Sociological Theory of Rulership, Knowledge and Religion

An Urgently Needed Comparison of Things in Time

Bibliographic Data

ID2275593
AuthorsVatro Murvar (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, corresponding author)
Year1971
Volume12
Issue4
Pages436-440
Publication date1971-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1533-8525.1971.tb01373.x
OpenAlexW1995417353
LanguageEN
References cited11

HALF-A-CENTUtRY after his death Max Weber's name is becoming more of a household word within the scholarly community and, perhaps, even beyond, for there is a rock-music band named Max Weber and His Charismatics surviving now for over five years. The mass media today increasingly prostitutionalize some of his carefully formulated concepts of charisma and charismatic leadership, e.g., the labeling of everybody and everything odd or that which is not understood as charismatic, including a loud-mouth reactionary household name of the (hopefully early) seventies. The greater interest in Weber's work among social scientists is justified by several propositions, a few of which will be briefly pointed out. To this writer at least the most important among them is that there seems to be absolutely nothing in his work which could even remotely serve as a source for a messianic doctrine of salvation for mankind in contrast to the writings of many well-known names. No messianic or millennial movements could possibly carry his name, and this appears to be a blessing today in the midst of so much utopian emotionalism. Even a more limited ideological preaching is absent from his legacy. Also, because of his unqualified and absolute humanitarianism, conservative defenses of the established order cannot be hidden behind Weber's name in spite of some attempts made by certain American sociologists. Julien Freund (1969:13) said that Weber was a pure analyst solely concerned with gaining sound knowledge of historical data and interpreting it within verifiable limits-helped greatly by an encyclopedic knowledge which no other sociologist has since equaled. Indeed, Freund argued, what is striking in Weber's work is the total absence of preconceived notions or a priori syntheses. Not Durkheim but Weber was the first in practice to place sociology on a strictly scientific basis. This from a fellow Frenchman is a supreme compliment. Of course, Weber was socialized in his culture and shared some or many of its values and biases. But unlike many others, Weber was successful in keeping them out of his work most of the time. Furthermore, he somehow managed permanently to resist temptations to build any ideological or scientific systems, because he recognized and deeply feared that very thin dividing line between ideological visions of a beautiful future and the scientific ordering of strictly empirical data-an almost invisible line unfortunately missed by many creative minds, revolutionary and conservative

Aesthetics · Blessing · Charisma · Doctrine · Epistemology · Ideology · Nothing · Political science · Political sociology · Politics · Reactionary · Sociofact · Sociology · Theology · Economic, financial, and policy analysis · Law · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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