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This paper analyzes the everyday experiences of 20 individuals from two prominent postdenominational congregations in northwestern Mexico that branched off from Pentecostal and Evangelical transnational churches. Using the life-story method and the lived religion approach will allow for the understanding of how postdenominationalism emerged in the region and why these congregations have been undergoing a series of deinstitutionalizing innovations that ring closer to the expectations that millennials have regarding the emotional, the intellectual, the social, and the cultural aspects of their lives. This phenomenon not only echoes with the idea of the deconstructed church that Marti and Ganiel described among millennials in the US (Marti and Ganiel 2014), it also imposes a challenge for Latin American religious studies, whose trend has been to ignore the postdenominational category, favoring the continued use of Pentecostal and/or Neopentecostal/charismatic to refer to these congregations, which makes it difficult to understand the changes, the innovation, and the deconstructive processes that postdenominational churches have been undergoing in the last three decades.

The aim of this paper is to understand, in a panoramic way, the ideas that some organized groups of Catholicism have expressed about the pandemic of the new coronavirus. We shall take as material for analysis, the web official pages of the following segments: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) [National Conference of Bishops of Brazil], Heralds of the Gospel and Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), especially from the moment when the first case of the disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus and the health-social-economic emergency were checked. Catholic beliefs about Covid-19 and related themes (restrictive measures, social inequalities) show an intense and internal conflict of values or worldviews and lead to inquiring about the incidences of Catholicism in the public sphere. The qualitative-exploratory hypothesis demonstrates that the advancement of the new coronavirus has accentuated tension lines existing in the Catholic Church and indicates that there is an ongoing dispute between the various official segments about the correct intonation of the Catholic voice in Brazilian society. To raise responses to the proposed problem, the paper is based on a qualitative method, namely, partial review of the bibliographic productions of the religious studies and analytical mapping of the main official positions (editorials, speeches, notes, texts) proposed by the three Catholic segments aforementioned.

This short paper describes the key elements of the European project IPERION CH (2015-19), which is the sequel to the Labs TECH, Eu-ARTECH and CHARISMA projects. It also outlines the creation of a long-term programme called E-RIHS (the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science). Listed on the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) Forum Roadmap, it will see the day in 2021 and will widen the field of research to natural history collections. Ce bref article de synthèse traite des lignes de force du projet européen IPERION CH (2015-2019), qui fait suite aux projets LabS TECH, Eu-ARTECH et CHARISMA, ainsi que de la création d’une structure pérenne dédiée au développement de la recherche sur les sciences du patrimoine, dénommée E-RIHS. Inscrite, après sélection par le Forum ESFRI, sur la feuille de route des grandes infrastructures de recherche par la Commission européenne, celle-ci verra le jour en 2021 et élargira le champ d’investigation du patrimoine culturel et naturel aux collections d'histoire naturelle.

Concerned with the representations of fruits in Greco-Roman mythology and Genesis, this paper first explores the various meanings of charis and its conceptualization, and their embodiments. It then addresses object agency, before questioning the possible propriety of certain fruits in visual and textual narratives to emanate and/or appropriate charisma. To do so, the paper presents a discussion of the linguistic and conceptual mutability and malleability of the term ‘charis’ and its conceptualization into charisma, as well as its possible manifestations or translations in fruits, thus transforming the latter into (accidental) actors. Finally, this study provides an exploratory reflection on the ambiguity and metamorphic aspect of “charismatic” fruits in the context of myths and the Genesis narrative represented in the visual arts, and their translation into fairy tale narratives and modern advertising campaigns.

This study aims to explore the connection between religious and military spheres in Constantinian propaganda. The extensive use of propaganda and the notorious public discourse which involves the dynamics of power during Late Antiquity show how religion and the military played a key role. This principle reaches a singular meaning in the case of emperor Constantine I. To this extent, this paper considers several kinds of sources, which include legal, literary, and numismatic, among others. An analysis of the political uses of imperial constitutions by the emperor (especially CTh 7.20.2) can be of particular interest in order to address the ideas of self-representation and the politics of legitimation. Ultimately, the paper highlights the importance of imperial propaganda in Later Roman society, as well as the transformations in Constantine’s public discourse, where the connection between army and religion shows an evolution from the previous ways of understanding imperial power and where the bond of the ruler with a supreme divinity is a central issue.

By attributing the term “charismatic” to Saint Louis, Jacques Le Goff identified two sources of charisma: sacred kingship and personal holiness. Without denying these aspects of the holy king’s reputation, we should investigate the nature of the charismatic relationship that linked Louis IX to his contemporaries. The sacrality of Louis IX pre-existed him; his sanctity is a post-death construction. What are the attributes of the living character that would allow us to recognize a charismatic personality? This paper argues that the religious aura of the king, which best echoes the Paulinian version of charisma, was sometimes at odds with the political expectations levied on a medieval ruler, which a Weberian definition of charisma helps to define. In this light, the crusades provided a unique setting where the king’s Christ-like qualities and his political leadership could be reconciled. To conduct this argument, this paper proposes to look for the symptoms of Louis IX’s living charisma in the reactions of his contemporaries, based on the re-examination of classical sources on the life of the king, carefully contextualized.

Large, charismatic animals trigger human emotional responses, which consequently result in taxonomic biases that have been proven in various fields. In our research, we analysed the representation of animals and plants in scientific papers published in three major conservation journals (Conservation Biology, Journal of Applied Ecology and Conservation Letters) between 2011 and 2020. Furthermore, we examined the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) and each paper’s total number of citations focused exclusively on a single taxon (59% of all papers). Mammals were represented on journal cover pages significantly more frequently than other taxa, while reptiles, amphibians and fish were underrepresented. The total number of published papers and the AAS favoured mammals significantly, while reptiles, plants and amphibians received the lowest AAS. The AAS of mammals was positively influenced by the body mass and appeal score. Scientific citations showed a slight correlation with the AAS. Papers about mammals, invertebrates and amphibians received the most citations, followed by plants, fish, birds and reptiles. These results showed that there are taxonomic biases that favour large mammals over other taxa, both among scientists as well as the public. Therefore, publication policy should be changed in order to support the shift of scientists and, subsequently, public interest itself toward neglected taxa.

