Search Results (8)

Mount Lu’s transformation from a natural landscape into a Buddhist sacred space provides an important case for understanding how sacred geography was produced in medieval China. Rather than treating sacredness as an inherent quality of a place or as the product of textual representation alone, this article argues that Mount Lu was sacralized through the historical interaction of monastic practice, textual production, and cultural memory. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, the study examines how Huiyuan (334–416) and his community redefined Mount Lu through monastic settlement, ritual activity, institutional formation, and cultural authority centered on Donglin Temple. It further analyzes how historiographical writing, literary representation, and intertextual circulation extended the mountain’s religious significance beyond the monastic community and consolidated it within broader traditions of literati culture. In this process, Mount Lu became not only a Buddhist sacred site but also a durable site of memory onto which Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian meanings could be projected and renegotiated. By tracing the interaction between embodied religious practice and textual transmission, this article shows that the sacralization of Mount Lu was neither a spontaneous religious phenomenon nor simply the result of state designation, but rather a cumulative historical achievement shaped by monastic initiative, literary circulation, and the long-term work of cultural remembrance. Full article

This article explores “contestation” as a constitutive and enduring dimension of Christian monasticism. From its origins in the contemptus mundi and fuga mundi of the Desert Fathers to its modern cultural and ecological expressions, monasticism has embodied a form of resistance—spiritual, social, and existential—toward dominant models of life, thought, and power. This study examines the multiple modalities of monastic contestation: withdrawal and protest, spiritual combat, constructive critique, and the creation of alternative forms of living. Drawing upon sources ranging from Cassian and Benedict to contemporary thinkers such as Panikkar, Jonveaux, and Hervieu-Léger, the paper argues that monasticism’s critical stance toward the world is not mere negation but a creative search for simplicity, authenticity, and integral humanity. By analysing its expressions in education, economy, art, and ecology, the paper demonstrates that monastic contestation remains a vital, transformative force capable of renewing the dialogue between faith, culture, and society. Full article

This case study of the Văcărești area in Bucharest documents what happened to an abandoned communist urban megaproject, which had been undertaken in a typical tabula rasa manner, applying the dictatorial politics of the communist regime. A significant monastic complex was razed, and a massive riverine holding basin was partially constructed in the 1980s. The area then experienced several decades of rewilding of the basin and of uncontrolled urban development around it until its recent designation as a Natural Urban Park (NUP). This study uses local observations, desktop research and the results of 48 semi structured interviews with planning and other specialists. It considers the impacts of tabula rasa and laissez-faire (i.e., uncontrolled and essentially market-driven) planning regimes on the local landscape from the viewpoint of Văcărești’s current and potential levels of ecological and cultural resilience and sustainability. The research addresses three questions: (a) what is the study area’s sustainability potential? (b) what, if any, physical interventions to recover the study area’s place memory might be feasible? and (c) how might the resilience of its new urban landscape be improved? The findings from this study have both local and general importance, demonstrating to urban communities why they need to define and act in time in order to capitalize on their natural potential and to recover cultural values which may have been destroyed or damaged. It notes the long-term inaction and lack of coherent urban renewal policies for this study area and concludes that these have magnified the challenges that it currently faces. Full article

This study explores spiritual resilience as a mechanism for sustaining cultural landscapes, focusing on the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Studenica Monastery (Serbia). By analysing the monastery’s sacred network, which includes monasteries, hermitages, and churches, the study demonstrates how material heritage (architecture, art), intangible practices (monastic life, liturgy, traditional crafts), and the natural environment (UNESCO MaB Golija–Studenica Biosphere Reserve) form a cohesive system of resilience. The concept of spiritual resilience is examined as a dynamic process that links sacred architectural structures and enduring religious practices with authentic land use preserved over centuries. We have utilised a methodological framework combining historical mapping, GIS viewshed analysis in spatial planning, and multidisciplinary data synthesis (historical, architectural, artistic, ecological, ethnographic) with resilience indicators aligned with the UNESCO’s Cultural Landscape approach. The findings reveal that Studenica’s sacred network operates as a coupled socio-ecological system. Spiritual practices, including annual processions and land stewardship rituals, have been identified as key factors in enhancing biodiversity conservation while mitigating land-use conflicts. Historical mapping has been used to highlight the overlap between sacred sites and protected ecological zones, reflecting traditional stewardship practices. By reframing heritage as an adaptive process where spirituality serves as a conduit between tradition and innovation, the study proposes replicable strategies for UNESCO sites worldwide. The concept of sacred landscapes as resilience hubs is furthered by alignment with SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Full article

