Innerworldly Individualism: Charismatic Community and Its Institutionalization

Inner worldly Individualism looks to colonial history, in particular, seventeenth-century New England, to understand the sources of modern nation building. Seligman analyses how cultural assumptions of collective identity and social authority emerged out of the religious beliefs of the first generation of settlers in New England. He goes on to examine how these assumptions crystallized three generations later into patterns of normative order, forming the foundation of an American consciousness. Seligman uses sociological research grounded in early American history as his laboratory, and does so in a highly original way. Seligman uses Max Weber's paradigm of sociological inquiry to explore how a combination of ideational and structural factors helped to develop modern conceptions of authority and collective identity among New England communities. Seligman addresses a number of significant issues, including social change, the mutual interaction and development of process and structure, and the role of charisma in the forging of a social order. His book profoundly increases our understanding of the ideological and social processes prevalent in early American history as well as their contemporary influence on civil identity. Inner worldly Individualism uniquely intertwines sociological study with cultural history. It uses American history to develop and elucidate problems of broad theoretical significance. Seligman's argument is bolstered by a close examination of concrete detail. His book will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, political theorists, and historians of American culture.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Charisma, the Church, and the Reformation2 The Origins of Settlement3 Protest and Collective Boundaries4 The Emergent Tensions of Institutionalization5 The Half Way Covenant and the Jeremiad Sermon6 The Institutionalization of Charisma in Society7 ConclusionBibliographyIndex

About the Author :
Adam B. Seligman is professor of religion at Boston University, USA, and Research Associate at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs there. He has published ten books on religion and society.

Review :
"Seligman uses the work of Max Weber to determine how needs for authority and community helped forge social orders in Puritan New England... The book is well organized and clearly written, and it includes an impressive use of primary documents. Seligman has made a contribution to historical sociology in general, and to Weberian study in particular, that will be valued by both historians and sociologists who specialize in North America's Puritan beginnings." -E. J. Green, Choice "Professor Sligman's book contributes worthily to what C. Wright Mills called the 'classic tradition' of sociology. It merits the sympathetic scrutiny of sociologists and historians alike."-Roger O'Toole, Canadian Journal of Sociology "Innerworldly Individualism provides a new and engaging response to an old and much-debated theory, namely Weber's Thesis of the Protestant Ethic... Seligman is to be commended for his unique intertwining of sociological theory with historical analysis."-Margaret M. Poloma, Contemporary Sociology "Historians and sociologists will find something of interest in Seligman's application of Weberian concepts to seventeenth-century history."-David Zaret, The Journal of American History