Major upheavals in Christianity, such as the reformation and various revival movements, have been characterised by schisms—a reality that also extends to the Pentecostal movement in the Congo. The increase of splits and division among churches that hold to a high view of the Spirit, in the Congolese context, has become a great concern for both Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal Christians. In this paper, the sacerdotal prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 17) and the communal life of the first Pentecostal congregation (Acts 2) serve as the bases for developing a biblical response to the challenge of schisms among Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in Lubumbashi, Congo. This paper demonstrates some of the causes behind the schisms in both the biblical (1 Corinthians 1 and 3) and Congolese contexts, while underlining a biblical response to this continuous malaise. It employs Osmer’s (2008) model as a framework of reflection. Coming from an insider’s perspective, this paper contributes to the conversation around denominational schisms within the Pentecostal churches in both central and southern Africa.

The paper intends to investigate the sources of the very concept of charisma in Max Weber, starting from some polemical readings made by Carl Schmitt. Aside from theologian Karl Holl, particular attention is devoted to Protestant jurist Rudolf Sohm and to his masterwork Kirchenrecht (1892). Weber started to read it attentively in 1909, at the beginning of his project called Economy and Society, In the writings that make the most of this posthumous work that he never really ended, charisma is meant as the non-juridical key for official and hierarchic organizations – Roman Church may not be the only good example: charisma creates concrete social associations elsewhere. Gradually, such organizations get more and more legal, as long as they lose their ‘extraordinary’ traits. The analysis will show how obedience and recognition are originally created by charisma and how they structure the ties that bind the followers to their leader, a hero, a prophet, or similar charismatic personalities. Being originally anti-economic, anti-institutional, charisma gets to be gradually objectified in a legal order provided with specific economical traits. In its last part, the paper analyses the famous conference Max Weber held in Munich in 1919, Politics as Vocation. Politics is identified as the intersection between charisma and bureaucracy, in the handling of the relationship between the two elements of devotion to the leader and the cause (what he calls the ‘demon’) and the party machine.

The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and political theorists who have sought to explore both the heuristic and the normative potential of plebiscitary leader democracy. Notwithstanding the merits of this wave of studies, this paper argues that attention should be shifted from Weber's context-specific defence of plebiscitary leadership in post-WWI Germany to his broader conception of charisma as an attempt to grasp the enigma of significant social and political change. Contemporary democratic theory, this paper contends, can fruitfully draw on Weber to sink into the antinomies and ambiguities of a transformative democratic politics., This article was funded by Academy of Finland (Grand No. 312430).

The events of January 6th were a clear example of threats to American democracy. De-democratization is a process that preceded Trump’s election and that can still be seen in the United States and around the world. Social theorist Charles Tilly wrote about how becoming a democracy is not a unidirectional, one-time event or goal, but a non-linear process. This paper analyzes developments in the United States that signal rises and falls in the level of democracy over the last several decades. It discusses Donald Trump’s rise to power, the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, and the state of inclusion of ethnoracial minorities in the United States. It uses Tilly’s proposed processes of democratization and de-democratization. This more nuanced understanding of democracy and state–society relations helps avoid celebratory stances about the promise of electoral politics as well as pessimistic assessments about the imminent arrival of fascism and authoritarianism.

Governments routinely justify why the regime over which they preside is entitled to rule. These claims to legitimacy are both an expression of and shape of how a rule is being exercised. In this paper, we introduce new expert-coded measures of regime legitimation strategies (RLS) for 183 countries in the world from 1900 to 2019. Country experts rated the extent to which governments justify their rule based onperformance, the person of the leader, rational-legal procedures, and ideology. They were also asked to qualify the ideology of the regime. The main purposes of this paper are to present the conceptual basis for the measure, describe the data, and provide convergent, content, and construct validity tests for new measures. Our measure of regime legitimation performs well in all these three validation tests, most notably, the construct validity exercise which explores commonly held beliefs about leadership under populist rule.

Kad pogledamo medijske navike korisnika, posebno mladih (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2020), onda možemo vidjeti sve veći utjecaj društvenih medija u njihovu informiranju i komunikaciji. Značaj društvenih medija još je dodatno ojačan s početkom globalne pandemije bolesti COVID-19. U tom kontekstu društvena mreža Instagram proteklih godina postaje sve popularnija platforma na globalnoj razini, a posebno kod mlađe populacije. No, i dalje ostaje neiskorišten alat u približavanju politika, političkih aktera i važnih društvenih tema mlađoj populaciji. Cilj je ovog rada ispitati kako su ključni politički akteri u Hrvatskoj komunicirali putem Instagrama za vrijeme pandemije COVID-19 te utvrditi jesu li koristili ovu društvenu mrežu kako bi se približili publici na toj platformi, odnosno mladima. S druge strane, ovaj rad će ispitati kako komunikaciju političara na društvenoj mreži Instagram percipiraju i ocjenjuju mladi praktičari odnosa s javnošću i jesu li njihove poruke prilagođene mlađoj populaciji. Svrha će rada biti na temelju dvostruke analize donijeti zaključke i dati preporuke za unapređenje komunikacije političara na društvenoj mreži Instagram. Koristeći metodu analize sadržaja analiziran je sadržaj na Instagram profilima dvojice ministara i članova kriznog stožera za pandemiju COVID-19 te hrvatskog premijera i predsjednika. Analizom je utvrđeno na koji način političari komuniciraju, je li sadržaj prilagođen mladima i potiču li angažman u svojim objavama. Metodom strukturiranog intervjua s odabranim praktičarima odnosa s javnošću komunikacija je ocjenjivana trodimenzionalno: u sadržaju, javnom nastupu i karizmi političara na Instagramu. Na temelju dobivenih rezultata u zaključku rada sažete su preporuke za daljnju praksu u komunikaciji političara na društvenoj mreži Instagram., Looking at the users’ media habits, especially in young users (Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2020), we can see the growing social media influence on their information and communication. The importance of social media in information and communication is even higher since the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In that context, the social network called Instagram is becoming increasingly popular globally, particularly with younger generations. Still, it remains an unused tool in bringing policies, political actors, and important social topics closer to the younger population. The goal of this paper is to investigate how did Croatian politicians communicated via Instagram during the COVID-19 pandemic and to establish if they used this social network to get closer to the audience on that platform, that is, to young people. On the other hand, we will examine how the young public relations practitioners perceive and evaluate the Crisis and political headquarters’ and communication on Instagram. Furthermore, they will review if politicians have adapted their messages to the younger population. The scope of this paper is to draw conclusions based on double analysis and give recommendations for communication improvement of politicians on Instagram. We have analysed the content on the Instagram profile of the two ministers and members of Croatian COVID-19 crisis headquarters and Croatian president and prime-minister using the content analysis method. We have established how the politicians communicate, whether the content was adapted to the young population and if their posts were engaging. Alongside the selected public relations practitioners, we have conducted structured interviews to assess the communication, using the three-dimensional assessment method: content, public performance, and charisma of the members of the politicians on Instagram. In conclusion, we have summarized the recommendations for further communication of politicians on Instagram.

