The Monastic Life at Pluscarden Abbey

Abstract

Even though I notice individualistic tendencies all around me, I also noticed the exact opposites during a previous research on Benedictine monastic life in The Netherlands. Theories on individualism argue that individualism causes an increase of selfish behaviour, and a decrease of solidary behaviour. However, Benedictine monastic communities seem to be an exception to this societal process of individualisation by showing a strong sense of community. Rupp (2015) argues that religious communities in Western societies are underexposed in the regard of a sense of community. Therefore, this explorative empirical research aims to investigate the main factors that create a sense of community in one of those communities, based on three months of field research at Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland. In this thesis, the following ways in which a sense of community is created among the monks are considered: God, rituals, work and routine.