Religious vows
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.
"Vows of chastity" redirects here. For the Danish filmmaking manifesto of that name, see Dogme 95.
In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of religious vows are taken by the lay community as well as by the monastic community, as they progress along the path of their practice. In the monastic tradition of all schools of Buddhism, the Vinaya expounds the vows of the fully ordained Nuns and Monks.
In the Christian tradition, such public vows are made by the religious – cenobitic and eremitic – of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, Anglican Communion, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, whereby they confirm their public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience or Benedictine equivalent. The vows are regarded as the individual's free response to a call by God to follow Jesus Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit in a particular form of religious living. A person who lives a religious life according to vows they have made is called a votary or a votarist. The religious vow, being a public vow, is binding in Church law. One of its effects is that the person making it ceases to be free to marry. In the Catholic Church, by joining the consecrated life, one does not become a member of the hierarchy but becomes a member of a state of life which is neither clerical nor lay, the consecrated state.[1] Nevertheless, the members of the religious orders and those hermits who are in Holy Orders are members of the hierarchy.[2]
Christianity[edit]
In the Western Churches[edit]
Since the 6th century, monks and nuns following the Rule of Saint Benedict have been making the Benedictine vow at their public profession of obedience (placing oneself under the direction of the abbot/abbess or prior/prioress), stability (committing oneself to a particular monastery), and "conversion of manners" (which includes celibate chastity and forgoing private ownership).[3]
During the 12th and 13th centuries mendicant orders emerged, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, whose vocation emphasizing mobility and flexibility required them to drop the concept of "stability". They therefore profess chastity, poverty and obedience, like the members of many other orders and religious congregations founded subsequently. The public profession of the evangelical counsels (or counsels of perfection), confirmed by vow or other sacred bond, are a requirement according to Church Law.[4]
The "clerks regular" of the 16th century and after, such as the Jesuits and Redemptorists, followed this same general format, though some added a "fourth vow", indicating some special apostolate or attitude within the order. Fully professed Jesuits (known as "the professed of the fourth vow" within the order), take a vow of particular obedience to the Pope to undertake any mission laid out in their Formula of the Institute. Poor Clares additionally profess a vow of enclosure. The Missionaries of Charity, founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta centuries later (1940s) take a fourth vow of special service to "the poorest of the poor".
Jain, Vijay K. (2012), , Vikalp Printers, ISBN 978-81-903639-4-5,
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Acharya Amritchandra's Purushartha Siddhyupaya: Realization of the Pure Self, With Hindi and English Translation
(1976), Sallekhanā is Not Suicide (1st ed.), Ahmedabad: L.D. Institute of Indology,