SOROKIN, PITIRIM ALEKSANDROVICH (1889–1968), became controversial among his fellow sociologists after it became clear in the late 1930s that his heuristic key into social-cultural dynamics was a metaphysical distinction between a "sensate" materialism and "ideational" supernaturalism. His denunciation of the sensate materialism of Western culture emerged from spiritual commitments forged in his youth.

Born in the Vologda province of northern Russia, Sorokin was the son of a craftsman who restored icons in Orthodox churches while struggling with alcoholism, and of a mother who died three years after his birth. His early years were spent helping his artisan father, who died when Sorokin was ten. Sorokin then supported himself making icons, read widely in Russian literature and theology, and was influenced by nature mysticism.

These spiritual commitments were not explicit, however, when he arrived at Harvard University in 1929 and became founding chair of the Department of...