The Anthropology of Religious Charisma

The Anthropology of Religious Charisma

Author: C. Lindholm

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-12-18

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1137377631

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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.


The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma and Ghosts

Author: Stephen Feuchtwang

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2010-06-29

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 3110223562

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It has been said that Chinese government was, until the republican period, government through li. Li is the untranslatable word covering appropriate conduct toward others, from the guest rituals of imperial diplomacy to the hospitality offered to guests in the homes of ordinary people. It also covers the centring of self in relation to the flows and objects in a landscape or a built environment, including the world beyond the spans of human and other lives. It is prevalent under the republican regimes of China and Taiwan in the forming and maintaining of personal relations, in the respect for ancestors, and especially in the continuing rituals of address to gods, of command to demons, and of charity to neglected souls. The concept of ‛religion’ does not grasp this, neither does the concept of ‛ritual’, yet li undoubtedly refers to a figuration of a universe and of place in the world as encompassing as any body of rite and magic or of any religion. Through studies of Chinese gods and ghosts this book challenges theories of religion based on a supreme god and that god’s prophets, as well as those like Hinduism based on mythical figures from epics, and offers another conception of humanity and the world, distinct from that conveyed by the rituals of other classical anthropological theories.


Religion in Context

Religion in Context

Author: I. M. Lewis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1996-04-18

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780521566346

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Religious power assumes many strikingly different forms, which are often regarded as unique, unrelated, and even mutually exclusive. Religion in Context, however, adopts a holistic approach and argues that these apparently contradictory mystical experiences are in fact part of a web of mutually defining and sustaining elements. Stressing the importance of rigorous social contextualisation, I. M. Lewis analyses phenomena such as spirit-possession, witchcraft, cannibalism, and shamanism, revealing connections between them and with the world religions. This expanded and updated edition illuminates critical aspects of religious power, and demonstrates the value of a comparative approach to formulating anthropological theory. It will be of value to students of anthropology, religion, and to anyone concerned with the nature of religion in the modern world.


The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts

The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts

Author: Stephan Feuchtwang

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 3110223554

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China has many religions. But rituals of local temples are none of these. They celebrate many gods and their powers to respond. Gods are invited as welcome guests by appropriate rituals of welcome and communication. Other rituals pacify ghosts and harmful powers. These rituals are rich with their own poetry, a poetry of performance, not just of contemplation. Interpreting this poetry demands revision of theories of ritual and religion. The author has spent over four decades studying Chinese ritual and religion through observation in contemporary China and Taiwan, constantly revising and rethinking theories of religion, ritual and their role in different political regimes.


Language, Charisma, and Creativity

Language, Charisma, and Creativity

Author: Thomas J. Csordas

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0520324021

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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.


Spirits and Letters

Spirits and Letters

Author: Thomas G. Kirsch

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0857451421

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Studies of religion have a tendency to conceptualise 'the Spirit' and 'the Letter' as mutually exclusive and intrinsically antagonistic. However, the history of religions abounds in cases where charismatic leaders deliberately refer to and make use of writings. This book challenges prevailing scholarly notions of the relationship between 'charisma' and 'institution' by analysing reading and writing practices in contemporary Christianity. Taking up the continuing anthropological interest in Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity, and representing the first book-length treatment of literacy practices among African Christians, this volume explores how church leaders in Zambia refer to the Bible and other religious literature, and how they organise a church bureaucracy in the Pentecostal-charismatic mode. Thus, by examining social processes and conflicts that revolve around the conjunction of Pentecostal-charismatic and literacy practices in Africa, Spirits and Letters reconsiders influential conceptual dichotomies in the social sciences and the humanities and is therefore of interest not only to anthropologists but also to scholars working in the fields of African studies, religious studies, and the sociology of religion.


Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Author: James S Bielo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-04-10

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1317542827

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Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introductory text organized around key issues that all anthropologists of religion face. This book uses a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples to address not only what is studied by anthropologists of religion, but how such studies are approached. It addresses questions such as: How do human agents interact with gods and spirits? What is the nature of doing religious ethnography? Can the immaterial be embodied in the body, language and material objects? What is the role of ritual, time, and place in religion? Why is charisma important for religious movements? How do global processes interact with religions? With international case studies from a range of religious traditions, suggestions for further reading, and inventive reflection boxes, Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an essential read for students approaching the subject for the first time.


Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Anthropology of Religion: The Basics

Author: James Bielo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-04-10

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1317542819

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Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introductory text organized around key issues that all anthropologists of religion face. This book uses a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples to address not only what is studied by anthropologists of religion, but how such studies are approached. It addresses questions such as: How do human agents interact with gods and spirits? What is the nature of doing religious ethnography? Can the immaterial be embodied in the body, language and material objects? What is the role of ritual, time, and place in religion? Why is charisma important for religious movements? How do global processes interact with religions? With international case studies from a range of religious traditions, suggestions for further reading, and inventive reflection boxes, Anthropology of Religion: The Basics is an essential read for students approaching the subject for the first time.


The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity

The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity

Author: Simon Coleman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-10-02

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780521660723

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This 2000 book analyses the revival of charismatic Protestant Christianity as an example of globalization. Simon Coleman shows that, along with many social movements, these religious conservatives are negotiating their own interpretations of global and postmodern processes. They are constructing an evangelical arena of action and meaning within the liminal, chaotic space of the global. The book examines globalization not only as a social process, but also as an embodied practice involving forms of language and ritualized movement. Charismatic Christianity is presented through its material culture - art, architecture and consumer products - as well as its rhetoric and theology. The book provides an account of the incorporation of electronic media such as television, videos and the Internet into Christian worship. Issues relating to the conduct of fieldwork in contexts of globalization are raised in an account which is also a major ethnography of a Faith ministry.


Language, Charisma, and Creativity

Language, Charisma, and Creativity

Author: T. Csordas

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2012-06-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780230341104

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Thomas Csordas's eloquent analysis of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, part of the contemporary cultural and media phenomenon known as conservative Christianity, embraces one of the primary charges of anthropology as a discipline: to stimulate critical reflection by making the exotic seem familiar and the familiar appear strange. In contrast to the portrayal of the distant cultural 'other' in ethnographic studies of tribal societies, this book shows that people who might be regarded by some as 'religious eccentrics' are quite comprehensible in terms of contemporary culture, while at the same time people who might be anyone's neighbors in fact inhabit a profoundly distinct world of experience. This new work makes an original, important contribution to anthropology, sociology, studies of religion and ritual, cultural phenomenology, linguistic-semiotic and rhetorical studies, the multidisciplinary study of social movements, and American Studies.