This paper explores the life of Shar Kalden Gyatso with a focus on his contributions to the seventeenth-century development of Geluk influence in the northeastern Tibetan region of Amdo. Not only did he adopt the role of a monastic leader in founding and bolstering scholastic traditions in his home region in Amdo, but he was also an accomplished practitioner. In addition to his role as the founder of scholastic and retreat institutions in Rebgong, his close relationship with local rulers in Amdo and his non-sectarian stance toward other religious traditions fueled his charisma and increased his base of followers. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to explore all these themes as they illustrate the career of Shar Kalden Gyatso as a central figure in the religious history of Amdo in general and the development of Geluk influence in Rebgong in particular. Meanwhile, I provide an appropriate assessment of the sectarian conversion of Rongwo Monastery, also considering the importance of Shar Kalden Gyatso&rsquo, s role in institutional foundations, his network of patronage, and his religious ecumenical thought to particularly characterize his outstanding career.

This paper explores people and tuber affective encounters, as they unfold in a biodiversity conservation programme in the Peruvian Andes. It draws on ethnographic data from the Potato Park, renowned worldwide as one of the most successful in-situ initiatives for the conservation of biocultural diversity. Concerned with interspecies relations, the paper focusses on the circulation of respeto that is both an affect and a normative stance posited locally as necessary for the conservation of the potato. Addressing first expressions of respeto in daily potato practices by highland peasants, the paper then explores its importance within the context of the Park's conservation policy. Agricultural investigations and seed-banking are indeed enmeshed in activities intended to intensify potato-people regard. Throughout the paper, the concept of non-human charisma is used to point out the different kinds of potato appraisals experienced in the Park; as well as how the Park concretely works toward human beings' learning 'how to be affected' by tuber agrobiodiversity. The article finally explains how potato affective agency is extended beyond the Park, to reach the international scene. Exploring the Potato Park from the perspective of respeto, and using charisma as a heuristic tool, it enlightens a mode of conservation initiative; creating flourishing ecologies through affective encounters, that cannot be accounted for with an instrumental approach.

The paper examines the indigeneity and missionality of the Pentecostal churches in South Africa, and how they have indiginised themselves in order to be effectively missional in South Africa. The research methodology and findings lean heavily on personal observation, literature reviews, and informal interactions with those in and outside these churches. The scope broadly surveys the one Pentecostal church (Assemblies of God) and one Charismatic Church (Grace Bible Church). Looking into these two churches’ expansion and growth, research examines their history, missional methodologies, contexts, and culture to assess the extent at which the two churches navigate between missionality and indigenization

One of the fastest growing religious movements in South Africa is a form of Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelic (PCE) Christianity that has some version of prosperity theology as a central pillar. This paper, based on sermons and interviews with 97 PCE pastors in the area of Johannesburg, South Africa, argues that these churches form loose clusters defined by similar emphases along a continuum of prosperity theology. These clusters are “abilities prosperity,” “progress prosperity,” and “miracle prosperity.” Some churches fall neatly into one of the clusters, while others appear as more of a hybrid between two of these types. The paper shows that a relationship exists between the type of theology preached by PCE churches and the nature and extent of the political engagement that the pastors suggested that members in these churches should have.

From the views and changes that have followed the dynamism of our society, undoubtedly, law and justice have played a crucial role as a very abstract term that has been consumed almost from the first beginnings of human society to our modern days. Beyond the events and circumstances that societies in the past have had and organized by defining and choosing the way of life, and often times the right has been personalized by a certain group of people, or by a military division that has given rights and has created justice, in certain interests and for personal and charismatic purposes it has been denied a certain part of society, and has often been deformed in scandalous ways by reflecting, on the fact that the giver of this right has often been pointed out to be the man, but this convulsion in no case has lasted long, and often this theory has remained unrealized, reflecting that right is something natural and that the individual gains at the moment of birth and enjoys it to death, this divergence and complexity of the way of perceiving the law has often resulted in wars and the acquisition of this vital right. Through this paper we will draw philosophical and legal paradigms, analyzing from a retrospective way of the application of law and the applicability of justice, as an important mechanism of regulation of social relations. Law and justice have a common path of development, one by regulating the way of life of the people, that is, by issuing norms and the other by giving justice to the relative complexity and cohesion of interpersonal relations.

The paper starts from the assumption that the war in the former Yugoslavia can be defined as a specific conflict of charismatic leaders, who ere in the first stage possessors of institutionalized charisma of Josip Broz Tito, while in the second stage they became authentic national charismatic political leaders. In that context, charismatic politics presupposes a certain kind of substantial meanings and ethical values. The ideological content of Slobodan Milosevic's charismatic power is defined as “war charisma”, a specific amalgam of Titoism and nationalistic symbolic system. At the same time, the paper addresses the problem of relationship between charismatic political leadership and democracy. In that sense, the charismatic foundation of the present Serbian political leadership is defined through the “decharismatisation” of cultural codes of malignant charismatic movements, embodied in ideological constructs of “Seseljism” and “Slobism”, and through the shift to “peace charisma”, expressed by promotion of democratic values and discursive recoding of the enemy and corruption culture., Special Issue on Institution Design for Conflict Resolution and Negotiation : Theory and Praxis (February 1-2, 2014, Nagoya, Japan)

This paper reports on the effect of personal, psychological, social, and theological factors in shaping attitudes toward church buildings, the lockup of churches, and the trajectory into virtual church among 4,374 clergy and lay people from the Church of England during the first UK COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Data from an online survey were used to create three scales, Pro Church Buildings, Anti Church Lockup, and Pro Virtual Church, which were shown to have adequate internal consistency reliability. Five sets of predictor variables were tested using hierarchical multiple regression: personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (psychological type scores), social location (ordination status, education, geographic location), theological stance (modern versus traditional worship, liberal versus conservative doctrinal belief, liberal versus conservative views on morality), and Church tradition (Anglo-Catholic, Broad Church, Evangelical, and Charismaticism). The three scales were predicted by slightly different sets of variables, but in each case personal factors and psychological factors retained some predictive power after controlling for other sorts of factors. The results suggest that those most likely to embrace a future with a significant role for church life online are women (rather than men), the middle-aged (rather than younger or older people), intuitive (rather than sensing) and feeling (rather than thinking) psychological types, clergy (rather than laity), those living outside the inner cities, those who prefer modern (rather than traditional) forms of worship, those with more liberal (rather than conservative) views on doctrine and morality, and those who embrace Evangelical and Charismatic (rather than Anglo-Catholic) church traditions.

