Political, religious and kinship capital in the makings of religious leader: case study from a Charismatic Roma church in Czech-German borderland
Abstract
In order to explain religious charisma, Bourdieu (1991 35) invites us to „determine the sociologically pertinent characteristics that allow an individual to find himself socially predisposed to test and express (…) ethical or political arrangements already present implicitly among all members of the class or group of its recipients.“ In the Charismatic Romani congregation in Czech-German borderlands, where I did my fielwork in 2010 - 2012, new pastor from abroad came to the office. For several years the pastor seemed to posses a kind of charisma, which allowed him to reprove members in situations when noone else would feel to reprove others, criticize certain traditions held by the Roma, and compete with authorities based on kinship.
This leader based his political capital in his Gypsyness, while his religious capital was based in the fact he acted against the Gypsyness. By reconstructing the existing congregation organization from kinship-based open community, towards ethno-religion, or congreg-nation, he succeded in transforming his religious capital to a political one, which was previously reserved only to kinship structures.
I will trace back this process and point out strategies of ordering of local Roma through Bible school and other means.