THE CONCEPT OF ‘ATHONIAN ECONOMY’ IN THE MONASTERY OF VATOPAIDI

Abstract

This paper investigates the underlying principle of ‘economy’ in the Greek Orthodox monastery of Vatopaidi, Mount Athos, in complementary relation to the monastic ideal of ‘virginity’ as the means of separating monastic from secular life. In this context, ‘economy’ represents an internal and external dichotomy: an economy within the spiritual self (‘economy of passions’) and the monastery (‘law of the house’), expressed in traditional practices, such as prayer, confession, psalmody, and painting; and an economy of relations between the monastery and the materialist ‘cosmopolitan’ world outside Athos, which is manifested by Vatopaidi's strong financial and political status in the Orthodox world. The material reveals the overlapping connection between the notions of the ‘self’, the ‘monastery’, and the ‘world’, in order to critically evaluate the cultural economy of Vatopaidi in relation to its historical past, and in connection to its present political and economic status within and against the Greek state.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• techniques of the self
• charisma
• reciprocity
• economy of passions
• economia (‘the law of the house’)
• cosmopolitanism (‘world citizens’)

Notes

1. ‘Monasticism … artificially organizes a milieu that is apart from, outside of, and closed to the natural milieu where ordinary men live a secular life and that tends almost to be its antagonist. From thence as well comes mystical asceticism, which seeks to uproot all that may remain of man's attachment to the world. Finally, from thence comes all forms of religious suicide, the crowning logical step of asceticism, since the only means of escaping profane life fully and finally is escaping life altogether’ (Durkheim 2002, p. 42)

2. Weber in discussing post-war European society argued that ‘because death is meaningless, civilized life as such is meaningless … “progressiveness”’ (1968, p. 299), which in relation to his ‘Protestant’ thesis also meant a ‘meaningless’ turn away from the religious community inwards the secular self. Durkheim, on the other hand, argued that ‘Egoism has been universally classified among the amoral traits … If there is such a thing as morality, it must necessarily link man to goals that go beyond the circle of individual interests’ (1973, p. 65). In comparing Weber with Durkheim we see that they both approach communal life in a nostalgic and exotic way, as the unrecoverable tradition of village life. Furthermore, as Parry has argued, the concept of ‘self-interest’ in itself is ‘our invention’, an aspect of ‘an ethicised salvation religion’ that ‘encourages the separation of persons from things’ (1986, p. 468).

3. In Hamilton's edition of criticisms of Weber (1991), Razzel writes that the ‘spirit of capitalism’ is ‘nothing but a more secularized version of the protestant ethic which develops over time through the process of rationalization’ (p. 134). However, Razzell surpasses Weber's two historical chapters on the roots of capitalism regarding the early Christian ascetics of the second century AD (Chapter IV ‘The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism’, and Chapter V ‘Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism’) in which the ‘spirit’ means a non-excessive attitude towards life.

4. Vatopaidi has a long tradition in hymnography, going back to the 15th century composer Joseph Domesticos Koukouzelis, whose work was then developed by two other 16th century Vatopaidian monks, Arsenios the Younger and the New Koukouzelis. A few centuries later, the famous composer Neophytes Kausokalyviotis taught at the Vatopaidian ‘Athoniada School’, with the financial support of the Greek Patriarchate in Istanbul. Most recently, another famous composer came from Vatopaidi, Romanos (1889–1966), and his disciple Ignatius (1913–1994). These are all names given during their ordinations (Tonsures) to novices with talent in singing.

5. http://www.athenshop.com/en/Holy_Monastery_Of_Vatopedi_CDRoms.asp http://www.tagtuner.com/music/albums/Monks_of_the_Vatopedi_Monastery

6. From the Official Journal of the European Communities 23 March1999, ‘Written Question E-0181/99’.

7. Monasteries of Koutloumousiou: 4,500 square meters in the highly tourist area of Toroni, including a number of hotels. Vatopaidi: 8,608 square meters in Stageira-Akanthou area, and 12 fields at Kallikrateia, near Thessaloniki. Xenophontos: 53,000 square metres of Sithonia, Chalkidiki's middle peninsula. Dionysiou: 15,400 square metres in Ormelia. All four monasteries have Abbots who are ‘grandchildren’ of Joseph the Hesychast.