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Articles

Charisma and Routine: Shaping the Memory of Brother Richard and Joan of Arc

by Medievalists.net
October 29, 2013
Joan of Arc in battle

Joan of Arc 2Charisma and Routine: Shaping the Memory of Brother Richard and Joan of Arc

Andrew Brown (School of Humanities, Massey University, New Zealand)

Religions, 2012, 3(4), 1162-1179

Abstract

The extraordinary life and fate of Joan of Arc are well known; so is her association with the prophetic preacher, Brother Richard, who predicted the Apocalypse. Less well explained is why contemporaries initially took such an interest in this association, and how and why it began to fade from official memory after Joan’s death. Max Weber’s concepts of “charisma” and “routinization” offer valuable tools to deal with these questions. Both Joan and Richard have earned the title “charismatic” but interest in the preacher has generally been secondary to interest in the Maid. A more rigorous adoption of Weber’s meaning of charisma, however, helps to clarify what the relative importance of these figures was in the eyes of contemporaries.

It also shifts attention to the significance of messianic prophecy in the years surrounding Joan’s life, the anxieties it generated and the way it was dealt with. In this context, the processions and commemorative ceremonies organized by townspeople, churchmen and royalty during this period deserve further analysis. Seen as forces of “routine”, these ceremonies assume a greater significance than they have usually been granted, as processes that managed the memory of charismatic phenomena.

Click here to read this article from Religions

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TagsChristianity in the Middle Ages • Fifteenth Century • Joan of Arc • Later Middle Ages • Medieval France • Medieval Hagiography • Medieval Literature • Medieval Religious Life • Medieval Social History • Medieval Women • Spectacles

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