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The fact that certain cultures and religions produced a way of life which, for the sake of self-perfection, expected its adherents to withdraw from various obligations to the world and to enter into the organisational structure of a monastic community obviously represents a constant anthropological foundation. The spectrum of monastic life within these various cultures was extremely diverse in its manifestations. It was the result of a high degree of flexibility in the face of constantly changing ideas about piety, social needs and concepts of community and individuality. However, an interreligious study with the aim of a scholarly analysis of comparable key elements across different monastic cultures does not exist yet. The editors as well as the authors of this volume are particularly interested in how monastic life was realised communally in many ways according to fixed norms and rules, how it shaped the understanding of community and civilisation and therefore made a decisive contribution to the formation of our cultural identity.

"The concept of disorder, like that of order, seems very intuitive at first glance. Yet it is not as simple as it seems. The contributions in this volume reveal based on very different cases how phenomena of disorder were conceived, described or even created, what terms were used in this context and, last but not least, what potential they have. They show the fluid, perspective-dependent border areas between order and disorder, but also how disorder could be represented in an ordered manner. They refer to the threatening potential of a loss of order, which can still be fertile ground for political resentment. They demonstrate the ways in which scenarios of disorder can be taken up literarily, theologically or politically, and the intellectual efforts that were made to create order against such a background. They illustrate the ways in which science as an institutionalised attempt at order can make a significant contribution to disorder, which it must then eliminate, but also shed light on the innovative and at the same time order-creating potential of disorder scenarios. In this way, all the studies gathered here contribute first to prepare a ground that will eventually serve as a basis for further work on disorder phenomena"-- Back cover