ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes data from Bhagwan Rajneesh's temporary community to explore the utility of Pierre Bourdieu's theories of culture and thereby adds another dimension to theories about and research on collective religious violence. Sannyasins' religious capital added to their cultural capital because their doctrines and practices supported material success and professional accomplishment in the larger society. Goldman's convoluted argument goes like this: the religious leader of the community under investigation, "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh embraced the delights of materialism and supported enlightened capitalism", as opposed to "Jim Jones's apocalyptic vision for the Peoples Temple," who "framed the collective violence erupting in 1978". He notes that journalist Win McCormick, a persistent public opponent of Rajneeshpuram, was often alarmed at the growing potential for large-scale collective violence at Rajneeshpuram. "Religious capital" refers to the capital embodied in, for example, institutions and cosmologies. It also refers to priests and prophets producing and reproducing ideas for a laity to "buy into."
