Charisma, Medieval and Modern

161 Pages·2015·1.47 MB·English

by  Laura Simon

Charisma, Medieval and Modern
Edited by
Peter Iver Kaufman and Gary Dickson
Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions
www.mdpi.com/journal/religions
Peter Iver Kaufman and Gary Dickson (Eds.)

Charisma, Medieval and Modern
This book is a reprint of the special issue that appeared in the online open access journal
Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) in 2012 (available at:
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/charisma_medieval).

Guest Editors
Peter Iver Kaufman
Jepson School, University of Richmond
Richmond, VA, USA

Gary Dickson
School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, EH, Scotland, UK

Editorial Office
MDPI AG
Klybeckstrasse 64
Basel, Switzerland

Publisher
Shu-Kun Lin

Production Editor
Jeremiah R. Zhang

1. Edition 2014

(cid:48)(cid:39)(cid:51)(cid:44)(cid:3)(cid:135)(cid:3)(cid:37)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:79)(cid:3)(cid:135)(cid:3)(cid:37)(cid:72)(cid:76)(cid:77)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74)

ISBN 978-3-03842-007-1

© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. All articles in this volume are Open
Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which allows users to download, copy and build
upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are
properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications.
However, the dissemination and distribution of copies of this book as a whole is restricted to

MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
III

Table of Contents

List of Contributors ............................................................................................................... V

Preface ............................................................................................................................... VII

Gary Dickson
Charisma, Medieval and Modern
Reprinted from: Religions 3 (2012): 763-789; doi:10.3390/rel3030763
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/3/3/763 .............................................................................. 1

Peter Iver Kaufman
Augustine on Manichaeism and Charisma
Reprinted from: Religions 3 (2012): 808-816; doi:10.3390/rel3030808
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/3/3/808 ............................................................................ 28

Brett Edward Whalen
Antichrist as (Anti)Charisma: Reflections on Weber and the ‘Son of Perdition’
Reprinted from: Religions 4 (2013): 77-95; doi:10.3390/rel4010077
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/1/77 .............................................................................. 37

William M. Aird
Saint Anselm of Canterbury and Charismatic Authority
Reprinted from: Religions 5 (2014): 90-108; doi:10.3390/rel5010090
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/1/90 .............................................................................. 56

Michael Clanchy
Abelard: Celebrity and Charisma—A Response to Dickson
Reprinted from: Religions 3 (2012): 1140-1143; doi:10.3390/rel3041140
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/3/4/1140 .......................................................................... 75

Andrew Brown
Charisma and Routine: Shaping the Memory of Brother Richard and Joan of Arc
Reprinted from: Religions 3 (2012): 1162-1179; doi:10.3390/rel3041162
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/3/4/1162 .......................................................................... 79
IV

Kristin M.S. Bezio
Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England
Reprinted from: Religions 4 (2013): 30-50; doi:10.3390/rel4010030
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/1/30 .............................................................................. 98

George R. Goethals
Charismatic Reactions to Individuals and Ideas: Looks, Language and Lincoln
Reprinted from: Religions 4 (2013): 209-215; doi:10.3390/rel4020209
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/2/209 .......................................................................... 119

Yaakov Ariel
Charisma and Counterculture: Allen Ginsberg as a Prophet for a New Generation
Reprinted from: Religions 4 (2013): 51-66; doi:10.3390/rel4010051
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/4/1/51 ............................................................................ 126

Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner
Charisma, Diversity, and Religion in the American City— A Reflection
Reprinted from: Religions 5 (2014): 435-443; doi:10.3390/rel5020435
http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/5/2/435 .......................................................................... 142
V

List of Contributors

William M. Aird lectures in Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh. His research
interests concern the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Western Europe, with a focus on the
'Norman diaspora' in the British Isles, Northern France and Southern Italy. His more recent
publications include: Duke Robert II, ‘Curthose’ of Normandy, c.1051-1134 (Boydell &
Brewer 2008) and The Tears of Bishop Gundulf: Gender, Religion, and Emotion in the Late
Eleventh Century, in Cordelia Beattie and Kirsten A. Fenton, eds., Intersections of Gender,
Religion and Ethnicity in the Middle Ages, (Palgrave Macmillan 2011), 62-84.

