Oct 27 Charisma and Religious Separatism

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Oct 27-- Charisma and Religious Separatism

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

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CONFORMITY AND COMPULSION
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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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CHARISMA
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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

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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)

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SEPARATISM
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SECTS CULTS

• Utopianism
• mystical experience and religious virtuosity
• the appeals of purity, unity, and exclusion of
  the profane

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THE APPEAL OF THE ABSOLUTE

• Cultural relativism
• The Meaningless dimension of alienation
• The True Believer

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AUTHENTICITY AND CRISES OF SUCCESSION
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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.

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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

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URGENCY AND APOCALYPSE

• The Charismatic Attempt to Control Time

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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.