In entering into a conversation with Fr. Paschal Scotti about his novitiate history course, one indeed discovers a Conversation. For in opening his study of history, he takes up the Conversation of history. It is a conversation continued in books, articles, and found expressed not only in artifacts, but most definitively in the practices of living communities. In inquiring of Fr. Paschal Scotti about history, one cannot escape the connecting of one book to another, of a panorama of historians and historical views, of a complex tapestry of historical phenomena. And one sees the interest in bringing this history to life. His novitiate course focuses on monasticism, seeking to be “learned, historical, ...real, practical.” Without requiring term papers, tests, or a final exam, there is a significant quantity of reading, and most certainly the invitation to read more, always more. The course, above all, opens the door onto that continued Conversation. 

His core reading list shows the range of its historical panorama: Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (William Harmless, S.J., Oxford University Press, 2004); Cassian the Monk (Columba Stewart, O.S.B., College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, 1998); The Benedictines in the Middle Ages (James G. Clark, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011); The English Benedictines, 1540–1688: From Reformation to Revolution (David Lunn, Burns & Oates/New York: Barnes & Noble, 1980). This is supplemented by articles by such historians as John Van Engen, William Abel Pantin, as well as contemporary reflections on historical monastic spirituality – Fr. Paschal mentions the BBC television series, “Tudor Monastery Farm,” as well as The Monkhood of All Believers by Greg Peters (Baker Academic 2018), which seeks to link the spirituality of historical monasticism to contemporary Christian believers.  

To be sure, we find therein the critical outlines and claims of historical analysis in the course. While keenly aware as a historian of what he must exclude from study (Syriac, Palestinian, Byzantine, later Egyptian, Cistercian, and much more), Fr. Scotti does enable the novice to encounter a wide range of monastic history. Some themes emerge. To understand Benedict, it is important to be “pre-Benedict” rather than “post-Benedict” and thus to explore the roots on the Rule. And in pursuing that retrospective historical journey, most basic aspects of early monasticism come into view. And one learns that the monastic expression of faith is closely, radically tied to the original and quintessential Christian understanding and practice of faith: “eschatological, ascetic, interested in paradise.” A critical transitional moment arises with Cassian, and “the passing on to the West of the Egyptian monastic traditions.” Topics move from the medieval “golden age” of monasticism to the dissolution of monasticism in Reformation England, to the restoration of the hierarchy in England in 1850 and the shaping of the modern English Benedictine Congregation, with discussion of the 19^th-century faltering attempt to organize Benedictines as an order. The course follows this trajectory with a telos that is not only historical insight, but the present manifestation of monastic life, as pertains directly and even personally to the novice. In all of this there is a clear emphasis on the practical, in that the novice is entertaining a substantial life choice, and should know about the congregation he is seeking to enter. For Fr. Paschal, this comes with the realization that the course is not comprehensive, not demanding intense academic scholarship. Nevertheless, it remains clearly rooted in and supported by his own historical expertise. And the discussion inevitably provides an awareness, an opening onto that Conversation: “If the novice wants to pursue these things, he can.” 

To understand the historical tools Fr. Paschal brings to the course, one must realize that history is more than an avocation for him. He is thoroughly well-read, always carrying ready at hand the ever-present next book that he is already into. And he is indeed a published author, most notably of two books, the most recent an engaging and well-received study of the Galileo controversy, Galileo Revisited: The Galileo Affair in Context (Ignatius Press, 2017). The work provides extensive historical background for the pivotal case of Galileo, exploring a range of its implications, both scientific, theological, and cultural. Substantial biographical analysis fills out the study, providing texture for his life, moving beyond the assumptions or caricatures often associated with Galileo and his relationship with the Church. Fr. Scotti highlights the positive approach and support of reason and science that has historically grounded the Church’s theological outlook. His research reveals much of the intrigue and politics underlying the Galileo affair, including the scientist’s own engagement in these machinations. The study is pertinent to the contemporary relationship of faith and science, offering insights worthwhile for any who seek to move beyond reductive or overly simplistic historical or theological visions. 

A decade earlier, Fr. Scotti published Out of Due Time: Wilfrid Ward and the Dublin Review (Catholic University of America Press, 2006). The title is derived from the 1906 novel written by Ward’s wife, whose main character Sutcliffe bears “enormous similarities” to Wilfrid Ward. Ward himself was a writer, a well-known biographer of John Henry Newman, and very involved in the intellectual world of Catholic Dublin at the turn of the century. One might say that Ward is a historical figure not unlike Galileo, in the sense that he sought to advance the Church to its highest intellectual engagement with the modern world, through such vehicles as the Dublin Review, then one of the leading Catholic journals in the English language. Sheridan Gilley of the University of Durham writes: "An absorbing study of Wilfrid Ward...  Scotti is extraordinarily well-read in the wider history of his period, as well as in Ward's Roman Catholic background―the erudition of the work is most impressive, especially in its biographical aspect of summarizing briefly the lives of the contributors to the Dublin...”  

Fr. Paschal’s own approach to this research is reflected in his novitiate course, revealing a consistent interest that the historian not produce material dedicated simply to the past. He seeks a vibrant engagement in history, and a connection to the life of the present. This goal takes an added importance in the context of the novitiate, as the novice explores the life and spirituality of the religious community he is to join. And we might add that it is a religious community consciously connected to its history. And should you encounter Fr. Paschal here at the abbey, you too may learn that he will be prompt to engage you in that Conversation.