Reflections
Theology in the Cloister and Beyond: A Monk’s Perspective Bernhard A. Eckerstorfer, OSB An Abbey through Changing Epochs
M
y Benedictine abbey, Kremsmünster Abbey, has existed for 1,200 years in a variety of cultural settings that called the monks to genuinely respond to different cultural challenges. Early on they cultivated the land and Christianized recent settlers. Over time, Benedictine abbeys embodied the heritage of antiquity and implanted it into the Middle Ages, becoming cultural centers and employing many. The Reformation brought a rupture. My monastery shrunk to three monks. The abbot married because he believed monastic life was a medieval remnant. But reforms fueling the Baroque era (deeper than the so-called CounterReformation) led to a surge of Benedictine life. My abbey counted more than 100 monks. Buildings of this epoch—far from what St. Benedict would have envisioned in the 6th century—dominate the perhaps all-too-splendid site and are today a major tourist destination. Our observatory and the chalice of our founder, Duke Tassilo, is particularly pertinent to the relation of faith and culture. The seven-story observatory was built in the 1750s to house geological findings, animals from far and wide, a sarcophagus from Egypt, and astronomical instruments. Since 1762 we have continually measured the weather (a data-set relevant to climate change). This observatory is an expression of the Enlightenment. Monks became natural scientists and worked with peers across Europe. Even today the confrere in charge of the observatory holds a doctorate in biology and maps regional plant distribution. The building maps a union of faith and reason: on top there is a chapel; the altar picture depicts St. Benedict and his cosmic vision, where he saw the whole world in a single ray of the sun.
Bernhard Eckerstorfer earned graduate degrees in Austria and the
U.S., with post-doctoral studies on patristic and monastic theology in Rome. At Kremsmünster Abbey he was director of vocations, novice master, formation director, and spokesman for the abbey. He is now rector of the Benedictine University Sant’Anselmo in Rome. 18
