Patterns of change in religious authority: Routinization, oligarchization and institutionalization

Abstract

The article explores classical theoretical debates on the routinization of authority. It departs from Max Weber’s sociology of power and his considerations on the routinization of charisma and discusses it in relation to Robert Michels’ concept of oligarchization and notions of institutionalization as a process of reciprocal typification in the Sociology of Knowledge. Based on a comparative discussion of the commonalities and differences of these approaches, I propose a working understanding for the empirical analysis of the routinization of religious authority. In line with the overarching focus of the special issue, I will put particular emphasis on religious minority-majority constellations and mediatization as conditions of routinization.