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 This concept paper aimed to understand how stigma, a concept usually associated with negative social relationships, in the context of a pandemic threat such as COVID-19 can, in some situations, structure a charismatic social relationship in a perceived positive association between stigma and a specific social characteristic. For this purpose, we used the example of the news selected and highlighted by several Portuguese media about the actions and messages developed by President Trump in the context of his infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent recovery process. These news reports gave visibility to a narrative that can be considered as reinforcing the legitimization of his condition as a charismatic leader in an electoral context marked by the pandemic threat. In conclusion, stigma associated with a pandemic health threat and generally linked to a negative social status can also reinforce admiration, trust, and belief in the charismatic leader by supporters and followers, as demonstrated with the plight of President Trump. Stigma can be a factor in social uplift in affirming an upward trajectory of social status and symbolic power for actors seen as ill, where stigma-motivated discrimination is experienced positively, unlike in most cases. publishersversion published

This concept paper aimed to understand how stigma, a concept usually associated with negative social relationships, in the context of a pandemic threat such as COVID-19 can, in some situations, structure a charismatic social relationship in a perceived positive association between stigma and a specific social characteristic. For this purpose, we used the example of the news selected and highlighted by several Portuguese media about the actions and messages developed by President Trump in the context of his infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent recovery process. These news reports gave visibility to a narrative that can be considered as reinforcing the legitimization of his condition as a charismatic leader in an electoral context marked by the pandemic threat. In conclusion, stigma associated with a pandemic health threat and generally linked to a negative social status can also reinforce admiration, trust, and belief in the charismatic leader by supporters and followers, as demonstrated with the plight of President Trump. Stigma can be a factor in social uplift in affirming an upward trajectory of social status and symbolic power for actors seen as ill, where stigma-motivated discrimination is experienced positively, unlike in most cases.

Since the end of the Second World War, the popularity of modern elite sport has grown immensely and so has the economical interests in sport. Athletes have become attractive advertising partners. Much money is at stake so it is understandable that companies are alarmed when their poster boys or girls are caught up in scandals. Inspired by a recent study, which found that stock return of primary team sponsors in cycling was not affected if the team was involved in doping scandals, this paper is an attempt to explain why athletes often maintain their marketing value even if they are exposed as bad role models. The thesis is that the attraction of athletes relates to the concept of ‘charisma’, and that the success of mass spectator sports is due to sport’s appeal to what psychologist Henry Rutgers Marshall by the end of the 19th Century in an article in Mind identified as man’s ‘religious instinct’. So after a brief introduction, the paper begins with a clarification of the antiquated concept ‘religious instinct’. This is followed by a critical examination of the secular usage of ‘charisma’ as introduced by Max Weber. Peter Sloterdijk’s sobering point that Hitler’s aptitude for his role in Germany did not rely on charisma lays the foundation for a more precise and rationally consistent description of the concept. It is argued that charisma is not something certain individuals posses, rather it is something that is experienced as an emotional effect by those who label individuals charismatic, which is based on the honesty competence and commitment of the perceived ‘charismatic’ person. Idols can have charismatic effect on us even if they are unprincipled cheats so long as they are committed to what they do. This is why athletes maintain their appeal and marketing value so long as their performances transcend the capabilities of ordinary people.

This paper uses the idea of a "charismatic gap" to help explain the disjuncture between the burden of disease attributable to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the global south and a tendency to view this as something of 'an esoteric distraction from more pressing concerns in global health' such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, vaccination and maternal health (Livingston, Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012, p. 9). NCDs are a composite category of cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, cancer and diabetes grouped together by virtue of four shared risk factors (tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diets and sedentarism). While infectious diseases spread through viruses or bacteria under conditions of contagion that can provoke fear, disgust, suspicion and irrationality amid physical suffering and high mortality rates, NCDs have too often been met with ennui. This paper draws on the concept of charisma to help explore and explain the 'neglected epidemic' of NCDs in the global south through four themes: The lexicon used to describe, frame and communicate NCDs; risk factors and culpability; the temporality of disease and its embodiment. In conclusion, the paper reflects on how to activate the latent charismatic potential of NCDs in the global south.

This paper aims to study the historic and sociological context of philosophic-spiritual conversions through several case studies from late Hellenism (2nd to 5th c. AD). In the History of Religion, spiritual initiatory experiences have been thought of as a key factor to understand the development of a belief, from Arthur D. Nock to modern times, there have been considerable attempts made at defining the concept of conversion as a part of the human psyche. This study will examine biographies of charismatic teachers of Greco-Roman higher education (παιδεία), specifically, some passages in which philosophic-spiritual initiatory experiences are described. In addition, they will be put in parallel with other passages in which the powerful charismatic personality of the teachers can be grasped, i.e., the main trigger of conversion. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is the importance of a charismatic master for a philosophic-spiritual experience to take place. In conclusion, late antique biographical sources must be re-examined in search for “the personal” without forgetting that, in this literary context, religious, philosophical, educational, and spiritual experiences can be encountered.

This paper reports on the MARRYS cap, as an easy-to-use alternative method for measuring jaw displacement. We sketch the motivation for developing the cap, report on details of how the cap works, and finally report on some preliminary data, comparing results of the cap with those of EMA. Results show that the MARRYS cap can reliably exhibit a difference of jaw displacement in various contexts, but it is more handy, mobile, and affordable than EMA. The MARRYS cap is suitable for various kinds of phonetic analyses, be it classroom teaching/training, fieldwork, or lab studies on jaw-related vowel targets or rhythm patterns. It can also be used to help teach more native-like expressions of attitudes for different cultures, such as dominance or friendliness, as well as support rhetorical training that assesses, visualizes, and improves a speaker’s public-speaking performance.

Research Question (RQ): Human potential has endless possibilities. Can charisma be taught? What else makes a leader charismatic in the eyes of the followers? Purpose: Purpose and goal of this research paper is to investigate if charisma is human potential that can be learned so leaders could use it to help the population in situations like crisis. We would like to confirm, that charisma is a capability and trait, which can be developed by who ever decides to do so. Method: A descriptive approach was used to examine the theoretical content. Results: To be charismatic means to influence others, connect with them, evoke trust. Charisma is efficient if the leader knows his mission, looks on life difficulties and problems as challenges, is able to be self critic, respects and appreciates others. In the eyes of the followers leader is perceived as charismatic when personal and business vision and goals are established, when present and in control of him/herself and others and in control of the situation. When the leader is showing respect to others and if necessary is decisive and consistent. Organization and society: To unveil the charisma myth, as something god given and unattainable, to the leaders and general public was the aim of this paper. Charisma is not a privilege of some individuals. Leaders have to be aware that it is of most importance to discover this potential and us it for the greater good. Originality: Development of personal charisma is a process, learned from early childhood onwards; some less acquainted with this set of skills can be helped with methods, technique and different approaches. Approaches from various authors are introduced. Limitations/Future Research: This research paper was conducted on articles and books with the key word in title and abstract.

