My doctoral work in anthropology investigates American contemplative Christianity as it moves from monasteries to general society. The decline of monasteries does not indicate a disappearance of contemplative Christianity in the United States. Rather, this decline has initiated a shift from ecclesial institutions to non-monastic networks of individual practitioners. Many American non-monastic contemplatives have been estranged from the churches and have tentatively returned to Christianity after following other contemplative world traditions. They adapt contemplative teachings and practices, transforming monastic sensibilities into a Christianity which highlights individual choice and pluralistic trends. For this community, the largesse of a chaotic world does not inspire clinging to dogmatic tenets, but rather a creative bridge between knowing and “unknowing”. The changing characteristics of contemplative Christianity support a burgeoning movement that is responsive to non-monastics’ intellectual needs and globalized experience. While adept at blurring boundaries of sacred and profane, contemplative Christians who live and practice outside of monastic environments find themselves open to powerful American cultural norms which pull against their own religious sensibilities.

I approached my research asking what the changing nature of American contemplative Christianity reveals about the relationship of social structure and ritual to concepts of knowledge, authority, and personhood. After two years of ethnographic research with Roman Catholic and Episcopalian monasteries and their non-monastic students, I have found that existential and theological concepts alter with changes in ritual, leadership, and residential structures. Monastic structures capably shelter counter-cultural perspectives, whereas isolated and individualized practices leave even the most devoted adherents vulnerable to the conforming undercurrents of larger social norms.