Charismatic leadership

This article examines how currents of renewal, particularly the
charismatic movement, have been leading to new patterns of Christian
formation within the Roman Catholic Church. I will look first at the
overall context; secondly, at the first stage of reform and renewal in
Catholic formation (1965-85) This article examines how currents of renewal, particularly the charismatic movement, have been leading to new patterns of Christian formation within the Roman Catholic Church. I will look first at the overall context; secondly, at the first stage of reform and renewal in Catholic formation

Working beyond the inclination to inaugurate alternative theoretical traditions alongside canonical sociology, this article demonstrates the value of recovering latent gender theory from within classic concepts-in this case, Weber's "charisma." Close readings of Weber reveal, (a) tools for theorizing extraordinary, non-masculinist agency, and, (b) clues that account for the conventional wisdom (popular and scholastic) that charisma is "not for women." While contemporary movements may be tempted to eschew charismatic leadership per se because of legacies of dominance by men, there is value in Weber's formulation, which anticipated the performative turn in social theory that would destabilize biologistic gender ontologies. Value in this exchange also flows back to Weber: by confronting his intermittent tendency to describe charisma in terms that we now recognize as "customs of manly power," we reveal heretofore unseen imperfections (i.e., traditionalist modes of legitimation) in his ideal-type. This engagement thus demonstrates an empowering mutuality between contemporary gender theory and "the classics." The article ends by theorising the nexus of gender and charisma in the case of Trump, pointing to possibilities for vitiating Donald Trump's charisma, as well as for anti-Trumpian charisma.

Zusammenfassung. Seit Mitte der 80er Jahre werden in der Führungsforschung verstärkt Ansätze der charismatischen bzw. transformationalen Führung diskutiert und untersucht. Nach anfänglicher Zurückhaltung ist das Konzept der transformationalen Führung auch in deutschsprachigen Ländern aufgegriffen worden und hat eine ganze Reihe weiterer Forschungsarbeiten angeregt. Dieser Übersichtsbeitrag gibt einen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Forschung. Berichtet werden nicht nur neue Entwicklungen im Bereich der Messung transformationaler Führung, sondern vor allem Ergebnisse, die die Bedeutung transformationaler Führung für unterschiedliche Erfolgskriterien wie Commitment, OCB und Kreativität unterstreichen. Neuere Befunde zu Mediatoren und Moderatoren helfen besser zu verstehen, wie und unter welchen Bedingungen transformationale Führung wirkt. Außerdem gibt es neue Erkenntnisse zum Einfluss der Persönlichkeit der Mitarbeiter auf den Prozess transformationaler Führung. Die Trainierba...

Though several key enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation factors, including top management commitment and support, change management, and consultantsÕ support haven been broadly discussed in literature, other factors such as leadership style and team cohesiveness have recently received more attention in technical project implementation [Thite M. Leadership styles in information technology projects. International Journal of Project Management 2000:18;235-41; Jiang JJ, Klein G, Chenoun-Gee H. The relative influence of IS project implementation policies and project leadership on eventual outcomes. Project Management Journal 2001;32(3):49-55]. The charismatic leadership style has often been adopted by organizational leaders, primarily in Asian countries including Taiwan. The present study, based upon the team leadership theory proposed by Zaccaro, Rittman, and Marks [The sociology of religion [Transl. Ephraim Fischoff]. Boston: Beacon Press; 1963], serves as an initial step towards understanding the impacts of charismatic leadership style on ERP implementation. Three-hundred companies listed in the ''Top 500 of The Largest Corporations in Taiwan 2001,'' that have implemented ERP systems, were surveyed.

This paper focuses on one type of content, text, which in itself is complex and requires a significant understanding of language and human cognition. Traditionally, researchers used what is now known as the manual approach to carrying out a content analysis of text. This involves humans manually coding and analyzing the text. In the 1980s, the computer-aided approach for content analysis of text was developed for researchers to automate, at least partially, the coding and analysis. Software programs are used to manipulate text and compute word frequency lists, keyword-in-context lists, concordances, classifications of text in terms of content categories, category counts, and so on-results of which human researchers then interpret (Deffner, 1986).

