Charisma and Routine: Shaping the Memory of Brother Richard and Joan of Arc
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2012, Vol 3, Issue 4
Abstract
The extraordinary life and fate of Joan of Arc are well known; so is her association with the prophetic preacher, Brother Richard, who predicted the Apocalypse. Less well explained is why contemporaries initially took such an interest in this association, and how and why it began to fade from official memory after Joan’s death. Max Weber’s concepts of “charisma” and “routinization” offer valuable tools to deal with these questions. Both Joan and Richard have earned the title “charismatic” but interest in the preacher has generally been secondary to interest in the Maid. A more rigorous adoption of Weber’s meaning of charisma, however, helps to clarify what the relative importance of these figures was in the eyes of contemporaries. It also shifts attention to the significance of messianic prophecy in the years surrounding Joan’s life, the anxieties it generated and the way it was dealt with. In this context, the processions and commemorative ceremonies organized by townspeople, churchmen and royalty during this period deserve further analysis. Seen as forces of “routine”, these ceremonies assume a greater significance than they have usually been granted, as processes that managed the memory of charismatic phenomena.
Authors and Affiliations
Andrew Brown
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25292
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3041162
- Views 371
- Downloads 14
Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Religions in 2013
The editors of Religions would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2013: Ahmad, Attiya Aksan, Virginia Altamirano, Teofilo Anbar, Ran Baker, Kelly Bakht,...
Pratyabhijña Apoha Theory, Shannon–Weaver ¯ Information, Saussurean Structure, and Peircean Interpretant Agency
This paper builds upon my earlier studies in interpreting interculturally how the Kashmiri nondual Saiva thinkers Upaladeva (c. 900–950 CE) and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020 CE) in their ´ Pratyabhijña philosophical theol...
The Qur’an’s Message on Spirituality and Martyrdom: A Literary and Rhetorical Analysis
Is the Qur’an a spiritual text that links human existence to divine benevolence? Or does the Qur’an advocate martyrdom and justify violence against non-believers? This debate acquired new urgency with the rise of terro...
Medieval Muslim Cuisine as A Real-Life Foundation for the Meat and Milk Prohibition in Ibn Ezra’s Biblical Commentary
In his biblical commentary, R. Abraham Ibn Ezra (c. 1090–1164) occasionally voices the contention that the language, culture, and life-style of the Muslim world are capable of contributing to our understanding of contemp...
Stay Your Blade
In their article ‘Transmedial worlds: Rethinking cyberworld design’, Klastrup and Tosca show that the core elements of a Transmedial World are: Mythos, the lore of the world, the central knowledge necessary to interpre...