Religion

Charismatic Religious Leadership

Perhaps the most striking form of religious leadership is that which is presented as being thrust suddenly upon an unsuspecting individual in a dramatic encounter with the sacred. In his classic and still influential analysis, the sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) included such leadership under the heading of charismatic authority. Despite misunderstandings of his position, it is clear that Weber viewed charisma not as a static quality of individual personality, but as a product of social interaction, of claims and their rejection or recognition. He emphasized that charisma needs to be authenticated for it to have significant effects. Weber gave as one of his primary examples Jesus, as depicted in the gospel according to Matthew. In a series of parallel statements in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes several laws of Judaism and then asserts as a modification or to the contrary: “but I say to you” (Matthew 5: 21–45, RSV). Jesus' authority to transform or overthrow established legal precedents is based not on his superior training or insight, nor on his particular bureaucratic responsibility, but rather on his extraordinary status as descendant of David and son of God. Similar claimants to charismatic authority abound in the history of religions and often play significant roles in the founding of new religious traditions or the transformation of established ones. Examples of both founders and prophets reveal with particular clarity the dynamics of the formation of charismatic religious leadership.

Though he was notable for his industry, sense of fairness, and contemplative nature, little in the first forty years in the life of the prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632) indicated that he would become the founder of Islam. But during a time when he withdrew to the solitude of the mountains near his Meccan home, he was summoned to begin proclaiming God's will to humans by a stark imperative: “recite, recite in the name of God” (Qur'an 95:1). The call of the Israelite prophet Amos in the eighth century BCE was similarly abrupt; Amos relates simply that “the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel'” (Amos 7:15, RSV). In the 1820s in upper New York state, a teenaged Joseph Smith (1805–1844) received a series of visions that led him to reveal the Book of Mormon to the world and to found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church). Similarly, between 1918 and 1921 in what was then the Belgian Congo, Simon Kimbangu (c. 1889–1951) experienced a series of visions that inaugurated his work among the BaKongo people and eventually led to the formation of the largest independent Christian church in Africa. In those cases, the prophet's claim to leadership is reinforced by the character and content of the message proclaimed. The Qur'an, for example, makes frequent reference to the incomparable superiority of the [Page 1309]lucid and beautiful divine message that Muhammad preached. Virtually devoid of narrative, the biblical book of Amos relies for its rhetorical and religious power on the repeated formula, “Thus says the Lord.” Taken by the Mormons as another testament of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon presents itself as the culmination of Christian religious revelation. Identified as the message of the Comforter promised in the gospel according to John, Kimbangu's revelation brought his people a Christian message unmediated by white missionaries. In each of those cases, the willingness of individuals to accept and act upon the proclaimed message established authoritative leadership. The focus on a specific message also provided a counterbalance to the individual charismatic figure and made possible a continuation of his influence after his death or departure.

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