Despite the historical and contemporary prevalence of charismatic terrorist leaders, there has been very little empirical examination of the relationship between charismatic forms of authority and the strategic operation of terrorist groups. In response to this gap in knowledge, this study seeks to investigate if charismatic authority has a real-world impact on strategic choices and attack outcomes of terrorist groups. Using a theoretical framework meant to help measure charisma in terrorist organizations, this study quantitatively examines how differing levels of the presence of charismatic authority contributes to the choice in operational tactics (e.g., weapon and target choices) and the results of attack outcomes (e.g., success rates, lethality) within a sample of thirty international terrorist groups. In the concluding section, relevant findings, policy recommendations, study limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce, apply and compare how artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically the IBM Watson system, can be used for content analysis in marketing research relative to manual and computer-aided (non-AI) approaches to content analysis. Design/methodology/approach To illustrate the use of AI-enabled content analysis, this paper examines the text of leadership speeches, content related to organizational brand. The process and results of using AI are compared to manual and computer-aided approaches by using three performance factors for content analysis: reliability, validity and efficiency. Findings Relative to manual and computer-aided approaches, AI-enabled content analysis provides clear advantages with high reliability, high validity and moderate efficiency. Research limitations/implications This paper offers three contributions. First, it highlights the continued importance of the content analysis research method, particularly with the exp...

Резюме: Настоящият материал разглежда в теоретичен план темата за харизматичното лидерство през призмата на комуникативните и ораторски способности на лидера. Представени са различни изследвания на реторическите стратегии на харизматични лидери, като главната цел на материала е открояване на водещите такива, преди всичко във връзка с лидерската визия, нейното комуникиране и печеленето на доверието на последователи. Ключови думи: лидерство, харизма, ораторско майсторство, реторика.

*Доклад, публикуван в: Петрова Д. , Иванова, Е. (2017). (Съставители). Сборник с материали от научни конференции по реторика (София 2013 г.; Гьолечица 2014 г.). София: УИ " Св. Климент Охридски "

This paper deals with the building and managing of corporate reputation of 4 and 5 star hotels in Athens-Attica, as well as with the role of leadership in corporate reputation. A primary research in hotel firms in Athens-Attica helped identify i) to which extent a charismatic leadership and the skills of a leader positively affect the reputation of hotels, and ii) to which extent a charismatic leadership is related to the leader’s skills. The statistical analysis of the research results revealed on the one hand a number of positive correlations between the factors and variables examined and on the other hand some not particularly strong correlations between their sub-factors, thus allowing both reaching conclusions and making suggestions for further research.

Esta dissertação consiste em um estudo da ideia de líder forte no pensamento político de Max Weber, que foi influente no desenho  constitucional do Presidente Plebiscitário da República de Weimar (1918-1933) e, indiretamente, nos seus desdobramentos ditatoriais. O estudo investiga a hipótese de Wolfgang Mommsen em Max Weber and
German Politics 1890-1920 – de que o conceito de legitimidade  carismático-plebiscitária elaborado por Weber informou o argumento de Carl Schmitt em defesa do Golpe contra a Prússia. A recepção de Schmitt, segundo Mommsen, seria consistente com o programa weberiano em razão do agnosticismo moral, pessimismo histórico e
nacionalismo de Max Weber. A dissertação indaga quanto à legitimidade dessa recepção, buscando nas manifestações políticas, sociológicas e metodológicas de Weber elementos para descrever uma possível filosofia política. O objetivo do trabalho é questionar se esta filosofia política é ou não compatível com o uso antiliberal que dela
foi feito.

Charismatic Leadership-based Understanding in the History of Islamic Sects: The Case of Ali B. Abi Talib, Mi-lel ve Nihal, 7 (3), 167-188. Abstract: This article addresses the understanding of charismatic authority and its charecteristics in the history, especially in the history of Islamic Sects. Charismatic leadership has crucial effect on communities in particular and societies in general. Therefore, charismatic leaders were seen as the saviour and the source of happiness by the crowds.In this study, Ali was depicted as one of essential figures in the Islamic history, as a charismatic leader, stressing ultimate trust to him among the followers. This paper fo-cuses on portraying Ali as having superhuman power, divinity, and innocence. The study also points different perceptions of imam Ali beyond his real historical portray of charismatic personality.

