This book examines the manner and the extent to which religion is shaped by modernity. Employing a critical realist perspective, it draws on the notion of reflexivity to consider the changes brought about in Polish Catholicism in the light of profound social and cultural shifts in the country’s recent history.

The first volume to explore various facets of contemporary change in consecrated religious life in selected central and eastern European countries, this book presents a series of studies of Catholic and Orthodox monasticism, with attention to the impact of modern social and cultural processes on life in the cloister.

Based on extensive fieldwork on three continents, this book offers a sociological examination of the economy of contemporary Catholic monasticism, considering the ways in which monastic economy engages with the world economy through a model aimed less at economic ‘performance’ than with the fulfilment of religious values.

Examining the negative impact of celibacy on the Roman Catholic priesthood, this book offers a sociological analysis of the factors that lie behind mandatory clerical celibacy and argues for the acceptance of married priesthood as a legitimate means of living the priestly vocation in response to the challenges of our age.

Examining the negative impact of celibacy on the Roman Catholic priesthood, this book offers a sociological analysis of the factors that lie behind mandatory clerical celibacy and argues for the acceptance of married priesthood as a legitimate means of living the priestly vocation in response to the challenges of our age.