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Oct 27 Charisma and Religious Separatism

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Title: Oct 27 Charisma and Religious Separatism


1
Oct 27-- Charisma and Religious Separatism
  • Religious Conformity and Compulsion-- Shruti
  • The Phenomenon of Charisma Greg
  • Religious Separatism Laurie
  • Authenticity and Crises of Succession

2
CONFORMITY AND COMPULSION
3
RELIGION AND HISTORY
  • Religions of Control Medieval Christendom,
    Caliphate Islam, Shinto as a State Warrior
    religion, Confucianism as the basis of Mandarin
    Imperial Bureaucracy.
  • Religions of Accommodation Most mainline
    CHURCHES and DENOMINATIONS by definition.
  • Religions of Escape Fundamentalist escapes into
    an ideal past and utopian escapes into an ideal
    future. Sectarian escapes into an ideal present.

4
RETREATS FROM THE PRESENT VERSUS RETREATS INTO AN
ALTERNATIVE PRESENT
  • Fundamentalism as a retreat into the past
  • Utopianism as a retreat into the future
  • Radical Sectarianism as the making of a separate
    peace with the present (in the world but not of
    the world). It may have fundamentalist or
    utopian elements.
  • monastic sectarianism
  • sui generis separtism

5
RELIGIOUS TOTALISM
  • The yearning of some religions of escape to
    become religions of control
  • The imagery of Armageddon and its analog in the
    temporal sphere. Gods army against the Devil
  • The affinity of religious totalism to
    premillennial eschatology

6
BOUNDED CHOICE
  • Similarities between a separatist political
    movement and a separatist religious movement.
  • New religious movements are better seen as social
    movements than as baby religions. Although the
    latter perspective can have some utility, it is
    most often overused.

7
CHARISMA
8
THEORIES OF CHARISMA
  • Nietzsche the ubermensch will to power
  • Weber charismatic relationship based on
    mutuality of sacrifice
  • Durkheim the society as sacred
  • Le Bon Crowd Psychology
  • Freud Regression to the breast

9
VOLITILITY OF CHARISMA
  • The positive feedback loop of charismatic trust
  • The mortality of charismatic leaders
  • The intrinsic unaccountability of charismatic
    authority (no checks and balances)

10
SEPARATISM
11
SECTS CULTS
  • Utopianism
  • mystical experience and religious virtuosity
  • the appeals of purity, unity, and exclusion of
    the profane

12
THE APPEAL OF THE ABSOLUTE
  • Cultural relativism
  • The Meaningless dimension of alienation
  • The True Believer

13
AUTHENTICITY AND CRISES OF SUCCESSION
14
POST-CHARISMATIC RELIGION
  • Awareness of mortality. Leaders die
  • Phenomenon of the charismatic second
  • Jesus, Paul
  • Joseph Smith, Brigham Young
  • Mohammad, Ali
  • Lenin, Stalin
  • Charisma of the outer calling versus charisma of
    the inner consolidation.

15
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16
Crises of Authentication
  • As capitalism is a struggle for control of the
    means of production, religious authority is a
    struggle for control of the means of
    authentication.
  • Although authenticity is not a legitimate subject
    for sociological study, the process of
    authentication is at the very heart of
    sociological interpretation and analysis

17
URGENCY AND APOCALYPSE
  • The Charismatic Attempt to Control Time

18
The Birth of Religions
  • If religions survive their first crises of
    succession (most dont), then they are faced with
    problem of periodic charismatic renewals.
  • Too far to one extreme, the religious movement
    becomes a pure religion of accomodation.
  • Too far to the other extreme, the religious
    movement is forced to export its chaotic energy
    by becoming a religion of control or else to ride
    the waves of continual structural turbulence,
    further schism, and eventual disintegration.
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