Charisma is morally problematic insofar as it replaces followers’ capacity to engage in genuine moral reasoning. When followers defer to charismatic leaders and act in ways that are morally wrong they are not only blameworthy for wrongdoing but for failing in their deliberative obligations. Even when followers defer to charismatic leaders and do the right thing, their action is less praiseworth...

A number of studies have noted that small religious groups with charismatic leaders seem to have different gender dynamics than do groups without. We argue that the presence of such a leader changes what charisma “means” in such a group. Without such a leader, strong personalities may appear charismatic and lead to positions of high status—and such dynamics historically have tended to be associ...

Despite increased religious tolerance in China over the past few decades, persecution of Christians persists. Small churches or Christians who clandestinely meet in small groups may avoid a certain degree of conflict; few studies consider how their larger, less conspicuous counterparts fare. An indigenous resource framework and content analysis of interview, secondary, and participant observati...

confessed inadequacy of Hippocratic priorities when confronted with the probings of the true philosopher. Yet even in apparent defeat, Hippocrates triumphs, for he has learned from Democritus and, so it is implied, incorporated what he has learned into his medicine. Christianity was, however, different from Greek philosophy. True, in its theology and, largely, in its ethics, Hippocratic medicin...

Leaders have a significant role in creating the state of mind that is the society. They can serve as symbols of the moral unity of the society. They can express the values that hold the society together. Most important, they can conceive and articulate goals that lift people out of their petty preoccupations, carry them above the conflicts that tear a society apart, and unite them in the pursui...

Charisma is a fire that ignites followers’ energy, commitment, and performance. Charisma resides not in a leader, nor in a follower, but in the relationship between a leader who has charismatic qualities and a follower who is open to charisma, within a charisma-conducive environment. When a leader shares charismatic relationships with all of his or her subordinates, charisma is homogeneous-a ra...