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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-291). Also available on the Internet.

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BE WHERE YOU ARE: THE IDEA OF MONASTIC STABILITY IN JOHN CASSIAN The thesis examines the role of stability in the texts of patristic author John Cassian, who is concerned with the spirituality of the early Egyptian monasticism. The theme is briefly presented in relation to author's life and writings. A detailed lexicological analysis shows which words and with which meaning Cassian uses to express the idea of stability. The third chapter forms the core of the study - it describes five main aspects of the studied idea: i. e. the stability of vocation (stabilitas professionis), the stability of place (stabilitas loci), the stability of heart (stabilitas cordis), the stability in the good (stabilitas boni) and God's stability (stabilitas Dei). These aspects are delineated as successive degrees of a spiritual journey that leads from external to internal forms of stability and further to the stability of love of God and neighbour. The whole Cassian's conception is then situated within the wider context of systematic theology. The introduction and the conclusion of the thesis put the examined topic in the frame of the contemporary "crisis of rootedness" and outline the possible therapeutic dimension of author's thought for those who are afflicted with instability. Keywords John Cassian; Egyptian...

Scholars, including Peter Harvey, Robert Florida and David Stott, assume that the authors/redactors of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya—the monastic code of the Mūlasarvāstivāda school—agreed with those from the Theravāda school on the topic of abortion. This assumption appears to be primarily based on one prātimokṣa rule as it is found in two locations in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. Moreover, a longstanding scholarly preference for sources extant in Pāli, such as the Theravāda Vinaya, and the preconceived notion that all Indian Buddhists were anti-abortion, impact contemporary studies of Buddhist attitudes towards abortion in Vinaya. The primary goal of this thesis is to offer an extensive comparison of passages related to abortion recorded in a number of locations in Buddhist monastic literature. I examine three main pieces of evidence: 1) the third pārājika rule addressing monastic involvement in homicide; 2) word-commentary and cases illustrating this rule; and 3) stories that do not illustrate a pārājika offence but include abortion in the narrative. Although Mūlasarvāstivādin authors/redactors, like their Theravādin counterparts, include anti-abortion attitudes in their monastic literature, I uncover a number of discrepancies in comparable passages related to abortion in the Vinaya of these two schools. To give but one example, Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravādin and Mūlasarvāstivādin authors/redactors appear hesitant to include in their Vinayas narratives that portray monks assisting laywomen in procuring abortions: something the Theravādins record in a number of locations. While the ramifications of such differences are not immediately clear, we can at least conclude, in contrast to what previous studies imply, that Buddhist attitudes toward abortion are not recorded in a simple one-to-one correlation across extant Indian Vinayas. / Thesis / Master of Arts in Religion (MAR)

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The common monastic life for a Buddhist nun follows an almost 2500-year-old legal tradition which has it´s foundation in Buddhist monastic law codes, vinaya. The rules to live by is specified in the core text pratimoksha. With the spread of the Buddhist samgha to new cultural settings and facing modernity, the monastic code has been challenged. The Vietnamese Buddhist munk and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, published a new revised version of pratimoksha in 2004. This revised monastic code is in use in Buddhist centra in Europe today. This essay sees the monastic law codes as an expression of a monastic ideal formed by cultural context. Textual analysis together with comparative content analysis is used to examine the precepts for Buddhist nuns and describe the role model for monastic life today. The new formulation of the precepts shows the challenge of the samgha in modern times. Hanh’s revised pratimoksha is understood in comparison with the canonical dharmaguptakavinaya. Monastic code is corresponding to its environment and this essay shows how change has been done as a response to new cultural and contextual settings. The conclusion reached paints a picture of an ideal Buddhistic nun in the twenty-first century.

The history of western monasticism in the early middle ages has traditionally been viewed as a continuous process of development. Women religious have been excluded from this discourse, although early work which ‘rediscovered’ female communities has been built on to place them in the mainstream of thinking about monasticism. However, one way of approaching religious women has been largely overlooked. The production and circulation of normative works by and for female communities is of prime importance for evidence of interaction between male and female traditions of dedicated life. This thesis examines these issues through the works of Caesarius of Arles (470-542). Although his rule’s importance as the first western regula written specifically for women has long been recognised, the subsequent use of his monastic writings has never been adequately explored. In addition to being the inspiration for a number of later rules, his work was given a new purpose as part of the reforming activities of Benedict of Aniane in the opening decades of the ninth century. It is between these two vitally important figures that my thesis is framed. For the first time, this study shows that a core selection of Caesarian writings circulated between their composition in the early sixth century and the dates of the earliest existing manuscripts in the early ninth. This has unexplored implications for the understanding of the literary basis of dedicated life for both sexes. The thesis has significance for the study of female religious communities in two areas. Firstly, the relative popularity of Caesarius’ texts over time is of great interest as an indicator of values placed on different aspects of his work. The second area of investigation is the apparent fluidity of the texts’ gender, and how, in brief, texts written for women could be used equally effectively for men. This research opens up a new way of thinking about the relationship between female and male dedicated life. It is no longer possible to conceive of religious dedication along strictly gendered lines.

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of adult disability caused by Forestier disease among skeletal material in monastic burial grounds and to compare it with the frequency of the lay cemeteries. Five cemeteries of the High Middle Ages to the early modern period, were divided into groups according to age and sex. Also, we evaluated the radiographs, investigated the frequency of adult disability caused by Forestier disease in the population. It was found that the disease in skeletal and X-ray material occurred more frequently among men than women, and did not occure until the age of 40. Furthermore, we found that the higher occurence was among monastic funerals. And since there is an increase Forestier disease in the present population. The question is, whether the external conditions, hence increasing obesity in the population, have an impact on the occurrence of Forestier disease.