Charisma and Community: A Study of Religious Committment Within the Charismatic Renewal

Since Comte, social scientists have tended to assume that modè rnization, along with a trièµ´mphant scientific rationality, has destroyed the legitimacy of religion as a social reality. However, this crisis of legitè ¹macy has never been examined in a setting where religious realè ¹ty is affirmed. This book fills that gap, exploring the meaning of religious reality in the lives of a group of Catholic Charismatics to discover how belief is created, developed, and maintained. Charismatics, or Neo-Pentecostals, tend to be white, relaè² ively affluent, well educated, and believe that they possess certain gifts including the power of healing, prophesy, discernè¡«ent of evil spirits, and speakè ¹ng in tongues. In describing and analyzing this religious minority, the author provides a basis for reevaluating sociological asè² umptions about religion and modernity. She asks: to what exè² ent can religion define the soè ial world? Are religious values necessarily irrelevant to most institutional contexts? Is reè¡ igious reality only persuasive in the context of family and priè¡«ary group relations? What are the tensions between religious realities and other beliefs? Her answers have implications for all ways of making sense of the world, including common sense or science. Neitz situates the Charismatic Renewal in a broader social and historical context. She examines the antecedents of Neo-Pentecostalism in American culture and compares this movement with the secular, self-awareness movement. In so doing she shows what is unique about the Charismatics, and what they share with religious predeè essors and members of contemè¨ orary secular movements.