Biography
Allison LoPrete is a PhD student in the Department of History and Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary, specializing in Medieval Christianity. Her work revolves around theological inquiry and pastoral care methods in Medieval hospitals, particularly in Spain and Italy. She is also fascinated by historical approaches to death and dying, pastoral care, interfaith engagement, religious and spiritual life in education, and modern medical sites as spaces of theological reflection. Allison holds a BA in Religion and Sociology from Hope College and she recently graduated from Yale Divinity School with her MDiv. Allison considers herself both a scholar and a chaplain.
Paper Abstract
In this paper, I will return to the “roots” of the Christian tradition and re-examine monasticism’s literal and spiritual work with the lands they inhabited. From tending to livestock and land, funeral burials and rituals for the dead, and occupations as crafters and artists, monastic communities understood the requirement to “dig deep” into the ground on which they resided with purpose and spiritual humility. Moreover, they understood that relating to their Trinitarian God was “right below their feet” as they lived, worked, and worshiped together. I intend to relay some of their early stories of communal living ranging from the fifth century to the fourteenth century. In doing so, I will “uproot” history as a method of teaching and guiding our personal and communal commitments to land, minimize our material obsessions, and reconsider our gifts as crafters that we share with our spiritual ancestors. Moreover, the paper will briefly introduce a “spatial theology” rising from early monastic communities, which I hope will spur one's spiritual reverence for and stewardship of God’s creation.