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Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order: A Comparative Sociological Study of Monasticism in Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

Virtuosity, Charisma and Social Order: A Comparative Sociological Study of Monasticism in Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

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Ilana Friedrich Silber
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Digitally Printed 1st Pbk. Version, 7/13/1995
EAN 9780521413978, ISBN10: 0521413974

Hardcover, 264 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English

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.

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.