This study aimed at empirically clarifying the similarities and differences between transformational, transactional, and charismatic leadership. More specifically, the convergent, divergent, and criterion validity of two instruments, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) and the Conger and Kanungo Scales (CKS), was explored. It was found that transformational and charismatic leadership showed a high convergent validity. Moreover, these leadership styles were divergent from transactional leadership. With regard to criterion validity, subjective (e.g. satisfaction) as well as objective (profit) performance indicators were assessed. Firstly, results indicated that transformational as well as charismatic leadership augmented the impact of transactional leadership on subjective performance. In addition, transformational and charismatic leadership both contribute unique variance to subjective performance, over and above the respective other leadership style. Secondly, transformational leadership had an impact on profit, over and above transactional leadership. This augmentation effect could not be confirmed for charismatic leadership. Furthermore, transformational leadership augmented the impact of both transactional and charismatic leadership on profit. Implications for leadership theory and practice are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the outcome of both power and influence in effective leadership, by determining the characters and behaviors of the leaders and followers during exercising power, influence and both for effective leadership.  It is significant to conceptualize the effects of power to "understand how people are able to influence each other in organizations" (Mintzberg, 1983; Pfeffer, 1981, 1992; in Yukl, 2013, p. 186).  The use of power to influence others will determine the characteristics of the leader, the leader's behavior as well as the different types of influence processes and tactics used to attain the goal needed to be effective. One may be led to understand power as just one manifestation of authority over a target person who is obliged to obey.  However, this paper focuses on the understanding of leadership and its complex definitions and behavioral outcome that are subsequent to the variety of power and influence descriptions, of the different types of power, and of who to use them.  The effects of power and influence in leadership effectiveness are intertwining links between leaders and followers as Covey (1991) states that “Real leadership power comes from an honorable character and from the exercise of certain power tools and principles” (p. 101) and argues that there are varieties and complex motives why followers follow, and each of those reasons to follow “has different motivational and psychological roots” (Covey, 1991, p.101).
Keywords: Power, Influence, Effective Leadership, Leadership Behavior, Management

Airlines are high-reliability organisations (HRO) evolving in an ultra-competitive and regulated environment where market differentiation is challenging (e.g., a limited option of original equipment manufacturers (OEM), routes) and thin profit margins. 

Often they are defined by their business models (i.e., legacy carrier (LC) or low-cost carrier (LCC)). 

Because the industry is in perpetual motion and is publicly visible as most airlines care about their brand image, the slightest mismatch could result in financial, operational and safety disasters. 

Every organization would like to have competent, loyal and engaged people, as engaged people are people who have high attachment and involvement to their organization. Without engaged people, high quality and productivity will not be achieved. The objective of this paper is to test the model about the role of charismatic leadership in employee engagement through work ethics. The study was conducted at two Insurance companies with 290 respondents, using questionnaires for data collection and SEM for data analysis. The results showed that charismatic leadership had a direct impact on employee engagement. The findings also showed that work ethics are partial mediators for the relationship between charismatic leadership and employee engagement. Moreover, the study also showed that Say dimension is the highest indicator of employee engagement, and unconventional behavior is the highest indicator of charismatic leadership. These results enhanced the role of leadership, especially charismatic leadership on employee engagement, and work ethics. As the research on work attitude, work ethics and employee engagement are still very limited, it is hoped that this finding can contribute to the organization and management about work ethics and its relationship with charismatic leadership and employee engagement

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to introduce, apply and compare how artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically the IBM Watson system, can be used for content analysis in marketing research relative to manual and computer-aided (non-AI) approaches to content analysis. Design/methodology/approach-To illustrate the use of AI-enabled content analysis, this paper examines the text of leadership speeches, content related to organizational brand. The process and results of using AI are compared to manual and computer-aided approaches by using three performance factors for content analysis: reliability, validity and efficiency. Findings-Relative to manual and computer-aided approaches, AI-enabled content analysis provides clear advantages with high reliability, high validity and moderate efficiency. Research limitations/implications-This paper offers three contributions. First, it highlights the continued importance of the content analysis research method, particularly with the explosive growth of natural language-based user-generated content. Second, it provides a road map of how to use AI-enabled content analysis. Third, it applies and compares AI-enabled content analysis to manual and computer-aided, using leadership speeches. Practical implications-For each of the three approaches, nine steps are outlined and described to allow for replicability of this study. The advantages and disadvantages of using AI for content analysis are discussed. Together these are intended to motivate and guide researchers to apply and develop AI-enabled content analysis for research in marketing and other disciplines. Originality/value-To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is among the first to introduce, apply and compare how AI can be used for content analysis.

