• monasticism
• cultural heritage
• culture
• tradition
• media representations
• religious
• monks
• nuns
• monastic production