ABSTRACT
There is a strong elective affinity between Weber’s work on charisma and Durkheim’s religious sociology. Charisma keys nicely to late-Durkheimian themes such as the sacred, ritual and change-inducing collective effervescence, and to general understandings of normative, non-instrumental motivations for action. The chapter traces the connection from Parsons and Shils through to cultural sociology. Particular attention is given to recent “Strong Program” work in the United States which views the sacred as bonded to charismatic power in modernity via cultural codes, narratives, rituals, and performances.
