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- Dictionarymonastic/məˈnastɪk/
adjective
- 1. relating to monks, nuns, or others living under religious vows, or the buildings in which they live: "a monastic order" Similar
noun
- 1. a monk or other follower of a monastic rule.
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Learn the meaning of monastic as an adjective and a noun, with synonyms, examples, and word history. Monastic can refer to something related to monasteries, monks, or nuns, or to a lifestyle of seclusion or asceticism.
Monastic means connected with monks or monasteries, or a simple way of living with few possessions. Learn more about the word, its synonyms, and its usage in sentences from various sources.
Monastic means connected with monks or monasteries, or a simple way of living with few possessions. Learn more about the word, its pronunciation, synonyms, and usage in sentences from various sources.
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- Nature and significance
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monasticism, an institutionalized religious practice or movement whose members attempt to live by a rule that requires works that go beyond those of either the laity or the ordinary spiritual leaders of their religions. Commonly celibate and universally ascetic, the monastic individual separates himself or herself from society either by living as a hermit or anchorite (religious recluse) or by joining a community (coenobium) of others who profess similar intentions. First applied to Christian groups in antiquity, the term monasticism is now used to denote similar, though not identical, practices in religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Daoism.
The word monasticism is derived from the Greek monachos (“living alone”), but this etymology highlights only one of the elements of monasticism and is somewhat misleading, because a large proportion of the world’s monastics live in cenobitic (common life) communities. The term monasticism implies celibacy, or living alone in the sense of lacking a spouse, which became a socially and historically crucial feature of the monastic life.
Monastics have been instrumental in creating, preserving, and enhancing institutions of religious and secular learning and in transmitting cultural goods, artifacts, and intellectual skills down through the generations. Monastic institutions have also fulfilled medical, political, and military functions, though since 1500 the latter two have become completely secularized in most societies.
A definition of monasticism that covers all its forms would be so broad that particulars would have to be relegated to the analysis of specific monastic systems. Such a definition might be: religiously mandated behaviour (orthopraxy), together with its institutions, ritual, and belief systems, whose agents, members, or participants undertake voluntarily (often through a vow) religious works that go beyond those required by the religious teachings of the society at large. Such behaviour derives from the example of religious and spiritual founders who interpreted more radically the tenets that apply to all believers or to the whole society. Beyond such a statement, one can speak only of the principal characteristics of the monastic life and its institutions, since none of them is universal. Celibacy is fundamental to the majority of the world’s monastic orders but is by no means universal, as shown by the case of Buddhism in modern Japan.
Another characteristic, asceticism, is universal, provided the term is defined widely enough so as to include all supererogatory (voluntarily undertaken rather than wholly prescribed) religious practices. The truly universal characteristic of monasticism follows from its definition: the monastic separates from society, either to abide alone as a religious recluse (hermit or anchorite) or to join a community of those who have separated themselves from their surroundings with similar intentions—i.e., the full-time pursuit of the religious life in its most radical and often in its most demanding guise.
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Monasticism does not exist in societies that lack a written transmitted lore. Nonliterate societies cannot have monastic institutions, because the monastic responds to an established written body of religious doctrine, which has undergone criticism and then generated countercriticism in a dialectic process that presupposes a literate, codified manipulation of the doctrine. The monastic founders and their successors may either support or oppose the official religious tradition, but the presence of such a tradition is indispensable as the matrix of all monastic endeavour.
Monasticism is a religious practice or movement that involves living by a rule that goes beyond the norms of society. It can be celibate, ascetic, and separate from society, either as a hermit or a community.
adjective. of or relating to monasteries: a monastic library. of, relating to, or characteristic of monks or nuns, their manner of life, or their religious obligations: monastic vows. of, relating to, or characteristic of a secluded, dedicated, or austere manner of living.
not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations. adjective. resembling life in a monastery, as by being austere or solitary. noun. a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work. synonyms: monk. see more.
Monastic means of or relating to monks, nuns, or monasteries. It can also describe a lifestyle that is secluded, disciplined, or austere. See synonyms, translations, and usage examples of monastic.