Despite the fact that rhetoric plays important role in the attribution of charisma, this topic has faced severe apathetic treatment in the hands of leadership scholars. Understanding this important component of communication will help us in comprehending the charisma of leaders and how it helped them in winning the support of their followers. This article serves twin agendas, first to critically examine all the major research works in the field of charismatic leader's rhetoric and its effectiveness. Secondly, it highlights the areas which has either not been covered in the previous researches or been cursorily touched upon like, rhetoric of personalised charismatic and its dark effects, rhetoric and charisma in the oriental societies and charismatic leader's rhetoric in information technology era.

This chapter argues that leadership is a religious phenomenon. It makes this case by drawing on some of the most popular leadership concepts: charismatic leadership, transformational leadership, spiritual leadership, servant leadership, authentic leadership and distributed leadership.

NOTE: this PhD was re-worked, with deleted chapters and new chapters in my book _The Subversive Evangelical_. There is much new and different material.

Megachurch pastors—as local and international celebrities—have been a growing phenomenon since the 1960s, when megachurches began to proliferate across North America. Why are these leaders and their large congregations so popular in an age of increasing “religious nones”? Commentators in both popular and academic literature often resort to characterizing the leadership with stereotypes of manipulative opportunists along the lines of Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry (1927) or narrow characterizations of savvy entrepreneurs who thrive in a competitive religious economy. Similarly, writers assume megachurch attendees are a passive audience, or even dupes.

This dissertation challenges the Elmer Gantry stereotype and the religious economic perspectives by examining one particular megachurch pastor named Bruxy Cavey in the context of his “irreligious” megachurch community called The Meeting House. It argues that charismatic leadership, not calculated management and branding techniques, best explains the rapid growth of this megachurch as well as the deep commitments many people make to it. While the concept of “charisma” is often used equivocally, in the tradition of Max Weber I contend that charismatic authority is best understood not only as an extraordinary individual quality but as a form of cultural authority that arises when traditional and institutional forms have lost their plausibility and people experience uncertainty, dissatisfaction, or distress. People attribute exemplary powers to someone who offers them a way out, and intellectually and emotionally bond with the visionary and their vision.

This charismatic authority I portray as a dramatic production, what I call a “dramatic web” that draws followers into its scene and script, offering some resolution to their worries. The complex, compelling nature of this drama is best understood in the context of Wendy Griswold’s “cultural diamond,” which proposes four elements in the analysis of a cultural object: the cultural object itself, its creators, its receivers, and the social world that encapsulates them all. I investigate the four elements as part of a “charismatic diamond”: the cultural object is the “dramatic web” of Cavey’s church, marketed as “a church for people who aren’t into church”; the creators are Cavey and his staff, who employ a variety of media to generate and disseminate the drama; the social world is a Canadian culture ambivalent about religion and which stigmatizes right-wing evangelicals; the receivers are various concentric circles of audience who participate in the subculture of the church to varying degrees.

Following the dramaturgical themes of Erving Goffman, I investigate the “dramatic web” of The Meeting House in two parts—as a deconstructive, satirical project displayed on Sunday mornings and then as a re-constructive, romantic adventure that is exemplified in weekday Home Churches. For the first, I show Cavey deliberately takes “role distance” from the stereotype of a right-wing evangelical pastor, using satire to deconstruct the mores of North American evangelical culture and create an “alienating effect” in his audience. The negatively oriented opening acts create a space in which a new script can be constructed, and I demonstrate next Cavey’s two core romantic narratives that champion “relationship, not religion”—a script that is to be enacted through their weekday Home Churches. Not all attendees are caught up in this dramatic web to the same degree, however, as attendees select elements from it for their own purposes, some embracing and identifying with the whole script, while others take pieces from it to arrange into a more eclectic religious life. The final chapter explores moments of “dramaturgical trouble,” including the question of what happens when Cavey retires, dies, or is deposed. In other words, how might this religious performance come to an end? I offer a typology of possible endings and their sequels—three scenarios of charismatic succession I developed from Weber’s writing on the routinization of charisma.

