Reconsidering Virtuosity: Religious Innovation and Spiritual Privilege
Abstract
Spiritual virtuosity is an important but neglected concept for theoretical and empirical scholarship about movements for religious and social change. Weber focused primarily on ascetic spiritual virtuosi who sought to transcend the world. We suggest that when virtuosi enter the larger society and become leaders in movements to democratize access to sanctification, their influence can be dramatic. By approaching virtuosity as a social form and focusing on activist virtuosi, we are able to consider virtuosi’s individual attributes, their collective relationships, and the social contexts that shape the success or failure of their movements. We advance our argument with the help of case studies of two very different virtuosi-led movements: the central European Reformation and the American Human Potential Movement.
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Biographies
Marion Goldman is a professor emeritus of sociology and religious studies at the University of Oregon. She is also a scholar in residence at the Portland Center for Public Humanities. She uses a variety of qualitative methods to study marginal religions and their social impact. Her most recent book, The American Soul Rush (NYU, 2012), examines spiritual privilege and the mainstreaming of the Human Potential Movement.
Steven Pfaff is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. His areas of research include comparative and historical sociology, political sociology and the sociology of religion. His work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Theory & Society, Social Forces and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and elsewhere. His book, Exit-Voice Dynamics and the Collapse of East Germany, was published by Duke University Press in 2006.
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Article first published online: June 16, 2014
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