Charisma and Myth

(Paperback, NIPPOD)

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Charisma and Myth combines an interdisciplinary examination of myth with the newest developments in the application of charisma theory to history and social life. Through scores of examples ranging from Inuit myth to Christian theology, from Malinowski to martyrology, Charisma and Myth argues definitively that the survival of myth systems mirrors the survival of such charismatic groups as modern street gangs, the Anglo-Saxon comitatus, or Satan's fallen angels in Paradise Lost. Even the smallest charismatic group generates its own set of myths, and, like larger myth systems, depends on continual revolutionary change - not, as might be expected, on the stability of its myths - to survive and to achieve longevity. As this innovative study shows, group leaders must learn first to foster and then to manage the mild chaos and changing symbols of their myths. Charisma and Myth challenges myth theorists from the nineteenth through to the twenty-first century and adds a missing component to our understanding of how and why myths continue to grip our imaginations.

Reviews

Starting with Max Weber's famous concept of "charismatic authority" and the eventual "routinization" of it in traditional and bureaucratic authority, Raphael Falco argues that the original charisma remains far more alive than Weber assumes and that it does so because of myth. For Falco, religion, for example, would become dessicated without myth. With myth, religion can transform itself to meet changes in the world. Religion does not become hollow because myth changes to keep it alive. Weber himself wrote little on myth. It is Falco who ties charisma to myth. Most theorists of myth assume that, if anything, it is dried-up myth which kills religion and other institutions. Falco argues the opposite: that religion and other institutions would dry up without myth. An original take on the place of myth in the modern world. And very well written to boot. -- Robert A. Segal, Sixth Century Chair in Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen, and author of Theorizing about Myth and Myth: A Very Short Introduction
Raphael Falco's Charisma and Myth is an important contribution to the study of myth as well as sociology. It makes clear in new and significant ways the role of shared myth, and the archetypes that emerge in them, in sustaining the charisma not only of leaders, but also of groups as such. Charisma is kept alive within a group both formally and informally, through stories, ritual, and characteristic attitudes and behavior, including "code" words. These observations, so valuable for understanding much of what is going on in today's religious and political worlds, are presented engagingly, with many telling examples. This is a powerful book which is bound to make an impact. -- Robert Ellwood, author of Myth: A Guide for the Perplexed and Tales of Darkness (both Continuum)

Author Bio

Raphael Falco is Professor of English Literature at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA.