Charis and Charisma: Max Weber and the Aesthetic-Philosophical Discourse on Grace from Winckelmann to Nietzsche

This project pursues a genealogical study of the concept of charisma in its Weberian form. It addresses the question of what conceptual routes led from ancient Greek and Christian understandings of charis (grace) and charisma (gift of grace) to Max Weber’s sociological treatment of charisma. On what path, and with what turns of thought, could the distance between them be traversed? This study answers that question primarily through attention to how deeply Weber’s treatment of the theme is e...