It's my B-day so let's talk about Geertz and Weber

Chapter 1 of the book Rastafari increasingly reminded me of Geertz's definition of religion. Chapter 1 dealt with Weber's theory of charisma and routinization. I will be focusing on the parallels I found in Weber's following sections: Charisma and Ideas as Social Forces, and Charisma and Rationalization.

Charisma and Ideas as Social Forces
"a group of people armed with a set of ideas and ideals went about organizing their lives according to those ideas and ideals. As a result, they ended up changing the nature of the capitalist economic endeavor by injecting it with an eminently calculating spirit."
The "ideas and ideals" parallels with Geertz's "system of symbols" which work to improve people's way of life or "general order of existence (Geertz)." Both parallels are very cut and dry, not leaving any room for genuine faith.

"A charismatic leader is a person who emerges with essentially new ideas and who, by propagating those ideas, is able to reorient people's approach to the problems they face or the things they consider significant. If the charismatic leader succeeds in gaining a following, and if the charismatic community succeeds in routinizing, then the emergent forces are likely to have long-term consequences for the direction of cultural and social formation." The idea of the "charismatic leader" fits nicely with who the person is that is "clothing these conceptions with an aura of factuality" in Geertz's definition. I feel like the leader Weber describes is an exact extension of what Geertz briefly touches upon in his one-sentence definition of religion.

Charisma and Rationalization
"Rationalization is the process through which cultures create their religious cosmologies and address the problem of meaning." Geertz would say " A system of symbols which uses rationalization ("formulating conceptions") to establish powerful, pervasive . . ." Once again, faith not included.

"As human knowledge increases, rationalization adjusts and matches means to the desired ends, effecting a process of social change generated by rationalization that is gradual and incremental."

We've used this idea of rationalization in class when it comes to the Mormon religion, who, because times have changed and our culture no longer accepts polygamy, they chose to no longer practice that aspect of their religion. They needed a charismatic person to tell them to stop and since their "desired end" would most likely be to live happy and peaceful lives, they had to give reasons as to why practicing polygamy would no longer be in their best interest (jail, persecution, etc). Another example would be sex before marriage in Christianity today. In the past, people were getting married much younger and women were allowed much less opportunities within our culture. Because our culture is socially changing and woman have more opportunities in the workplace, people are getting married later and fornication is becoming a social norm. Churches in the past would ban people practicing this type of behavior, but now must adjust their strict policy to meet more of the majority's needs. Augustine addresses this social change by jumping over the lines of taking text literally and metaphorically, but has the ultimate goal of having faith, love, and fear of God.

Weber and Geertz, however, would both agree that "human beings, [are] purposeful social actors, [who] create, maintain, and change their cosmologies as well as their concrete situations." What are the purposes the actors have in mind? "Behavior is purposely geared to the addressing of existential needs, especially economic survival and the problem of meaning."