Thomas Csordas's eloquent analysis of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, part of the contemporary cultural and media phenomenon known as conservative Christianity, embraces one of the primary charges of anthropology as a discipline: to stimulate critical reflection by making the exotic seem familiar and the familiar appear strange. In contrast to the portrayal of the distant cultural 'other' in ethnographic studies of tribal societies, this book shows that people who might be regarded by some as 'religious eccentrics' are quite comprehensible in terms of contemporary culture, while at the same time people who might be anyone's neighbors in fact inhabit a profoundly distinct world of experience. This new work makes an original, important contribution to anthropology, sociology, studies of religion and ritual, cultural phenomenology, linguistic-semiotic and rhetorical studies, the multidisciplinary study of social movements, and American Studies.

PART ONE: MEANING AND MOVEMENT Building the Kingdom Religion in the Postmodern Condition PART TWO: HABITUS AND PRACTICE A Communitarian Ideal Ritualization and Radicalization INTERLUDE Toward a Rhetorical Theory of Charisma PART THREE: METAPHOR AND PERFORMANCE Ritual Language: Speaking the Kingdom Prophetic Utterance and Sacred Reality EPILOGUE Creativity, Constraint, and the Sacred