4.8 A leader and succession

of authority actually integrate, and from time to time they become identical. In particular he underlines this in regard to the charismatic authority. ‛Indeed, in its pure form charismatic authority may be said to exist only in the process of originating. It cannot remain stable, but becomes either traditionalized or rationalized, or a combination of both.‛44

4.8 A leader and succession

When a charismatic leader dies Weber expects a crisis to develop over succession. The charisma transferred to the new leader can rapidly be used up and then the organization falls apart. In a critical analysis Amitai Etzioni contends that this need not necessarily be the case. The crisis over succession can on the contrary be ‛a status in which necessary renewals are being introduced to counteract the previous deteriorations in the organization ...‛45

Based upon so called knowledge of sociological presuppositions the Swedish sociologist Berndt Gustafsson questions ‛Weber’s difference between institutionalized leadership and the charismatic type,‛ referring to more recent research, Gustafsson contends ‛that Weber’s whole analysis of the prophetic development in Israel refers to the 19th Century.‛ Whereas Weber himself was thinking of ‛the prophet as the charismatic leader in opposition to the priest who is the representative of the cult,‛ Gustafsson tends to regard even ‛the Priest as a charismatic, but with a hierarchical charisma.‛ From a religious sociological point of view, he considers, ‛Weber’s definition of charisma as anti-institutional‛ questionable. The charismatic office belonged to the cult whether the prophet or the Priest were office holders.‛To let the cultic assignments be an integral part of the charismatic leadership seems to be very reasonable,‛ he considers. Gustafsson sees the charismatic leadership in, among other things, the Pentecostal Movement in Sweden. Then this movement ‛'the spirit baptism' is generally connected with speaking in tongues, an important presupposition for every form of leadership‛. At the same time however he admits that one meets with specific difficulties as to classification in regard to the Swedish Pentecostal Movement. But ‛as

_________________ 44 Weber 1969, p. 364. 45 Etizioni 1970, p. 91.

a matter of fact the Swedish Pentecostal Movement today is consciously striving in society towards the denomination type (according to Milton lingers definition), that it is on its way towards this type, is an indisputable fact. Today the Swedish Pentecostal Movement is conventional and respectable.‛46 The expression used in Weber’s terminology seems to indicate that a bureaucratic organization is underway in the Pentecostal Movement and further that the procedures of decisions are concentrated within the different boards that have taken form. In the next chapter I shall try to give a picture of the Pentecostal Movement as it presents itself in questions pertaining to organization. In the following chapters I shall try to describe the various boards and organizations and their assignments.

_________________ 46 Gustafsson 1965, p. 112 ff, 103.