The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi , originally published in 2001, highlights the role of exotic, charismatic animals for the marketing of fiction to a world-wide readership. Deploying zoo and circus animal imagery, Life of Pi emphasises commercially attractive animals in packaging and content. Indeed, the notion that animal entertainment within zoos especially is not only attractive, but also beneficial to the animals themselves, reassures consumers and alleviates feelings of guilt. Life of Pi succeeds commercially for many of the same reasons that zoos profit from exhibiting non-human animals. It portrays a mythology of “good zoos” as a kind of Ark, ostensibly underpinned by science and research, and thus represents a deeply conservative reaction to growing calls that for ethical and environmental reasons we need to rethink our consumption-based relationship to animals. This paper examines some of the novel’s arguments in favour of zoos and discusses the ways in which a “story with animals is the better story.” This paper makes use of an activist approach to literature and starts from the premise that an Animal Studies approach necessarily takes the interests of animals and their subjectivity as the central concern

The paper deals with production and reproduction of social inequalities in Elias’ sociology. For him, the key for any sociological approach to these issues is the use of the concept of social figuration and of the asymmetrical dynamics of «disposition» which drive it. In this essay we will try to decipher these themes (and the more general approach underlying them), starting from the reading of a little known text by Elias which was published only partially; i.e. the speech on the concept of charisma which he gave at the conference organized by the German Sociological Association on the occasion of the centenary of Max Weber’s birth. Starting from the discussion of this peculiar text the papers underline the eliasian position respect to the very famous weberian category. The Eliasian key thought is revealed in all its heuristic potentiality because of its ability to stimulate - in a processual way - static and ideal-typical patterns of analysis. The paper is articulated in three main points. The first concerns the leadership and the role it can play, not only as a source of change but also as a mechanism of social reproduction. Elias purifies the concept of charisma from its metaphysically magical and irrational components - emphasizing the mechanisms of institutionalization of the revolutionary force to which that concept refers - showing the dynamics of construction, protection and waterproofing of the boundaries of power groups made possible by the action of the leader and his followers. The second point concerns the processes of stigmatization and labeling that «crystallize» the system of inequalities, giving them an ideological appearance of normality and incontrovertibility.The third point concerns the contribute to the development of a thought capable of going beyond traditional conceptual dichotomies. The discussion on charisma and inequalities allow us to merge rational and emotional, individual and collective, natural and social aspects of social life in the way how practically they are revealed and can be studied., Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, Vol. 4 No. 8 (2014)

Charismatic speaking skills, particularly those of the voice, are known to be an important asset of managers, politicians, and even teachers. Students have so far been less in the limelight in this regard, although modern collaborative-learning and oral-examination concepts suggest that vocal charisma can already be a decisive factor for study success as well. The present paper examines this question based on 82 electrical-engineering students. Their initial self-introductions in front of the other fellow students were analyzed using a new acoustic technology that translates 16 voice features into a total vocal charisma (PASCAL) score. Results show that these PASCAL scores are overall low (i.e. improvable) and positively correlated with the oral exam grades of both individual students and student teams. Moreover, the teams' PASCAL scores positively correlate with the per-formance in the "Marshmallow Challenge", i.e. a creative teamwork task. Additional in-depth analyses show that teams without any above-average charismatic student performed worst, but that teams with more than one above-average charismatic student struggled with leadership conflicts and solo actions. We interpret our findings as a strong plea for (vocal) charisma analysis to be integrated in higher-education practice both for managing team dynamics and performance and for increasing individual study success.

In July 1977, 50,000 Christians from different backgrounds and traditions converged on Kansas City to participate in the Conference on Charismatic Renewal in the Christian Churches. Catholic charismatics played a key role in its organization, relying on all their ecumenical contacts built since the origins of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in 1967 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (PA). If the Kansas City conference represented the zenith of a shared unified vision for all charismatic Christianity, it also showed the emergence of the crisis which affected Catholic charismatic communities and their connection with Rome. This paper will explore U.S. Catholic charismatics’ relationships with other Christian denominations and groups in the initial development of the CCR, particularly in structuring Catholic charismatic communities, and their ecumenical perspectives in the tension between needs for legitimization (by the Vatican) and needs for self-expression.

In the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARoB) in Papua New Guinea, the changes of Vatican II led to significant Church reform, creating “Liklik Kristen Komuniti” (small Christian communities) that gave more responsibility to the laity. Moreover, as elsewhere in the world, Charismatic Catholicism was introduced and embraced. At the same time, private devotions, and in particular devotions to Mary, became immensely popular and powerful in Bougainville. This is partly due to the Bougainville crisis (1988–1998), which caused immense suffering, but also triggered a surge in popular devotions as people looked for spiritual guidance to deal with the hardships of the crisis. This paper shows how in the context of social and economic upheaval, charismatic popular devotions became increasingly influential with rosaries and statues becoming important mediums in facilitating healing and socio-political renewal. This shows the strength of popular devotions and the importance of material religion in particular. It also elucidates how popular devotions in Bougainville are part of global Catholic developments, as well as transnational practices that place Mary in the center of devotional practices.

Stefan Batory University in Vilnius was established in 1919 as a regional entity to carry out scientific research and develop Polish academic education. One of its faculties – the Faculty of Fine Arts (1930–1939) – gathered charismatic and popular artists, historians and architects. Among them, two professors – Juliusz Kłos (1888–1933) and Marian Morelowski – published the guidebooks for Vilnius and Wileńszczyzna region (Wilno. Przewodnik krajoznawczy, 1937; Zarys sztuki wileńskiej z przewodnikiem po zabytkiem między Niemnem a Dźwiną, 1939). The book written by Kłos gained popularity and was often purchased by the tourists who visited Vilnius. The aim of the article is to determine the main methodology, historical approaches and working styles of both authors. Moreover, the paper involves their attitude towards developing tourism, cultural heritage and historical research. The article also involves the main ideas of artistic education professors had and how much tourism was involved in the whole education process for them.

