From Charismatic Leadership to Institution: The Reformation Significance of Making Martin Luther into a Monument
Luther's authority underwent a range of transformations. He ascended rapidly from a professor in Wittenberg to the leader of an international reformational movement. There were of course other leading figures in the reforming movement. While these other figures relativized the apparent omnipres...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
The Johns Hopkins University Press
[2018]
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In: |
Lutheran quarterly
Year: 2018, Volume: 32, Issue: 1, Pages: 28-39 |
RelBib Classification: | KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KDD Protestant Church |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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Summary: | Luther's authority underwent a range of transformations. He ascended rapidly from a professor in Wittenberg to the leader of an international reformational movement. There were of course other leading figures in the reforming movement. While these other figures relativized the apparent omnipresence of the Wittenberg reformer, they did not fundamentally put his authority in question. In fact, what happened was the opposite, a tendency to emphasize Luther's importance more and more through false veneration. Some pushed the reformer into a central, nearly unassailable position, a process observable even in his lifetime for which Eike Wolgast coined the concept of "monumentalizing" or "monument-making." With the help of Max Weber, Luther's ascendancy is a comprehensible socio-religious process. Once charismatic leaders establish their authority among large masses of people, their authority tends to be institutionally regularized. |
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ISSN: | 2470-5616 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Lutheran quarterly
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/lut.2018.0026 |