User:Scorpio1939/charisma

The term charisma originated in ancient Greece. Early Christians adopted it but revised its meaning. Over centuries religious institutions made slight changes. In the early 20th century a German sociologist expanded its meanings, and in the past half century it came into academic and common usage with many of these meanings. This article emphasizes the modern theological and personality senses of the definition of charisma by describing the history of the term and contemporary uses of both senses in particular sectors of society.

Charisma, Charismata, Charismatic, and Charism
Modern English language dictionaries define charisma as a noun in two senses; for example, The plural is charismata. The adjective charismatic has two meanings similar to these senses. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, its meaning the same as sense 2.
 * 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.
 * 2) a divinely conferred power or talent.

As described in the History section, theologians and social scientists have expanded and modified the original Greek meaning to the two distinct meanings above. For ease of reference, we will call the first sense personality charisma and the second spiritual charisma.

Spiritual Charisma
The English charisma is from the Greek χαρισμα, which means "grace or favor." The term derives from χαρις (charis), which means "grace." Derivatives from that root mean "filled with attractiveness or charm," "kindness," "to bestow a favor or service," or "to be favored or blessed." In short, χαρισμα, its root χαρις, and the root's derivatives have meanings similar to the modern sense of personality charisma. Moreover, the Ancient Greek dialect widely used throughout the Eastern Mediterranean in Roman times employed these terms without the connotations found in modern religious usage. For example, ancient Greeks applied personality charisma to their Gods, attributing charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and/or fertility to goddesses they called Charites (Χάριτες).

Spiritual charisma developed in the first centuries of Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, charism occurs 17 times with meanings varying between "grace" and "a spiritual gift or talent granted by God." Early Christians designated certain men as possessing "spiritual gifts," and these gifts included "'the ability to penetrate the neighbour to the bottom of his heart and spirit and to recognize whether he is dominated by a good or by an evil spirit and the gift to help him to freedom from his demon.'"

Believers characterized their revered religious figures as having "a higher perfection … a special Charisma." Then, with the establishment of the Christian Church, "the old charismatic gifts and free offerings were transformed into a hierarchical sacerdotal system." The focus on the institution rather than divinely inspired individuals increasingly dominated religious thought and life, and that focus went unchanged for centuries.

Additional changes began in the 17th century when church leaders, notably in the Latin tradition, accented "individual gifts [and] particular talents imparted by God or the Holy Spirit." These elements appear in the New Testament and writings of some Latin church fathers, but the emphasis began to shift toward individual and spiritual aspects of charisma. In the 19th century, Protestant and some Catholic theologians narrowed the concept to superlative, out-of-the-ordinary, and virtuoso gifts. Simultaneously, the term became alienated from the much wider meaning that early Christians had attached to it. Still, the narrowed term projected back to the earlier period:"A systematically reflected and highly differentiated understanding of charisma was often unconsciously infused into the Scriptures and writings of the church fathers, so that these texts were no longer read through the eyes of the authors."

These dialectic meanings influenced notable changes in pentecostalism in the late 19th century, and charismatic movements in some mainline churches in the mid-20th century. The discussion in the Modern Religion section explores what charisma means in some contemporary religious groups.

Secular History
The basis for modern secular usage comes from German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), who discovered the term in the work of Rudolf Sohm, a German church historian. His 1892 Kirchenrecht was immediately recognized in Germany as an epoch-making work. It also stimulated a debate between Sohm and leading theologians and religion scholars, which lasted more than twenty years and stimulated a rich polemical literature.

The debate and literature had made charisma a popular term when Weber used it in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and in his Sociology of Religion. In these and in other minor works Weber applied meanings for chrisma similar to Sohm who had affirmed the purely charismatic nature of early Christianity. Weber then moved to using charisma to designate charismatic authority, for which he defined charisma as"...a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader."

Weber's initial words are consistent with our personality charisma sense, but he then indicates that followers "endow" the individual with powers, "regard" these powers as of divine origin, and "treat" him as a leader. In a more directly stated passage, Weber emphasizes that "the recognition on the part of those subject to authority which is decisive for the validity of charisma." In other words, "charisma can only be that which is recognized by believers as charismatic" in the behavior of those they treat as charismatic.

The role of followers, and the degree of a supernatural component, have remained among the questions for later scholars. Weber died in 1920 leaving "disordered, fragmentary manuscripts without even the guidance of a plan or table of the proposed contents." One manuscript contained his above quoted definition of charisma. It took over a quarter century for his work to be translated into English. With regard to charisma, Weber's formulations are generally regarded as having revived the concept from its deep theological obscurity. However, even with the admirable translations and prefaces of his entire works, many scholars have found Weber's formulations ambiguous. For the past half-century they have debated the meaning of many Weberian concepts, including the meaning of charisma.

Attempts to clarify that ambiguity and to apply charisma to modern phenomena form a basis for discussion in subsequent sections of this article.