The dissertation concludes by suggesting that, contrary to predictions of the megachurches demise, if megachurches indeed are a compelling drama co-produced by leader and follower that brings meaning, purpose, and joy to followers’ lives in the midst of cultural tension, megachurches are not just a passing fad or vulnerable personality cult, but a viable and likely enduring North American religious institution.

(1983:) This book is the most recently published major work on the Italian Radical Party. Unlike many which have come before it (with the obvious exception of "I nuovi radicali" by Teodori et alia) this book is not written in a "journalistic style" nor is it simply a glossy overview of Radical campaigns, congresses, and "causes". In writing it, Massimo Gusso had access to a large body of Radical documents, newspapers, periodicals and the like, often difficult to track down. The author has chosen to focus on two important aspects of the Radical Party. These are organization and leadership. In doing so, however, he has not omitted a brief yet informative survey of the party's history from its formation in 1955 to 1982.
In the first part of Chapter 1, Gusso looks at some historic precedents of radicalism in Italy, Great Britain and France. In the second part he concentrates on the "old" Radical Party, the "Partito Radicale dei Liberali e dei Democratici," which came into being as a result of a small but significant split to the Left in the Liberal Party. This first period of Radical Party history lasted from 1955 until 1962, when . the nature of the party changed and the "new" Radical Party emerged. The history of the "new'' Radical Party is split into two parts within Chapter 2. In the first part Gusso examines the activities of the Radical Party from 1962 to 1972 (the year in which the Radicals held their "Congresso di rilancio"). During this period the Radicals turned their attention to a number of causes, including anti-militarism, anti-clericalism, civil rights and the legalization of divorce. In addition to looking at such campaigns, the author analyses the relationship between the Radical Party and other extra-parliamentary groups such as ''Lega Italiana per l'istituzione del Divorzio" as well as its relationship with the "traditional" parties. In the second part of Chapter 2 the author looks at the organization of the party and its impact on the national scene from 1972 to 1982. This section provides a great deal of information concerning support far the Radicals in their various campaigns and in the elections of that period. The third section contains some reflections on the "forma-partito radicale."
One interesting feature of the Radical Party is its federal structure as laid out in its statute. In Chapter 3 Gusso examines and explains this aspect of the statute as well as other manifestations of party life which help to make the Radical Party unique among Italian parties. The information and analysis provided here give the reader a good foundation for understanding the Radical Party.
In the final chapter the author looks at the charismatic nature of the party and the problems caused by this party feature. Over the years many internal difficulties have stemmed from conflicts between the grassroots activities (usually on the regional and local level) and the national leadership, especially with regard to theposition of the Radical's most famous leader, Marco Pannella.
Charismatic leadership is not unusual for a small party but for a party of the Left which claims, among other things, to be democratic and libertarian and maintains a loosely organized structure, such leadership poses a number of organizational and programmatic problems.
The above work is well written and may indeed be considered of academic worth. As a result of his association with, and membership in, the Radical Party, Gusso has gained a special insight into the internal struggles of the party. At the same time, he has managed not to fall into the trap of simply glorifying a party for which he admits a certain affection. Perhaps the maintenance of his objectivity owes much to the nature of his study which deals mainly with some of the less controversial aspects of the party. Undoubtedly, however, opponents of the Radical Party will still find reason to take issue with Gusso's view of the Radicals.
In an area of Italian politics into which relatively little scholarly research has been carried out, Gusso's work along with that of Teodori et alia stands out in sharp relief. It is a book worth reading.

A survey of Christian revivals in the South Pacific islands.
Blog and details are on www.renewaljournal.com and
https://renewaljournal.com/2010/12/26/south-pacific-revivals/
The Preface by Robert Evans gives A Brief History of Pacific Revivals

The book surveys recent revivals in the South Pacific including accounts of community and ecological transformation in many South Pacific nations.

The introduction includes revivals in Timor and among aborigines in Australia.
Then the book covers revival accounts in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, Vanuatu, and Fiji.

This book adds more revival details to accounts in 'Flashpoints of Revival'.  Anyone interested in current revivals and healing the land will appreciate these stirring accounts of revival .

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

Rev Dr Geoff Waugh, founding editor of the Renewal Journal (www.renewaljournal.com), was invited to teach and speak on renewal and revival in every continent except Antarctica.  His autobiographical memoirs in this book report on renewal and revival in Africa, Nepal and India, South-East Asia, China, and the South Pacific Islands.  He includes reports by Don Hill who often travelled with him.

