What is charisma and what does it give us

Charisma is a mysterious concept. It has been around for 2,000 years and originally meant divine grace. Now one of the interpretations of the word "charisma" is the ability to influence others. Let's figure out how the concept of charisma was transformed, what they mean by this word now and how useful charisma is.

It's easier to understand what charisma is than to define it. Various newspaper and magazine articles provide similar examples of charismatic leaders: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Barack Obama. However, they rarely describe charisma as such. The question of whether a so-called “transformational” leader needs to have charismatic traits remains highly controversial.

At the same time, bookstore shelves are crammed with self-help books that promise to reveal all the secrets of charisma to the reader.

Early concepts of charisma

Some believe that it is impossible to get to the bottom of the concept of "charisma", because it is something abstract, which only rare individuals possess. But what is charisma?

The concept of charisma goes back to the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, written around AD 50. In them you can find the first written mention of the word "charisma", derived from the Greek word charis, which means "gift", "grace". The Apostle Paul defined charisma as "divine grace" or "gift of God."

In the Epistles of Paul to the young Christian communities of the Roman Empire, the word charismata ("gifts of grace") was mentioned. He identified nine gifts that are both supernatural and natural: the gifts of prophecy, healing, language skills and interpretation of tongues, the gift of imparting knowledge, and the gifts of ministry.

The Apostle Paul viewed the concept of charisma as mystical: it was believed that divine gifts can be poured out on any person without the mediation of church institutions. There was no such thing as leadership charisma. The complementary gifts of grace were supposed to be designed to serve congregations without the help of an imposing leader.

However, by the 4th century, under the active influence of the church, the concept of "charisma" ceased to mean something received directly from the Holy Spirit. It was more profitable for the church to be viewed in the context of the church hierarchy, at the top of which were the bishops. They interpreted the divine laws described in the Bible in their own way.

The old concept of charisma has survived only thanks to heretics. Among them were preachers who championed the idea of receiving divine inspiration directly without going to bishops or Scripture. This kind of "heresy" was severely persecuted by the church.

Max Weber's concept of charisma

For several centuries, the concept of charisma was practically not mentioned anywhere. Interest in him was revived only in the 20th century, when the German sociologist Max Weber turned to him in his works. In fact, we owe the modern meaning of the concept of "charisma" to Weber. He reworked the religious ideas of the apostle Paul in a secular way and viewed charisma in the context of sociological concepts of power and leadership.

According to Weber's work, there are three types of power: rational-legal, traditional, and charismatic. Weber considered the charismatic type of power to be revolutionary, unstable, representing a kind of antidote to the "iron cage" of the rationality of the modern "disenchanted" world. He believed that there is something heroic about a charismatic leader who captivates the audience with his skill.

Weber defined charisma as "a quality of a person recognized as extraordinary, thanks to which she is assessed as gifted with supernatural, superhuman, or, at least, specifically special powers and properties that are not available to other people."

He analyzed the manifestations of charismatic leadership in the person of military or religious leaders and hoped that charismatic leadership as a phenomenon would not disappear anywhere even in the conditions of the functioning of the strictly regulated bureaucratic systems of the modern world.

Max Weber died in 1920 without seeing how his ideas were applied in politics and culture. Perhaps he was lucky, as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler became the first charismatic political leaders. Therefore, many European thinkers have come to the conclusion that the manifestation of charismatic power entails ominous events.

This dark side of charismatic leadership has been observed for a long time. Leaders of various movements and communes of the 1960s, such as Charles Manson, with his talent for "bewitching" followers, were also instantly categorized as charismatic. By this time, Weber's work had already been translated, so the term "charisma" has gained popularity in English-speaking countries since the 1950s.

Modern interpretation of the concept of "charisma"

John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy were the first politicians to be labeled charismatic leaders for their positive traits, not manipulative ones. After the 60s of the XX century, the word "charisma" came into active use, as it began to be applied not only in relation to political leaders, but also to prominent personalities famous in other fields: for example, Mohammed Ali.

Currently, the concept of "charisma" is used to describe certain personalities: politicians, celebrities, businessmen. By charisma, we mean a special quality inherent in nature that distinguishes people from the general mass and attracts other people to them.

Charisma is considered a rare quality associated with special giftedness. For example, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are usually referred to as American politicians with the qualities of a charismatic leader, but apart from them no one else has been awarded such a title.

In business, Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader: forward-thinking and inspiring, at the same time changeable, unstable in his moods. Among celebrities, while much of the entertainment industry is devoted to fabricating "stars" on the Idols and The Voice shows, charisma is considered a sign of a rare and genuine talent. This is something that reality shows cannot create.

The dual role of charisma

Do modern politicians need charisma at all? David Barnett, a journalist who writes biographies of political figures, called charismatic leadership "one of the most dangerous things in a democratic society." Charismatic leaders can inspire their followers with grandiose rhetoric, which in the end often leads to discord and causes great harm to party members or all residents of the country led by such a leader.

Usually, it is enough for political parties to have harmless leaders popular among the people and close to them, whose ideas are understandable to ordinary people. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is a charismatic person who makes wise decisions in his office. At the same time, he created a split in the Labor Party, alienating most of the representatives of its traditional backbone with his undisguised arrogance.

His successor, John Howard, was considered by all to be completely devoid of charisma, but it was his "ordinariness" that turned out to be the most significant advantage: he did not intimidate people, but gave them a sense of confidence in the future.

At the same time, the tenure of the beloved Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister has had a detrimental effect on the life of a democratic society. A charismatic leader can be interesting, even attractive, but his success often turns into the fact that the state of the political party he represents, or even the entire democratic regime, may be threatened.

So, the concept of "charisma" is already 2,000 years old. Is there a connection between the modern understanding of charisma as a special form of manifestation of power and religious ideas about charisma during the times of the Apostle Paul? This connection is embedded in the concept of natural giftedness. The Apostle Paul believed that the help of bishops or the church is not needed to acquire charisma; it is poured out on a person from above as divine grace.

Today it still seems to be a mysterious talent that cannot be lost. No one knows why only select people are gifted with it. As before, charisma remains a mystery to us.