Yaakov Ariel is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of
Chicago, Yaakov Ariel's research focuses on Christian-Jewish relations, the Jewish reaction to
modernity and postmodernity, and New Religious Movements. Ariel has published numerous
articles and three books on these and other subjects. One of his books, Evangelizing the
Chosen People (University of North Carolina Press 2000), was awarded the Albert C. Outler
prize by the American Society of Church History. Ariel's latest book is An Unusual
Relationship (New York University Press 2013). Ariel teaches Religious Studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kristin M.S. Bezio is an Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies at the Jepson School of
Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Her background is in technical
theater and literature, and her research interests include early modern drama, leadership
studies, and game studies. Recent publications include Subject, Servant, & Sovereign: Servant
Leadership and Elizabethan Government in Shakespeare’s ‘King John’ in Leadership and
Elizabethan Culture, ‘Staged Magic: Performing Witchcraft in Macbeth’ in William
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Friends & Rivals: Loyalty, Ethics, and Leadership in ‘Dragon
Age II’ in Identity and Leadership in Virtual Communities: Establishing Credibility and
Influence.

Andrew Brown has been a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities at Massey University,
Palmerston North (NZ) since 2010. Previously he was at Edinburgh University, and before
that at Oxford as a Fellow at Keble College. His books include: Popular Piety in Late
Medieval England: the Diocese of Salisbury 1250-1550 (OUP, 1995); Church and Society in
England 1000-1500 (Palgrave, 2003); and Civic Ceremony and Religion in Bruges 1300-1520
(CUP, 2011).

Michael Clanchy is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the Institute of Historical
Research, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He taught previously
at the Univesity of Glasgow. He is the author of Abelard - A Medieval Life (Blackwell 1997)
and From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307 (third edition, John Wiley & Sons
2012).
VI

Gary Dickson was born in California. He received his A.B. at Stanford; his M.A. at Yale; and
his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Employed as a medievalist in Edinburgh’s history
department for most of his academic career, he retired as a Reader and an Honorary Fellow.
Medieval religious movements, revivalism, became the focus of his intellectual interest, as
evidenced in his collected studies Religious Enthusiasm in the Medieval West: Revivals,
crusades, saints (Ashgate 2000) and The Children's Crusade: Medieval History; Modern
Mythistory (Palgrave-MacMillan 2008, pb 2010). His eight Wilde Lectures in Natural and
Comparative Religion delivered at Oxford University (1996-7) were on the theme of 'Medieval
Pentecostalism'. At present he is working on a book based on these lectures.

George R. Goethals holds the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professorship in
Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. Previously at Williams College he served
as chair of the Department of Psychology, founding chair of the Program in Leadership
Studies, and Provost. With Georgia Sorenson and James MacGregor Burns, he edited the
Encyclopedia of Leadership (Sage Publications 2004). With Gary McDowell he edited
Lincoln’s Legacy of Leadership (Palgrave Macmillan 2009). With Scott Allison he co-
authored Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them (Oxford University Press 2011) and
Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals (Routledge 2013).
Goethals recent scholarship explores presidential leadership and race relations.

Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, Ph.D., is a church historian and a registered nurse. She is
Coordinator of Health Professions Counseling and Affiliate Theology Professor at Loyola
University Maryland. Her published work has focused on medieval spirituality and religious
dietary ethics. Her publications include Dominican Penitent Women (Paulist Press 2005), an
edition of medieval sources concerning Dominican laywomen, and the article Writing
Religious Rules as an Interactive Process - Dominican Penitent Women and the Making of
Their Regula, published in Speculum 79 (July 2004). As a registered nurse she is actively
involved in urban health promotion through research, teaching, service-learning partnerships,
urban school wellness initiatives, and Loyola University Maryland's outreach.

