A Monk’s Calling: Probst Maximilian Fuernsinn

This chapter is about Maximilian Fürnsinn, an Augustinian monk who served for many years as the superior of the Austrian monastery Herzogenburg ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzogenburg_Monastery ). It is based on an interview held in April 2024 and a biography which appeared in 2012 (Scholler, 2012). It is of particular interest since the subject is a man who has operated all his life in a religious realm, a field which has been treated with paucity in the academic world (Mayrhofer & Steinbereithner, 2016). The focus of the interview was the career of Fürnsinn, which for him felt somewhat strange given that monks don’t conceive of their professional progression as careers: they think of career as climbing up the ladder of success. But the explanation that we were simply interested in “the evolving sequence of experiences over time” (Arthur et al., 1989) put him at ease. The choice of Fürnsinn was not accidental: first, he led a monastery for over 40 years, thus providing a long period in which to observe both the progression of experiences and the field he operated in. Secondly, he has been, in many ways, one of the most prominent and respected religious superiors in Austria ( https://religion.orf.at/stories/3207022/ ).