Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement

Abstract

In this article, I contribute to the development of the sociology of prayer focusing on the practice of bhaktiyoga, or yoga of devotion, within the largely influential, although substantially understudied, Mooji’s neo-Guru movement. Methodologically, I rely on the tools of reflexive sociology, autoethnography, and discourse analysis while theoretically I advance a preliminary theorization of praying interaction rituals through a coupled reading of Mauss’ early insights, Randal Collins’ Interaction Ritual Chain Theory (IRC), and the concept of spiritual capital. The article conceptualizes collective prayer as an interaction ritual chain through which the collective identity of the community is continuously reconstituted around shared rituals, and which is in turn aimed at the acquisition of spiritual capital, the most valued type of capital within Mooji’s community of devotees. Within this framework, prayer becomes essential also in the process of becoming a ‘good devotee’.