ABSTRACT
Max Weber assigned charismatic leadership and domination a significant role in history because of his belief that charisma is the source of all creative leadership and that no form of political order can work without some element of it. Weber shifted the sociological interpretation from a consideration of the charismatic experience of the leader per se to one of the attitudes and reactions of the followers. This chapter presents a general definition of religious charisma1 that can encompass different religious situations. Religious charisma derives from transcendental claims to authoritative leadership, claims that are made by the leader and accepted by the followers. The internal ordering and the boundaries of what constitutes the world system differs from religion to religion, and this cosmological mapping is an essential comparative task that often holds the answer to different conceptions of charisma and its transmission from leader to follower.
