Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order
Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order
A Comparative Sociological Study of Monasticism in Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism
This book is a comparative macrosociological study of the interaction between religious virtuosi and society in two civilizations: traditional Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism. Merging Weberian sociology with the Maussian tradition of gift-analysis, and criticizing the neglect of meaning in current comparative historical sociology, the author also argues the need for a multidimensional approach capable of addressing the part played by religious orientations in shaping the institutional strength and ideological power of religious elites in the historical framework of the Great Traditions.
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- Highly original comparative study of a topical subject
Product details
July 1995Hardback
9780521413978
264 pages
237 × 160 × 24 mm
0.638kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Virtuosi and Society: Elements of Macrosociological Approach:
- 1. The Weberian legacy
- 2. Monasticism and social order: a multidimensional perspective: Part II. Virtuosi asnd Society in Theravada Buddhism:
- 3. Ideological groundings: hierarchy and ritualized exchange
- 4. Virtuosity institutionalized
- The Sangha in Social Context
- 5. Virtuoso radicalism: the triumph of a syndrome
- Part III. Virtuosi and Society in Medieval Catholicism:
- 6. Ideological groundings: plurality and conditional exchange
- 7. Virtuosity institutionalized: monasticism in social context
- 8. Virtuoso radicalism: a self-defeating triumph
- Part IV. Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order:
- 9. Virtuosity and the virtuoso-society syndrome
- 10. The virtuoso syndrome in comparative historical perspective
- Conclusion.
