The article deals with the understanding of religious talent or religious excellence in the Early Modern Period. Three subtypes are identified as follows: (1) Political Heroism and the Sacred, (2) Countercultural Moral Excellence, (3) Extraordinary Emotions. It is further argued that these subtypes are to a great extent replaced with the idea of an educated expert in the modern period. In the end, the study of emotional intelligence is mentioned as a hypothetically fruitful way to understand these phenomena in behavioral sciences.