In line with Weber's general attentiveness to the ideal–typical features of religious institutions, but also compensating for his failure to direct this very same attentiveness to monasticism, the first task of this chapter is to highlight the distinctive features of monasticism as a specific type of religious organization. I shall aim here, in contrast to the existing literature on the topic, at a conceptual approach potentially applicable to “traditional” forms of monasticism in either East or West, and resolutely viewing monastic institutions as partaking of and interacting with broader sociocultural frameworks.

Reaching for a fuller and more contextual understanding of monasticism will throw light on religious virtuosity not only as a specific type of religious orientation giving rise to a specific type of religious elite or institution, but also as a central dimension in the dynamics of the two world religions compared. The result, ultimately, is a modified comparative perception of these two civilizations that uncovers both historical similarities and differences not yet been brought into relief in Weber's or other macrocomparative accounts, and that inscribes virtuoso asceticism as a vital factor not only in the rise of the West, but also in the ideological expansion and tenacity of the Buddhist East.

Monasticism as virtuoso institution and “alternative structure”

A most essential feature of monasticism is its marginal, even antithetical character vis-à-vis society at large.