The Anthropology of Religious Charisma : Ecstasies and Institutions

According to Max Weber, charisma is opposed to bureaucratic order. This collection reveals the limits of that formula. The contributors show how charisma is a part of cultural frameworks while retaining its ecstatic character among American and Italian Catholics, Syrian Sufis, Taiwanese Buddhists, Hassidic Jews, and Amazonian shamans, among others. Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Charisma in Theory and Practice -- Part I Performing Charisma -- Chapter 1 Performing the Charismatic Ritual -- Chapter 2 Knowledge and Miracles: Modes of Charisma in Syrian Sufism -- Part II Gendering Charisma -- Chapter 3 Female Sufis in Syria: Charismatic Authority and Bureaucratic Structure -- Chapter 4 The Gender of Charisma: Notes from a Taiwanese Buddhist Transnational NGO -- Chapter 5 Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community -- Part III Religious Charisma and Politics -- Chapter 6 Extraordinary Times: Charismatic Repertoires in Contemporary African Prophetism -- Chapter 7 The Routinization of Improvisation in Avá-Guaraní Shamanic Leadership -- Part IV Posthumous Charisma -- Chapter 8 Unruly Miracles: Embodied Charisma and Modern Sainthood, from Padre Pio to "Papa Buono" -- Chapter 9 Habad, Messianism, and the Phantom Charisma of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson -- Notes on Contributors -- Index Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: Charisma in Theory and Practice....Pages 1-30 Front Matter....Pages 31-31 Performing the Charismatic Ritual....Pages 33-57 Knowledge and Miracles: Modes of Charisma in Syrian Sufism....Pages 59-77 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Female Sufis in Syria: Charismatic Authority and Bureaucratic Structure....Pages 81-100 The Gender of Charisma: Notes from a Taiwanese Buddhist Transnational NGO....Pages 101-116 Residual Masculinity and the Cultivation of Negative-Charisma in a Caribbean Pentecostal Community....Pages 117-143 Front Matter....Pages 145-145 Extraordinary Times: Charismatic Repertoires in Contemporary African Prophetism....Pages 147-168 The Routinization of Improvisation in Avá-Guaraní Shamanic Leadership....Pages 169-190 Front Matter....Pages 191-191 Unruly Miracles: Embodied Charisma and Modern Sainthood, from Padre Pio to “Papa Buono”....Pages 193-212 Habad, Messianism, and the Phantom Charisma of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson....Pages 213-238 Back Matter....Pages 239-248 How can the irrational force of charisma co-exist within rationalized religious institutions? To answer this question, this book provides the first comparative anthropological explorations of charisma as it occurs among Charismatic Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Sufis, Hassidic Jews, Buddhist cultists, and Native American shamans in locations ranging from Massachusetts to Syria; from Taiwan to the Dominican Republic; from Angola to the jungles of Paraguay, from Rome to Brooklyn. These cases reveal how various religious traditions incorporate ecstatic charismatic experiences within their overarching organizational systems, and so provide new insight into the nature of religion today