Turfgrass has evolved from a fundamental element of natural landscapes to a key component of ornamental, recreational, and ecological systems. This review examines its historical trajectory, from ancient civilizations and medieval monastic gardens to modern urban green spaces, highlighting cultural, technological, and environmental influences. The study integrates historical analysis with agronomic and ecological research to assess turfgrass’s role in soil conservation, carbon sequestration, water management, and biodiversity enhancement. The methodological approach combines a historical–literary review with an analysis of scientific advancements in turfgrass management, focusing on low-input species, precision irrigation, and climate-adaptive strategies. The findings indicate that while turfgrass contributes to urban resilience and ecosystem services, conventional high-maintenance practices pose sustainability challenges. The review underscores the need for multifunctional turfgrass systems that balance aesthetics with ecological benefits. A shift toward eco-friendly management practices will be essential for the long-term sustainability of turfgrass in modern landscapes. Full article

Monasteries, especially Benedictine monasteries, have developed a close relationship with nature based on a respect for creation and a goal of self-sufficiency. There seems to be an elective affinity between monasticism and ecologism. Since the second half of the 20th century, monasteries have been engaging in ecological practices, and in many cases have been pioneers in these practices in their region. How can the role of monasteries in ecology be explained? To what extent is the ecology practiced by monasteries different from that of society? And what developments can we observe in this field over the last 20 years? After presenting the background of the elective affinity between monasticism and ecologism, I will explore the practices that monastics put in place to act sustainably for the protection of the environment. The last part of the paper deals with the shift from respect for creation to ecologism in the vocabulary monastics use today and to what extent we can speak of a charismatic ecologism. This article is based on field inquiries conducted in monastic communities in six countries in Europe and four countries in Africa between 2004 and 2019. Full article

This paper considers the political, geo-philosophical musings of Deleuze and Guattari on spatialisation, place and movement in relation to the religious nomad (wandering ascetics and reclusive forest monks) inhabiting the borderlands of Thailand. A nomadic science involves improvised ascetic practices between the molar lines striated by modern state apparatuses. The wandering ascetics, inhabiting a frontier political ecology, stand in contrast to the appropriating, sedentary metaphysics and sanctifying arborescence of statism and its corollary place-making, embedded in rootedness and territorialisation. It is argued that the religious nomads, residing on the endo-exteriorities of the state, came to represent a rhizomatic and politico-ontological threat to centre-nation and its apparatus of capture. The paper also theorises transitions and movement at the borderlands in the context of the state’s monastic reforms. These reforms, and its pervasive royal science, problematised the interstitial zones of the early ascetic wanderers in their radical cross-cutting networks and lines, moving within and across demarcated frontiers. Indeed, the ascetic wanderers and their allegorical war machine were seen as a source of wild, free-floating charisma and mystical power, eventually appropriated by the centre-nation in it’s becoming unitary and fixed. Full article

In light of calls to ‘re-enchant’ the world in the face of our ecological crisis, where do Christians stand on the question of land being sacred? I put this question to monks living at four monastic communities in the American West. For monks living on the land, the world is sacramental of God’s presence. However, this sacramental character was not universally recognized as being sacred, or divine. The monastic presence on the land can give places a sacred character through their work and prayer. Far fewer monks admitted that land was intrinsically sacred. However, during what one monk called “charged moments” the sacredness of God was seen as manifesting through the land. Thus, while there is no consensus among monks as to the sacredness of land, there is a deep reverence for place and landscape at the heart of monastic spirituality. Full article