The Charismatic Principle in Economic and Civil Life

Like Bob, I’ve been neglecting the LRE conversation due to recent travels.  One particularly fascinating event was a conference in Loppiano, Italy on “The Charismatic Principle in Economic and Civil Life.”  After two days of discussion, it’s still a fairly elusive and malleable concept in my mind, though one helpful way to think about the theme is to distinguish it from our tendency to approach social progress and reform from an institutional perspective.  For example, if we want to explore the story of organized labor in this country, we can talk about the institutions comprising the “labor movement” or we can focus on the movement turning in large part on the capacity and willingness of a particular person(s) to inspire others to invest in a cause bigger than themselves.  The charismatic principle focuses on the person on the supply side (as the bearer of the charism) and the demand side (as the beneficiary of the charism).  A different way of expressing the theme was “Life comes before theory.”  There is a deeply spiritual dimension to this inquiry, as it lends itself to talking about giftedness and how gifts are expressed and engaged in our public life.  The discussions also bring into sharper relief the distinctions between “individual” and “person,” for the charismatic principle is always social, though it might be expressed powerfully in a specific life.