Charisma and Institution in American Culture

The book offers an ethnographic account of the composition, leadership, and ritual performance of a charismatic Catholic prayer group. Through analysis, it reveals how the charismatic priest maximizes his authority by integrating personal and institutional power within the context of global Pentecostalism and recent American cultural history.

What happens when charisma and bureaucratic structure collide? This book provides a firsthand look at how charismatic authority emerges within highly institutional settings and explains why it matters. It demonstrates how vertical ties of personal devotion between the leader and followers and horizontal ties among group members, built through stories of conversion and healing, forge deeply charismatic relationships that strengthen group cohesion and resilience. Written in accessible language, the book explores the tension between individualism and distrust of institutional structures, and the unique experience of Catholics in a predominantly Protestant culture. Moving beyond the classic Weberian paradigm, it delivers a fresh, nuanced understanding of charismatic leadership in American culture and society and reveals how a deeply personal, sacred form of Christianity takes root.

The book will appeal to scholars and students of religious studies, anthropology of religion, and anyone who is interested in Pentecostalism, Christianity, charisma, and American culture.

Keping Wu is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University. With a B.A. from Peking University and a Ph.D. from Boston University, Wu’s research centers around religions across different cultural contexts, with special attention to philanthropy, charisma, pluralism and gender.