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In this article the author develops some of the points he has made elsewhere regarding the role of what may be termed ‘crises of charismatic authority’ in producing volatility or even violence within marginal apocalyptic religious groups. The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed several incidents where such groups engaged in violent actions against themselves, others in the outside world, or typically both (among them the Peoples Temple in Guayana in 1978, Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1994, Order of the Solar Temple in Switzerland, Quebec and France in 1997, Aum Shirinkyo, Japan in 1995, Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, Uganda in 2000). This notion of ‘crises of charismatic authority’ has in many ways become a central, recurring theme in the author's analysis of these incidents. While accepting that such crises were typically not sufficient in themselves to have precipitated each of the dramatic denouements the author has examined, he has come to the conclusion that they did play a major role in each; such crises played a much more significant role than that played by external opposition in almost all of the cases the author examined (the case of the Branch Davidians being perhaps the exception that proves the rule). In this article, the author discusses what he means by crises of charismatic authority (an important task in itself due to the diverse understandings of ‘charisma’ found within the literature) and presents a comparative analysis of some of the ways in which these crises can occur.

Charisma, volatility and violence: assessing the role of crises of charismatic authority in precipitating incidents of millenarian violence