Aesthetic Motivation in Religious Activism

This chapter explores the potential role of aesthetic experiences in religious activism. In doing so, it aims to bridge the fields of sociology of religion and the social-scientific study of social movements to address gaps shared by both fields. Considering the role of aesthetics can help us better answer certain questions that have been of interest to these disciplines from their inceptions – namely, what attracts people to and sustains commitments to truth and justice. The chapter first examines similarities in the histories of both fields, tracing a trajectory from explaining both religion and social movements as products of “irrationality” to highlighting the role of rationality to emphasizing embodied emotions. Building on this emotional turn, the chapter suggests the role of aesthetic experience as providing “positive emotional shocks” that might contribute to religious activism. Connecting social movement theory and aesthetic theory, the chapter identifies potential causal pathways from beauty to justice and probes writings of religious activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., the White Rose movement, Dorothy Day, and Mahatma Gandhi to illustrate how some of these mechanisms may work. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future scholarship.