Peter Iver Kaufman is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
and George Matthews and Virginia Brinkley Modlin Distinguished Professor at the University
of Richmond. His latest books, Religion around Shakespeare (authored) and Leadership and
Elizabethan Culture (edited) appeared in 2013. His previous work on Augustine appeared in
Incorrectly Political: Augustine and Thomas More (2007) and, since then, in several journals
including History of Political Thought, Journal of Late Antiquity, Journal of Religious Ethics,
and Vigiliae Christianae. He is Editor-in-Chief of Religions.

Brett Whalen teaches medieval European history at UNC-Chapel Hill. His other works
include Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Harvard
University Press 2009) and The Medieval Papacy (Palgrave Macmillan 2014). He is currently
writing a book about papal sovereignty in the thirteenth century.
VII

Preface

What is striking about this collection is that all the writers testify to one fact—the
extraordinary fruitfulness of Max Weber(cid:1932)s idea of charisma. Proof of the capaciousness of
the Weberian idea of charisma is its diffusion outside the academic community, although
“charisma” as popularized by the media owes little to Weber. These articles reveal,
however, that Weberian charisma is indeed relevant to an astonishing range of phenomena.
The expansion of charisma(cid:1932)s territory stretches beyond what Max Weber could have
imagined.
The central theme of my introductory essay is Max Weber(cid:1932)s concept of charisma and
its ramifications medieval and modern. The medieval dramatis personae range from the
eleventh-century preacher of the first crusade, Peter the Hermit, to the late-fifteenth-century
Florentine demagogue Girolamo Savonarola. The moderns include the demagogic radio
priest Father Coughlin (d.1979) as well as the sect leaders Jim Jones of Jonestown (d. 1978)
and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians (d. 1993), both of whom died ingloriously.
Living saints present a final contrast.
Chronologically first comes Peter Kaufman(cid:1932)s understanding of why, in late fourth and
early fifth-century Roman North Africa and Italy, St. Augustine became disenchanted and
disillusioned with the supposedly elite leaders of the Manichees. Instead, he came to value
more humble Christians, specifically the early Christian martyrs. Augustine(cid:1932)s charismatics
were dead rather than alive.
From early Christianity to Barack Obama, Brett Whalen looks apocalpticism(cid:1932)s
Antichrist as the possessor of a (cid:1931)dark charisma(cid:1932). Adso, the tenth-century biographer of
Antichrist has him born a Jew, his life a perverted parallel to Christ(cid:1932)s. His power was anti-
charismatic. Apocalyptically-minded enemies of President Obama view him as a
contemporary Antichrist, a false messiah.
William Aird concentrates on Saint Anselm of Canterbury (d.1109) and the
charismatic authority he won as monk, abbot, miracle worker, preacher and scholar.
Institutional and personal charisma secured his election as archbishop of Canterbury,
although, ultimately, he lost his charismatic authority in exile, estranged from the king and
abandoned by his followers.
Michael Clancy clarifies topics pertaining to one of the foremost philosophers of the
twelfth century, Peter Abelard. Although Abelard did have student followers, it was
Bernard of Clairvaux who fits the criteria of a charismatic teacher “rather better” than
Abelard. Nonetheless, Abelard(cid:1932)s celebrity status was widely acknowledged, as was his role
as a public intellectual.
Andrew Brown examines the careers of Brother Richard, a charismatic apocalyptic
preacher associated with Joan of Arc in fifteenth-century northern France.. While Richard
was imprisoned and disappeared from the records, Joan was burnt at the stake. Her
charisma culminated in canonization (1920). The focus of Brown(cid:1932)s analysis is the
Weberian distinction between charisma and routinization.
VIII

