Charisma: The Gift of Grace, and How It Has Been Taken Away from Us [Paperback]

"Charisma" and Philip Rieff are not for everyone or for most. (Read the prior review from G. Lehman about the difficulty of the writing style to see this.) If you have not read widely, especially in the Bible, and the postmodern precursors like Freud, Nietzsche, or Weber then "Charisma" will likely strike you as an academic bore.

Rieff accomplishes what seems to be a postmodern impossibility: thinking "intellectually" about the Bible and theology. By "intellectually" I mean that secular, academic, scientific perspective of conceptualization, rationalization, and articulation of ideas that is foundational in higher education and "elite" groups. It's what professors and public intellectuals do. Within that class of people, the Bible and theology are most typically viewed as intellectual deadends of proven unworth that appeal to sweaty snakehandlers under the tent on a hot August night. Rieff demonstrates that it is possible and interesting to think like an "intellectual" about Biblical and theological concepts in much the same way he did with his recent work, "Sacred Order," (another Rieff book I'd highly recommend and with the same caveats as observed with G. Lehman).

"Charisma" traces the meaning of the term, "charisma," from its original theological roots to its current postmodern corrupted state, explaining along the way how this corruption occurred (primarily through the writings of the postmodern precursors like Weber), but more importantly, the intellectual, moral, and cultural implications of this corruption. While we live in the postmodern Humpty Dumpty world where words mean whatever we chose them to mean, Rieff explicates "charisma" as a religiously derived term that springs from God and His Authority and then observes how the Humpty Dumpty changes in meaning that have occurred in the past 150 years have transformed the term into the postmodern foolishness of "charisma" as something that George Clooney, Madonna, and the latest American Idol possess. Please consider briefly the implication behind "charisma" as an element of fame versus "charisma" as the force of God's authority. If this is not an interesting or challenging comparison, you are not curious how this change in meaning developed, and you don't see any cultural or moral implications in the shift, then this book is not for you.

One appealing element of "Charisma" is that Philip Rieff has actually read the Bible and can pass the standard true-false test on its content. He continually demonstrates the bad misreadings of that text by writers like Weber and Freud who clearly read the Bible selectively (or more charitably with the map of misreading as described by Professor Bloom) in their attempts to discredit that theology and inflate their proposed substitutes. It's one thing to reject a perspective because you simply disagree with it, but it's another thing to reject it through misreading. As someone who was trained in the postmodern university, it is with considerable embarassment that I realize how much of the postmodern criticism of religion I accepted without reading the footnotes in that criticism. Freud makes a lot more sense when you uncritically accept his view of the Bible. If you know the Bible, Freud becomes just an another intellectual on the make trying to push his theory.

As I noted in my review of "Sacred Order" I've been a constant reader for over 40 years. I found "Sacred Order" to be one of the strongest, most interesting, and compelling books I've read. I see "Charisma" in the same light. This is a great book and worthy of reading, rereading, and reflection.

And, there awaits publication of a third volume in this series!

CHARISMA: THE GIFT OF GRACE, AND HOW IT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US tells of the idea of charisma from its earliest recognition by Old Testament prophets to the first charismatic, Jesus of Nazareth, and how charisma became part of the Christian church's evolution. Rieff argues for a different understanding of the relationship between charisma and faith, examining traditional and modern perceptions and paving the way for a dialogue between believers on the topic. An intriguing discussion, CHARISMA should prove of interest to any serious religious collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I began this book with the most positive of expectations and willing to give the author every benefit and being sympathetic to his basic positions. The fundamental concept in this work is that a therapeutic society, presumably our current decadent condition, celebrates transgression in a demonstration of power and freedom that subsequently ends up debasing charisma and the sacred in our lives. A society of restraint, the ones that value "interdicts," as the foundation of the sacred, does the opposite and enhances charisma in our lives. The remainder of the work is an obtuse, barely readable meditation on this and its religious and sociological roots.

For those who compare Rieff to Kierkegaard or to Nietzsche, I would object. Those authors either have clear, logical structures, or are mercifully brief and cogent enough to reach an educated and motivated reader. There is an unpleasant, almost irascible quality to Rieff, as if he is insisting that you listen to him only on his own terms, and, if you do not get his paragraphs of run on sentences and obscure, idiosyncratic terminology, well that is just too damn bad. While the bedraggled man on the street corner proclaiming the "end is at hand" may suffer from such autism, I do not believe that the great prophets who proclaimed to ancient Israel that she had lost her way of grace and needed to bend to the will of God suffered this affliction.

In short, there are endless other more beneficial ways to devote your reading time than on this unpleasant and exasperating work.

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