Charisma, once a secret password among theologians, political sociologists, and anthropologists, has now definitely entered--some will say infested--everyday language. As is often the case, the popular success of a word only hides its conceptual decline. Pop sociology scavenges on ideas that are dead or dying. This collection of essays contains ample evidence for the concept's demise, but should not be taken as a premature eulogy. Its main concern is with the future of anthropological inquiry of religious movements.

Initially, contributors were invited to provide examples of how encounter with prophetic-charismatic thought and action had changed their theoretical views. Responses were numerous and too varied to be included in a single volume. Eventually, the six essays assembled here (all completed by the end of 1976) were found to have a common focus, justifying their presentation as a collective effort. That common concern will be labeled "discourse," not because this is a fashionable term but because it evokes many of the ideas and intentions that characterize these papers: anthropological research conceived as a dialogue implying abolition, or considerable modification, of the subject-object stance; a view of the nature of ethnographic "data" as products of communicative interaction; the idea that all discourse calls for interpretation and critique. These notions reflect a trend in anthropology toward a cultural hermeneutic, a science of man that will overcome its ethnocentrism and distancing superiority without giving up the critical intent which anthropology inherited from its Enlightenment ancestors.

Johannes Fabian
Guest Editor