This article provides the first step of a threefold argument on why an integrative model for theorizing ecstasy is necessary and how this could be accomplished. This article sets out with some preliminary epistemological remarks on normativity and religious experience as a legitimate object of inquiry that have to be made in order to prepare the larger argument. Afterwards I.M. Lewis’s sociological theory of ecstasy will be outlined and its numerous advantages pointed out. The strength of the theory lies mainly in explaining ecstasy in highly hierarchical societies and in those cases where it occurs in connection with material gain. It fails however to be applicable in situations when the subjects do not achieve or aim at achieving improvement of their material or societal statuses, but quite contrarily (and gladly) give up possessions and positions. The same applies for social structures where a high degree of equality has been achieved and ecstasy or ecstatic spiritpossession does not have to function as a releasing remedy for social tensions. These cases of ecstasy can better be explained by theories that could be called “psychological”, or even “psychotheological”, that will be discussed in the next paper.

This article provides the first step of a threefold argument on why an integrative model for theorizing ecstasy is necessary and how this could be accomplished. This article sets out with some preliminary epistemological remarks on normativity and religious experience as a legitimate object of inquiry that have to be made in order to prepare the larger argument. Afterwards I.M. Lewis’s sociological theory of ecstasy will be outlined and its numerous advantages pointed out. The strength of the theory lies mainly in explaining ecstasy in highly hierarchical societies and in those cases where it occurs in connection with material gain. It fails however to be applicable in situations when the subjects do not achieve or aim at achieving improvement of their material or societal statuses, but quite contrarily (and gladly) give up possessions and positions. The same applies for social structures where a high degree of equality has been achieved and ecstasy or ecstatic spiritpossession does not have to function as a releasing remedy for social tensions. These cases of ecstasy can better be explained by theories that could be called “psychological”, or even “psychotheological”, that will be discussed in the next paper.