Kristin Bezio takes us to late sixteenth century England and considers Shakespeare as
a dramatist of royal charisma and its loss. This is an erudite discussion of the limitations of
royal charisma which in England fused spiritual endowment with military success. The
failure of royal charisma demonstrates frailty.
Social psychologist George Goethals opens his essay on Lincoln(cid:1932)s presidential
charisma (1861-65) with comments on Franklin Delano Rooesvelt(cid:1932)s wish not to be
photographed in his wheel chair. FDR wanted nothing to diminish his image as a strong
leader. According to Goethals, Lincoln(cid:1932)s “emotional connection with his followers” was
created by means of his appearance and visibility. Biblical rhetoric in his speeches added to
his charisma.
Yaakov Ariel chooses the poet Allen Ginsberg, as prophet and “father figure” of the
Beat Generation (1950s-1990s). So he was a “charismatic counter-leader.” His aura grew
with the aura of the Beats, for whom he was a quasi-leader, even if his generation eschewed
“rigid structures and authorities.” His poems Howl and Kaddish brought him fame.
Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner(cid:1932)s vivid account of her exploration of Pentecostalist African-
American charismatic leadership, preaching, and worship in twenty-first century Baltimore,
conjoins the issues of urban poverty, health, and racial and gender discrimination. The role
of religion is also noted in the Webers(cid:1932) journey to America. Dr. Lehmijoki-Gardner(cid:1932)s
findings are enhanced by her personal perspective.
The editors would like to thank their contributors whose enthusiasm and erudition
energized and inspired us, as did our collegue Jeremiah Zhang(cid:1932)s cooperation at every stage
from concept to journal to book.

Gary Dickson
Guest Editor
1
Reprinted from Religions. Cite as: Dickson, G. “Charisma, Medieval and Modern.” Religions 3
(2012): 763–789.

Charisma, Medieval and Modern
Gary Dickson

Abstract: Popularized by the mass media, Max Weber’s sociological concept of charisma now has
a demotic meaning far from what Weber had in mind. Weberian charismatic leaders have followers,
not fans, although, exceptionally, fans mutate into followers. This essay aims to trace some of the
dimensions of Weberian charismatic religious leadership in comparative perspective, medieval and
modern. Examples include: preachers, “double charisma,” professors, “collective charisma,”
1
religious radicals, the economy of charisma, transgressive sexuality, demagogues, living saints.

1. Introduction: The Heroic Individual and Max Weber’s Charisma
Heroic figures have peopled the western imagination from Homeric and Virgilian epics to the
Chanson de Roland and beyond. Thomas Carlyle’s celebrated lectures of 1840 were devoted to
Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, which surveyed religious, literary, and political
heroes. Carlyle’s thesis that “Universal History is at bottom the History of Great Men” has long
ceased to be persuasive, although variants of the idea have persisted ([1], pp. 1, 12). One example
is Sidney Hook’s protagonist in The Hero in History (1943)—the “event-making individual” ([2],
p. 229). But does historical significance determine heroic status?
Perhaps the most influential twentieth-century permutation of the idea of the heroic individual
was that of the charismatic leader. According to Max Weber (b.1864, d.1920), whose name has
become virtually synonymous with charisma, charismatic authority was granted to certain
extraordinary individuals whose personal qualities, heroic or saintly, marked them out as unlike
other men ([3], pp. 332, 399). Once a charismatic leader has been recognized, his followers were
2
expected to adhere to patterns of behavior or rules of conduct which he laid down ([4], p. 328).
1.1. Popular “Charisma” and Celebrity Culture
But if Max Weber knew the fate of the word “charisma,” how do we imagine he would respond?
Probably not with a wry smile. More likely, he would display the same immensely serious, glacial

1
Several scholars have helped me revise drafts of my essay; I am their grateful beneficiary: Donald Bloxham,
Samuel Cohn, Jr, David d’Avray, Ian Wei, Peter Kaufman. I also wish to thank the colleagues who provided me
with references or gave me materials: Judith Green, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Jill Stephenson, Anthony Goodman.
2
The male gender is used because Weber did not seem to envisage females as typical charismatic leaders.