Nineteenth-century North American religious history is filled with divinely inspired people who received and recorded new revelations. This article presents Joseph Smith Jr and Ralph Waldo Emerson as charismatic prophets who promoted the idea of continuing revelation. Drawing on Max Weber's concept of charismatic authority, it will contrast their forms of new sacred writing with one another to show how both had experienced encounters with the divine. The second part will then explore how different conceptualizations of revelation led to opposing concepts of religious authority, with consequences for the possibility of institution-building processes. While Smith would reify revelation in hierarchy, Emerson eventually promoted extreme spiritual individualization by rejecting the idea of an exclusive institution as the centre of revelatory authority.
This article investigates the seeming dissonance between Phoebe Palmer's (1807–74) role as a charismatic leader who emphasized an unmediated, literalist approach to the Bible and her adoption of complex historical-critical arguments to defend female preaching. Drawing on Max Weber's concept of charisma, the article traces Palmer's performance as a pronounced biblicist before discussing her use of historical-contextual and linguistic arguments in response to male opposition to her ministry. The article presents Palmer as an innovative theologian and evangelist who negotiated male authority by strategically employing critical scholarship to establish ‘female prophesying’ as a necessary means to further the cause of holiness.
„In dem Glauben, dass wahre Liebe wartet, verpflichte ich mich gegenüber Gott, mir selbst, meiner Familie, meinen Freunden, meinem zukünftigen Ehepartner und meinen zukünftigen Kindern, von diesem Tag an sexuell enthaltsam zu bleiben bis zu dem Tag, an dem ich eine biblische Ehe eingehe.“ Dieses Keuschheitsversprechen steht auf den Gelöbniskarten von „True Love Waits“ (TLW), der wohl prominentesten Organisation der „Purity Culture“-Bewegung (dt.: Keuschheitsbewegung). Es handelt sich um eine Jugendbewegung, die in den frühen 1990er Jahren innerhalb des US-amerikanischen Evangelikalismus entstand und sich mittlerweile zu einer transdenominationalen Jugend-Subkultur entwickelt hat. Sie hat seit Anfang der 2000er auch in evangelikal geprägten Gemeinden in Deutschland an Einfluss gewonnen. Die Vertreter:innen der Bewegung propagieren die sexuelle Enthaltsamkeit vor der Ehe und bringen diese Einstellung durch Gelöbniskarten, „purity rings“ oder durch Teilnahme an „Purity Events“ demonstrativ zum Ausdruck.
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