Staging Authority

Traditional and New Forms of Authority

Charisma and Authority

Xavier Marquez

Abstract

This chapter explores the connections between the idea of charisma and the idea of authority, including the ways in which social, political, and economic changes affected the ‘staging’ of charismatic authority starting in modern times. It begins by briefly sketching the religious genealogy of the idea of charisma, from its origins in Pauline theology to its usage by German theologians in the nineteenth century. It then presents a detailed account of Weber’s paradigmatic account of charisma, stressing the ways in which he appropriated and secularized what was until then essentially a religious concept with little applicability outside of theological ...