ABSTRACT
The final dimension of religion considered in Part 3 is that of power and control. The chapter begins by differentiating between hard and soft power, and then at the impetus to control as the purpose of power. This is followed by sections on compensatory control and Terror Management Theory which both concern the psychology of control. From there the chapter looks at paranoia and control and then at clericalism which is control in religious form. It reflects on how sexual abuse can become a part of clerical control, and also at the evolution of the ‘mana personality’, a Jungian term describing how religious leaders can become inflated by the role they occupy.