The paper focuses on the perspective research of acoustic-prosodic characteristics of charismatic speech in different types of discourse, presenting the history of the phenomenon and related works. The contradictions of the previous research are identified. The anticipated practical value of the lingual energetic research is discussed. .

This paper, All of Paris, Darkly, presents a focused study of Le Corbusier’s enigmatic Beistegui Apartment (1929- 1931) on the Champs-Elysée in Paris, with particular reference to the curious camera obscura periscope that was housed in a small lozenge-shaped pavilion on its rooftop. There are manifold reasons for the charisma of the apartment; from the flamboyant eccentricities of the client and his exchanges with the architect, to the exceptional location of apartment in the centre of Paris, to the apparent repudiation of some of Le Corbusier’s more strident proclamations on architecture and the city, to the historical conditions that have for all time occluded a definitive scholarly reading of the architectural production and subsequent inhabitation of the apartment. Grounded in an understanding of the primal visual phenomenon of the camera obscura, the paper advances an interpretation of the meaning of the periscope apparatus amidst the battery of unusual contrivances that animated the surrealist penthouse apartment. It further seeks to contribute to a greater understanding of some aspects of Le Corbusier’s thinking on architecture and the city. Keywords: Le Corbusier; Charles de Beistegui; camera obscura; uncanny; Surrealism. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.928

The primary purpose of this paper will be to research the relationship between Hirohito's charisma and the prewar socioreligious situation of Japan which led the country to open war against its surrounding enemies. This paper will also pursue some comparative studies of Malcolm X and of Mahatma Gandhi and in his society, in order to gain profound understanding of socioreligious phenomena. Furthermore, some comparative methods concerning Max Weber's charismatic theory were utilized in this work.

The paper offers a thanato-sociological analysis of the funerals of Tito, F. Tudjman and S. Milosevic, documenting various ideological contents and various political roles of the funerals of heads of state. Tito?s charisma was class-based, supranational and Yugoslav, while the other two were national authorities. Tito?s funeral was a symbol of peace, Tudjman?s of national liberation, and Milosevic?s a symbol resistance to imperialism. In the paper group symbols at the funerals are analyzed, along with the content of laudatio funebris, dimensions of authority of the deceased, key rhetorical figures, the structure of the funeral accompaniment and the appearance of the grave.

Social media like Twitter or Instagram play the role of fertile platforms for self-exhibition and allow their users to earn a good repute. People higher in grandiosity share their contents in a charismatic way and as a result, they are successful in gaining attention from others, which may also influence their responses and behaviors. Such attention and repute enable them to be a trendsetter or a socially recognized maven. In this paper, we present a complex adaptive mental network model of a narcissist to see how popularity can adaptively influence his/her behavior. To analyze and to support behavior showed by our model, we used some key performance indicators from the literature to study the popularity and narcissism of 30 Instagram profiles. The results of the—both computational and empirical—study indicate that our presented computational adaptive network model in general shows the behavior found from the empirical data.

During China&rsquo, s Republican Era (1912&ndash, 1949), the True Jesus Church, comprising one of the largest indigenous Pentecostal/charismatic churches in China, created a whole set of exclusive salvation doctrines based on its unique biblical interpretation. This paper attempts to illustrate the role that the Bible played in the development of the True Jesus Church (TJC for short) and how its biblical interpretations functioned in the shaping of its exclusive identity based on certain aspects of its charismatic experiences and unique doctrinal system. The founding of the TJC relied upon charismatic experiences, which were regarded as the work of the Holy Spirit to prove the authority of the Church. Doctrinally, the approaches to biblical interpretation employed by TJC leaders were another source of the church&rsquo, s unique identity: The exclusive status the church assigned to itself was evident in its distinct interpretive approaches, as well as in its innovative rituals, especially facedown immersion baptism. Along with various influences of the Pentecostal tradition and the Chinese social context, these hermeneutics were an important reason for the TJC&rsquo, s development as an independent denomination in the Republican era.

Authority is one of the most problematic and ambiguous concepts in social and educational theory. Authority is a relation that is based on disparities of knowledge, expertise or experience. Drawing on teaching observations and interviews with undergraduate students and lecturers about their experiences of large-group teaching, I argue that in contrast to lecturers’ focus on professional authority and expertise, many students respond most strongly to experiential forms of authority in lectures. In other words, there is a disparity between students’ and educators’ conceptions of pedagogic authority. Through a discussion of a teaching intervention aiming to playfully experiment with authority relations in the lecture theatre, the paper contributes to a conceptualization of an emancipatory and experimental politics of educational authority, one where students are challenged, not only to think independently, but to see their own existence – the grounds for their actions – as an important intellectual problem to engage with. This requires moving beyond the dominant Weberian ideal types of educational authority (traditional, rational-legal, charismatic, and charismatic-intellectual) towards a fuller understanding of experiential forms of authority.

I was lucky enough to meet Mariano Valenza in September 1995. I was hitchhiking on the highway that leads from Cefalu to Palermo to go back home. I had spent my summer holidays in the beautiful and wild Madonie mountains. An off-road vehicle (a Land Rover Defender) stopped and a refined gentleman with a curious and charismatic gaze offered me a ride. During our journey, we chatted pleasantly and he told he was originally from that area. When I told him, I was a Geology student, he smiled at me and said Then we will meet again soon, I am going to be your Teacher of Geochemistry!. After a few weeks the lessons began and I met again Professor Valenza in Via Archirafi 36, at the University of Palermo. I will never forget the first introductive lesson of his course: ... we are going to study how the chemical elements have formed in the stars, and how these elements have spread out on our planet; we are going to study the chemical- physical laws regulating their geochemical cycles and how they move in between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. We will also learn how the isotopes of these elements allow us to date the geological phenomena and the age of our own planet Earth; ...let's imagine that we are ourselves made of billions and billions and billions of atoms, and it is statically possible that one of Napoleon atom could be here, in this class room!. I was truly fascinated and I discovered my passion for this interesting subject.In via Archirafi 36, in the historical building of the University of Palermo, once home of the Istituto di Mineralogia, I have graduated and got a Ph.D. in Geochemistry, and still nowadays I am working there. In these last 25 years I have learnt to know the stories of different personalities and their scientific researches, which have been hidden and looked after in the ancient building of the University for almost one century. With this article, we would like to remember Professor Mariano Valenza, by telling some stories about him and some others told by himself. Amongst these extraordinary stories we have focused on the one of a little-known scientist, Ludovico Sicardi (1895 - 1987), a modest man who followed his passion for volcanoes. In his field, he was a true innovator and the present research in the field of the geochemical surveillance of volcanos is deeply in debt to him. The Scuola di Geochimica dei Fluidi, born in the '70s at the University of Palermo, has the most debt of gratitude to him, but also the one which has treasured best his memory. This special paper is dedicated to Professor Valenza, who was one of the founders of this school and, before that, the teacher of most of this piece's authors. He had preserved, beside the historical memory, also many documents, photos, and the scientific equipment used by Sicardi for his studies.Sergio Calabrese, Palermo, March 2020