Blog and details are on www.renewaljournal.com

This book is a philosophical exploration of the relationship between leadership and organization. Each chapter in the book sheds light on this relationship by exploring leadership with respect to a particular theme: charisma, authority, religion, language, authenticity, image and followership. These themes are linked to popular notions of leadership, such as transformational leadership, authentic leadership and servant leadership.

Offering insight into the ways in which leadership is understood in contemporary culture, the main thesis of Leadership and Organization is that understandings of leadership today are still shaped by the figure of the charismatic leader, even though charismatic leadership itself has lost much of its appeal. The clearest expression of this paradigm is the leadership-management distinction, where the leader is someone who transcends the organization and the manager someone who resides within the organization. Drawing on a broad variety of sources in continental philosophy, the author explores the central philosophical question of how leadership can be understood in relation to organization.

This study identified aspects of transformational leadership theory that have resulted in a lack of empirical support for the hypothesized factor structure of the model, and very strong relationships among the leadership components. We proposed five more focused subdimensions of transformational leadership including vision, inspirational communication, intellectual stimulation, supportive leadership, and personal recognition. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the hypothesized factor structure of the measures selected to assess these subdimensions, and also provided support for the discriminant validity of the subdimensions with each other. After controlling for the effects of common method variance, a number of the subdimensions of transformational leadership demonstrated significant unique relationships with a range of outcomes. Results provided initial support for the five subdimensions of transformational leadership that were identified.

In February 1986, a self-declared housewife named Corazon Aquino became the first female President of the Philippines. Ascending to the presidency following three years of national upheaval and the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Aquino restored constitutional democracy in her country. Throughout her political career, Aquino was described as a charismatic leader who inspired the Filipino people to regain their freedom.

This paper examines the idea that charismatic leadership is a social construction. It argues that the leader does not actually possess such charismatic qualities, only that he or she was perceived as possessing them. The scarcity in academic literature surrounding this concept is evident, especially regarding studies of female charismatic leadership. It therefore aims to fill the knowledge gap in this area by introducing a case study on the socially-constructed charismatic leadership of the Philippines’ first female president.

Firstly, a short literature review of the social construction of charismatic leadership is provided. Building on the theoretical framework introduced by Streyer (1998) and subsequently utilised by Takala et al (2013), this is then applied to Aquino. Her charisma can thus be placed under each of Streyer’s four archetypes of charismatic leadership – paternalistic (in Aquino’s case, it becomes maternalistic), heroic, missionary, and majestic.

It is found that Aquino’s maternalistic charisma stemmed from the perception that she was the motherly leader of the Filipino nation; her heroic charisma stemmed from the perception that she was Marcos’ antithesis; her missionary charisma stemmed from the perception that she was the divinely-inspired choice of the Filipino people; and her majestic charisma stemmed from the perception that she was the victorious leader of the Philippines’ democratic revolution. These archetypes of charisma were constructed through press reports, books, and speeches delivered by Aquino herself, and were revived after her death in August 2009. This can be seen in the outpouring of national grief following her death and the election of her son, Benigno Aquino III, as the Philippines’ fifteenth president the following year.

A survey of Christian revivals, especially through the last 300 years, including Chapter 7: Twenty-first Century Revivals.
Foreword by C Peter Wagner:
I know of no other book like this one that provides rapid-fire, easy-to-read, factual literary snapshots of virtually every well-known revival since Pentecost.
As I read this book, I was thrilled to see how God has been so mightily at work in so many different times and places. I felt like I had grasped the overall picture of revival for the first time, and I was moved to pray that God, indeed, would allow me not to be just an observer, but rather a literal participant in the worldwide outpouring that will soon come. As you read the book, I am sure you will be saying the same thing.
Blog and details on www.renewaljournal.com

Updated version posted on June 1, 2024.

Posted with permission of author and publisher, Kalimát Press. Thesis topic originally recommended by Todd Lawson. Scanned by Duane Troxel. Proofread by Jonah Winters and Lynn Jaluvka, with additional proofing by Bobbi Lyons. Formatted for the web by Jonah Winters. Corrections by Shahrokh Monjazeb. Critically read, from cover-to-cover, with recommendations, including several emendations, by Sohrab Kourosh. Please support this online re-printing by ordering a copy of the book.

