Social sciences Doctorate

« Max Weber and specific charisma - The globalization of a christianity of conversion : an evangelical charisma ? A study case : Jehovah's Witnesses. » Paris 5 Sorbonne University, 2008.

Max WEBER (1864-1920), in Economy and society/1, describes charisma as ‘the extraordinary quality of a character who is seen as sent by God or as a model’, as a ‘vocation, a mission or an inner task, a transformation of the inside’. In his second volume, The organization and the powers of society in their connection with economy, the sociologist says that charisma can purely and simply stick to somebody (innate charisma) or can be artificially produced inside a person who owns it in an embryonic form, but who can develop it by some extraordinary means (acquired charisma). Max Weber mentions a ‘charisma of speech’ which could also be called ‘charisma of conversion’. This sociological research wants to define this specific charisma, from a historical view (in a period going from 1870 to nowadays) and within the framework of phenomenological or comprehensive inspiration sociology of the day life applied to a christian group famously known for its worldwide evangelical activism: Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Keywords : Max Weber, sociology, charisma, conversion, Christianity, evangelization, globalization, Jehovah's witnesses.

* Religious sciences Master 2 (DEPHE)

"Jehovah's witnesses; the antitrinitarian Christianity survival : a spiritual strength for the faith in a single God”, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - EPHE Sorbonne Paris, 2001.

* Educational sciences Master 1

"Secularity : a resource for social mediation?", University of Limoges, 1999.

* Educational sciences Licence

- " Jehovah's Witnesses : At a crossroads ?", Ethnosociology, University

of Limoges, March, 1998.

- " The Child's Religious beliefs and School in France", Clinical approaches of the development, University of Limoges, March, 1998.