Thursday, September 24, 2009

Charismatic Cults

In defining Max Weber's concept of "Charismatic Authority," you cannot go wrong in providing Jesus and Hitler as your only two visual examples:

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"In his writings about charismatic authority, Weber applies the term charisma to '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...' (Maximilian Weber, Theory of Social and Economic Organization, 1922, translated by A.R. Anderson and Talcott Parsons, 1947)

"Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader.

"Hitler is also considered to be an example of a charismatic leader."

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