The Baha'i Studies Listserv Hi Friends, My question regarding Charisma and Ruhi is due to spotting this definition in Wikipedia under the listing for New Religious Movements. If you replace the word cult with the word movement you get what they refer to as the social model. I can¹t help but view the Ruhi movement as being something separate from the rest of the Baha¹i community as a result of its own jargon and community agenda. Am I wrong in believing that without a Ruhi ³education² you can¹t serve the Faith?
Bill Below is what I cut and pasted from Wiki. Charismatic movements: NRMs based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_authority#Routinizing_charisma> , as described by the German sociologist Max Weber <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber> . In their book Theory of Religion, Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of "cults" can be explained through a combination of four models:] * The psycho-pathological model the cult founder suffers from psychological problems; he develops the cult in order to resolve these problems for himself, as a form of self-therapy * The entrepreneurial model the cult founder acts like an entrepreneur, trying to develop a religion which he/she thinks will be most attractive to potential recruits, often based on his/her experiences from previous cults or other religious groups he/she has belonged to * The social model the cult is formed through a social implosion, in which cult members dramatically reduce the intensity of their emotional bonds with non-cult members, and dramatically increase the intensity of those bonds with fellow cult members this emotionally intense situation naturally encourages the formation of a shared belief system and rituals. * The normal revelations model the cult is formed when the founder chooses to interpret ordinary natural phenomena as supernatural, such as by ascribing his or her own creativity in inventing the cult to that of the deity. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-660037-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