To what extent is populist rule associated with a decline in press freedom and freedom of expression? Populist rule refers to government headed by charismatic leaders who seek to gain and retain power by mobilizing mass constituencies that are typically free of other political attachments. Populism in this sense matters for two reasons: (1) controlling the media is a core objective of populists compared with other types of political leaders, who can rely on other organizational links to supporters; and (2) the interests of populist parties are virtually equivalent to the interests of party leaders, which means that populists face different time horizons and constraints on their behavior than the leaders of more deeply institutionalized parties. Using cross-national data on up to ninety-one countries from 1980 to 2014, this paper tests whether populist rule is associated with the erosion of press freedom and freedom of expression relative to other types of government and whether any effect is conditional on the ideology of the populist government in question. It finds that populist rule is associated with a decline in most measures of media freedom relative to programmatic party rule. However, this effect is lessened for right-leaning populist governments.

From 2009 to 2013, steered by Bruno Brunetti, a European project was developed to set up research infrastructures in the field of heritage conservation and restoration: it is called CHARISMA (Cultural Heritage Advanced Research Infrastructures). This paper draws up a short summary of its achievements, highlighting the innovations made, namely the development of mobile analytical devices and the opportunity to consult the scientific archives of the institutions participating in the project via the ARCHLAB transnational access programme. Lastly, it briefly assesses the impact made by the research undertaken. De 2009 à 2013 s’est développé, sous le pilotage de Bruno Brunetti, un projet européen d’infrastructure de recherche en conservation-restauration du patrimoine, dénommé CHARISMA. L’article en dresse une brève synthèse en insistant sur les innovations apportées, telles que la mise au point d’instruments d’analyse mobiles et la mise à disposition des archives scientifiques détenues par les institutions partenaires du réseau, via l’accès transnational ARCHLAB. Il dresse enfin un rapide bilan des principales actions de valorisation des travaux.

This paper examines in a sociological manner how the heroic identity of Odysseus is constructed in Homer’s Odyssey. The making of Odysseus the hero requires the constant testing and improving of Odysseus's heroic qualities, the existence of a largely loyal crowd to testify to his charisma, and the weaving of a myth that wraps him up. Various aspects of the Greek hero are fleshed out.

Harold Aaron Kahn was one of those many unsung heroes of the post-World War II movement in epidemiology and public health around the world. He played key roles in many of the early epidemiologic cohort studies important to resolution of the diet-heart hypothesis, produced a key monograph on the risks of smoking and health (1), and founded the Framingham Eye Study. However, most of all, he was an outstanding teacher, whether it was in the classroom, one-on-one, or as the author of one of the groundbreaking textbooks in statistical methods in epidemiology. Harold Kahn, or Hal as he was known to friends and colleagues, was born on January 4, 1920, in New York City. He graduated from high school at the age of 15 and then was admitted to the prestigious College of the City of New York, which offered free tuition to all admitted. There he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1939. In 1940, he married Lenora Polsky—the love of his life—and their romance lasted for 67 years, until Lenora's death in 2006. After taking the civil service examination, he was assigned a job as a surveyor, working on the construction of the Pentagon. During World War II, he served as a statistician in the US Public Health Service, with responsibility for studying venereal disease prevalence and trends. His first 4 publications were devoted to the study of syphilis. At the same time, he continued to study at night, earning a master's degree in statistics from American University in 1949 and completing all but a language requirement that would have earned him a Ph.D. Most of his career was then spent in the US Public Health Service. During his distinguished career, Hal was involved with a number of the most famous prospective studies of the 20th century. In 1950, he joined the newly formed National Heart Institute. After completing several other assignments, he returned to the National Heart Institute in 1961, where he served as the Director of Statistics for the Framingham Heart Study in the mid-1960s. It was while working on the Framingham Study that he wrote one of his most influential papers: In 1966, he and Dr. Thomas Dawber published a paper in which they proposed what has come to be known as the “Framingham method” (2). In that method, all of the risk factor data collected at each of the 2-year study examinations are entered into a pooled repeated-measures model to assess the risk of disease within each 2-year period (3). That is, rather than simply looking at cumulative incidence to date, Hal “used as the dependent variable the risk of disease during a 2-year period” (4, p. 62). The procedure, which assumes that each 2-year examination is independent of subsequent ones, has been shown to be equivalent to the Cox proportional hazards model with time-dependent covariates, and it continues to be used to this day (5). Hal was also part of the group at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that helped set up the Puerto Rico Heart Health Study. However, 2 cardiovascular prospective studies that he played a key role in were the Yugoslavia Cardiovascular Heart Disease Study (6) and the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Study (7). For 3 years (1966–1969), he lived in Israel, where his efforts were crucial to the development and success of the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Study. When Hal arrived, he immediately took over a very complex procedure of editing the detailed dietary intake questionnaire data, as well as other parameters (8). Almost overnight, or so it seemed, we were talking about multiple linear regression and analysis of variance and covariance. The next step was introduction of the logistic risk function, as initially proposed by Cornfield et al. (9), for estimation of mutually adjusted predictive ability estimates of the probability of developing a disease according to risk factors. Kahn was a pioneer, a fresh breeze in what at times had threatened to become a statistical desert. Consultations were frequent, and Hal's teaching ability stood out immediately. Everyone was impressed by his patience and dedication. The youngest members of the study coordinating center found themselves gaining knowledge and insight. With the backing of William Zukel, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Project Officer, even the most menial data clean-up task was converted from a burden to tolerate into something to look forward to, because there was so much to learn and develop. Hal then went on to become chief of the Office of Biometry and Epidemiology for the National Eye Institute during 1971–1975. It was here that he broke new ground once again and developed the Framingham Eye Study (10). After retiring from the US government, he taught at Johns Hopkins University, where he became a tenured professor of epidemiology. Upon his retirement from Hopkins, he served as a consultant and visiting professor at Hebrew University and at Loma Linda University in California (11), and then went back to Hopkins. Among other projects, he created an epidemiologic research unit in Rome for Merck Sharp & Dohme. Late in life he returned to his interest in dietary survey methods, and he became involved in promoting the importance of developing biomarkers for validating questionnaire methods (12). In 1983, he published the first edition of what was one of the first books on statistical methods in epidemiology (13). It was intended as an introductory text for students with very little experience in mathematics, much less statistics. The focus of the book then and in its second edition was to teach basic principles so that students could understand the development of different statistical methods and the reasons and rationale for their use in certain situations. The textbook was revised under a new title in 1989 (14). Hal was a member of a group of distinguished statisticians that included Jerry Cornfield, Nathan Mantel, Paul Meier, Olli Miettinen, and others. Norman Breslow must have had this group in mind when he noted that “some of the most important statistical procedures were developed originally by practitioners on an empirical or intuitive basis,” only to be proven correct by theoreticians a few years later (15, p. 77). The example Dr. Breslow specifically mentions is Hal's development of the “Framingham” repeated-measures analysis technique. Not only was Hal an outstanding statistician; he instantly understood the ideas of Cornfield, Mantel, and Miettinen, and he knew how to teach and communicate those ideas in ways that were unique. That is why his textbook was so influential and popular (13, 14). He could also be exceptionally insightful, as when he developed the Framingham method for the analysis of repeated examination data. He was also a genius at getting studies going—whether the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Study, the Yugoslavia Cardiovascular Heart Disease Study, or the Framingham Eye Study. Hal's personality made him a born leader. He was charismatic, warm, friendly, and approachable, yet he had a presence that commanded respect. He came alive almost like a vaudeville actor at times—like Al Jolson or Eddie Cantor—when he was in charge of a project or teaching. He encouraged thoughtful discussion and debate. However, disagreeing with him always made you work 3 times as hard, because you never wanted to disappoint him with sloppy or poorly-thought-out arguments. At just the right moment, he was able to lighten a discussion with a story or a joke; yet at other times, he was so very shy and withdrawn. We believe that Hal's greatest skills were in leading and in teaching. His work with the Framingham Study, in Israel, at the Eye Institute, and in writing the textbook are great examples of his brilliance as a leader and teacher. He contributed, in a selfless way, so very much to public health around the world. We both feel that that our lives and our careers profited greatly by our associations with Hal. Hal was a kind, wonderful man whom we both feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with and to call a friend. Harold A. Kahn died at the age of 89 on Thursday, April 9, 2009.