See also the following published, academic reviews of Symbol & Secret:

•  Moojan Momen, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 7.2 (July 1997): 290–91. “Christopher Buck’s book represents the first book-length attempt in the English language to analyse one of the major works of Bahā’u’llāh. … One main theme that Buck explores in this book is the question of whether the text of the Īqān contains hints by Bahā’u’llāh of his future claim. Some have expressed doubt as to whether any such hints exist but Buck demonstrates, conclusively I think, that there are many covert and even overt indications of what he calls ‘Bahā’u’llāh’s messianic secret’. … Buck has created a good starting point for what one would anticipate will be a new genre: critical analyses of the writings of Bahā’u’llāh.”

•  Frank Lewis, Baha’i Studies Review 6 (1996): 76–91 [16-page extended review]. “Buck’s analysis of Bahaullah’s [sic: Baha’u’llah’s] appeal to Koran 33:44 promising attainment to the divine Presence on the Day of Resurrection (itself allegorically interpreted by Bahaullah as the advent day of a new prophet), as a counter-argument to the nearby verse (33:40) about the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ is simply brilliant.” … “Symbol and Secret is a ground-breaking study, setting a standard for and describing the agenda of the exegesis of Bahai texts for some time to come.”

•  John Hatcher, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Bulletin 30.1 (July 1996): 70–71. “Buck offers insightful analysis of Bahā’u’llāh’s exegetical technique.”

•  Jonah Winters, Iranian Studies 32.1 (Winter 1999): 141–145. “Buck has undertaken a project that is to be commended on many fronts. This study is daring in that it is the first extended analysis of the Islamic context and content of Baha’ullah’s thought and writings. The rigor with which Buck has treated his topics is a model for anyone engaging in textual scholarship: his research is broad, his attention to detail thorough, and his coverage of the topics exhaustive. Finally, many of his conclusions, the light he throws on the Íqán and its content, and in places even his methods are frankly brilliant.” DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00210869908701948.

•  Jonah Winters, Journal of Bahá’í Studies 9.3 (September 1999): 69–75. “Christopher Buck’s Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán (Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, volume 7) can be seen as a work of genius: it is ground-breaking—daring, innovative, and even brilliant. … As Symbol and Secret is the first work written in English to examine Bahá’í scripture and hermeneutics in any analytical depth, Buck’s work can without exaggeration be declared seminal.

[…] First, this study is daring in that it is the first extended analysis of the Islamic context and content of Bahá’u’lláh’s thought and writings. Buck’s tangential self-defense on pages 260–261 indicates that he, too, is well aware of the daringness of the topic and of his academic approach to it. Second, the rigour with which Buck has treated his topics is a model for anyone engaging in textual scholarship: his research is broad, his attention to detail thorough, and his coverage of the topics exhaustive. Finally, many of his conclusions, the light he throws on the Íqán and its content, and in places even his methods are frankly brilliant.” DOI: https://doi.org/10.31581/jbs-9.3(1999).

In 1979 Iran, the establishment of a durable Islamic state system demanded the utilitarian use of Ayatollah Khomeini's charismatic appeal with references to messianic sensitivities. However, to fulfil his own concepts of an ideal Islamic state, Khomeini had to remain an ordinary human being and nothing more than the hero of the revolution. In my paper I shall illustrate the complexity of the interrelations and transitions between the macro level of system behaviour and the micro level of individual action by dint of the depiction of a widely known episode of late 1978 in which it is said that the believer would be able to see Khomeini’s face in the moon, and the Ayatollah’s later refusal of this ‘natural phenomenon’. After depicting this episode through references in several autobiographical accounts as well as contemporary newspaper articles, its interpretation has to be read against the background of the meaning of symbols in the Iranian-Shi’ite community. In doing so, the analysis of Ayatollah Khomeini’s deeds and words will show that he deliberately relinquished the claim to be sent by God, as offered to him by the people of Iran. Further, it will be shown that shortly after his return to Iran, he was zealous in building up a legitimation which invoked notions of rational-legal authority in a Weberian sense. In doing so, Khomeini presented himself as acting as the sovereign on the authority of the people, hence, as being the hero of the people’s struggle and the leader of the community – and not being sent from God, or representing an aloof saint reflected in the moon.