According to Max Weber, charisma is opposed to bureaucratic order. This collection reveals the limits of that formula. The contributors show how charisma is a part of cultural frameworks while retaining its ecstatic character among American and Italian Catholics, Syrian Sufis, Taiwanese Buddhists, Hassidic Jews, and Amazonian shamans, among others.

Sara M. Bergstresser, Boston University, USA Yoram Bilu, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Ruy Llera Blanes, University of Bergen, Norway Gisele Fonseca Chagas, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil C. Julia Huang-Lemmon, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan Eric Michael Kelley, Boston University, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Wheaton College, USA Paulo G. Pinto, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil Brendon Jamal Thornton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Keping Wu, National University of Singapore