The Reformation’s Reach: How Luther’s Innovations Inspired Centuries of Social Change

Marion Goldman, University of Oregon
Steven Pfaff, University of Washington.

In their new book, The Spiritual Virtuoso: Personal Faith and Social Transformation, Goldman and Pfaff define a spiritual virtuoso as someone who works toward personal purification and a sense of holiness with the same perseverance and intensity that virtuosi strive to excel in the arts or athletics.

Since the Protestant Reformation, activist virtuosi have come together in large and small social movements to redefine the meanings of spiritual practice, support religious equality, and transform a wide range of social institutions.

Personalized religion can place ethically authentic living at its center and in the process contributes to collective and societal good. Tracing the impact of spiritual virtuosi from the sixteenth century Reformation through the twentieth-century Human Potential Movement and beyond, they explore how personal virtuosity can become a social force.