Charismatic leaders have consistently been shown to affect followers' performance, motivation, and satisfaction. Yet, what precisely constitutes charisma still remains somewhat enigmatic. So far, research has mainly focused on leader traits, leader behaviors, or the leader follower-relationship, and the subsequent consequences of each on followers' self-concepts. All of these approaches share the notion that leader charisma depends on an explicit interaction between leader and follower. With the present review paper, we extend extant theorizing by arguing that charisma is additionally informed by embodied signals that flow directly from either the leader or the immediate environment. We introduce the embodiment perspective on human perception and describe its utility for theoretically understanding the charismatic effect. Correspondingly, we review studies that show which concrete embodied cues can support the charismatic effect. Finally, we discuss the variety of new theoretical and practical implications that arise from this research and how they can complement existing approaches to charismatic leadership.

In this paper, we test whether the perception of filled-pause (FP) frequency and public-speaking performance are mediated by the phonetic characteristics of FPs. In particular, total duration, vowel-formant pattern (if present), and nasal segment proportion of FPs were correlated with perceptual data of 29 German listeners who rated excerpts of business presentations given by 68 German-speaking managers. Results show strong inter-speaker differences in how and how often FPs are realized. Moreover, differences in FP duration and nasal proportion are significantly correlated with estimated (i.e. subjective) FP frequency and perceived speaker performance. The shorter and more nasal a speaker's FPs are, the more do listeners underestimate the speaker's actual FP frequency and the higher they rate the speaker's public-speaking performance. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for FP saliency and rhetorical training.

This paper is a first investigation into the influence of the pitch range and the intensity variation on the number of subscribers, views and likes of YouTube Creators. A total of ten minutes of speech material from five English and five North-American YouTubers was analyzed. The results for pitch range and intensity variation suggest that an increase in both parameters results in higher subscriber counts. For views, there was no influence of pitch range, but an increase in intensity variation results in a lower number of views. Pitch range and intensity variation had no influence on the like count. Furthermore, both origin and gender had an influence on the results. Ultimately, this study will provide further information for the phonetic research of charisma (i.e., the perceived charm, competence, power, and persuasiveness of a speaker), as it is suspected that the acoustic features that have so far been connected to charisma also play an important role in the success of a YouTuber and their channel.

Over the past decade, Reformed Christianity, broadly based on the theology of Calvinism, has spread widely in China, especially by appealing to Chinese &lsquo, intellectuals&rsquo, who constitute most of the house church leaders in urban areas. It draws its moral guidance from a so-called rational or intellectual focus on biblical theology, reinforced by theological training in special seminaries. It consequently rejects the &lsquo, heresy&rsquo, of the older Pentecostal Christianity, with its emphasis on charisma, miracles, and theology based on emotional &lsquo, feeling&rsquo, This Reformed theology and its further elaboration have been introduced into China in two main ways. The first is through overseas Chinese, especially via theological seminaries in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. For instance, preachings of the famous Reformed pastor Stephen Tong (唐崇荣) have been widely disseminated online and among Chinese Christians. Second, Korean missionaries have established theological seminaries mainly in cities in northern China. This has resulted in more and more Chinese church leaders becoming advocates of Calvinism and converting their churches to Reformed status. This paper asks why Calvinism attracts Chinese Christians, what Calvinism means for the so-called house churches of a Christian community in a northern Chinese city, and what kinds of change the importation of Reformed theology has brought to Chinese house churches. Various significant accounts have addressed this development in China generally. My analysis complements these accounts by focusing on a small number of interconnected house churches in one city, and uses this case study to highlight interpersonal and organizational issues arising from the Calvinist approach.

The paper presents a case study of two popular US American CEOs. It compares the acoustic vowel space sizes of the more charismatic speaker Steve Jobs and those of the less charismatic speaker Mark Zuckerberg, as part of an initial acoustic step to examine a traditional claim of rhetoric that clearer speech makes a speaker sound more charismatic. Analysing about 2,000 long and short vowel tokens from representative keynote speech excerpts of the two speakers shows that Jobs’ vowel space is, across various segmental and prosodic context factors, significantly larger than that of Zuckerberg, whose vowel space is strongly reduced particularly when addressing investors. The differences in vowel-space size are consistent with the claim of rhetoric that a clear articulation is a key characteristic of a charismatic speaker. The discussion of the results describes further experimental steps required to back up the link between clear pronunciation and speaker charisma.