AndrewJotischky. The Monastic World: New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024; pp. xi + 347.

Andrew Jotischky's The Monastic World follows on the heels of several recent surveys of medieval monasticism that have attempted to update the classical ones.Jotischky's book asserts that it is unique among these for two reasons.First, it integrates the monasticism of the eastern Mediterranean into a narrative history of the "monastic world," so his book becomes a true history of both western and eastern monasticisms.He successfully complicates the story that the principles of the Rule of Saint Benedict guided the shaping of monasticism, showcasing the myriad other rules and regulations that built medieval monastic lives, and delivering a clear (though still complex) picture of how monasticism emerged in the Mediterranean in late antiquity.Second, it attempts to do a better job at integrating women's monasticisms into the narrative than other books heretofore have done (though he is much less successful in this task).Jotischky's book is not merely a summary: it is a detailed analysis of why things happened the way that they did.He understands the translation chain that delivered texts on Egyptian desert monasticism to the Latin speaking world for posterity, and the implications of such a chain.He corrects Rousseau's misreading of monasticism as "docile faith" (p.32) to explain with nuance how obedience worked to medieval minds aimed at cultivating virtue against the "sin of spiritual pride" (p.37).He strikes the right balance between the cynical explanation for monastic actions (i.e., monasticism as a weapon for those "contending for authority in the Church" (p.45)) and the practical explanation for those actions ("wealth brings benefits for the wealthy, but also responsibilities" (p.158)).Moreover, Jotischky's book becomes a kind of lens through which students could understand more general medieval historical phenomena, whether it is gift-giving practices, political fragmentation, instability in the Holy Land, or agricultural society.This is yet another reason why I will definitely be assigning it: it is great for students, many of whom might be new to medieval history when they enter a course on monasticism.Reading this book as a professor who frequently teaches courses on monasticism, I greatly appreciated several aspects of this study.Jotischky regularly cites specific primary sources throughout his narrative that students could easily follow up on when doing their own research (e.g., "But Jerome's Letter 127 provides a fitting moment with which to begin this study of the emergence of monasticism" (p.13)).He also sprinkles his text with deep dives on critical figures (e.g., Anthony, Martin, Gottschalk of Orbais, Bernard of Clairvaux, etc.) and sources (e.g., Life of Anthony, Cassian's Institutes, Cluny's foundation charter, etc.) that make the book an even more helpful support for teaching.Additionally, Jotischky strikes a tone that explains the medieval mindset well to students who might be encountering it for the first time, saying things like "to men and women of the late Roman period, demons were physical rather than psychic realities" (p.20).He takes care to integrate material culture into the narrative, covering the emergence of, for instance, shrine-centred or "basilical" monasteries, the use of liturgical service books, and the archeological survival of guest houses at monasteries in the Judaean desert (although I wish there were illustrations interspersed at the right moments in the text, so it would be easier for students to follow these references).Jotischky even takes care to explain the etymologies of key words (anachoresis, monasterium, etc.) in ways that are deeply, historically insightful for students and scholars alike.