Poverty, chastity and obedience were the three ‘essential vows’ to a religious life - all part of many people’s current experience
These days the public is enjoined to forgo any “non-essential” outdoor activity, and to go out shopping only for “essentials”. But who is to say what is essential and what isn’t?
After the Latin essentialis, “essential” originally means relating to something’s intrinsic nature or essence: this is the sense in which an “essential oil”, distilled from a plant, is essential but not indispensable. Only later does it come to mean also “absolutely necessary”, first in a religious context: poverty, chastity and obedience were the three “essential vows” to a monastic life, as they are an involuntary feature of many people’s present lockdown experience.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/34VSwVM
