Heretical Proportions
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article argues for a replacement of the received orthodoxies concerning charisma with a return to (or perhaps a heretical expansion of) the use of the terms heresy and heretical modes of writing. We advance our argument through a reading of The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated into English by Jennifer Croft, a novel which has been for us a resource and inspiration for ways that we might better represent and interpret religious authority and agency through attention to proportionality, indeterminacy, and the radical diversity of worlds that shape all historical movements. Although we believe this approach is widely valuable, it takes on particular urgency in a moment when the figure of the charismatic leader looms with outsized importance in the ways in which we narrate religion and politics today.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Religion and Society Interactions
Study and Philosophy of Religion
Violence
Religion
and Philosophy
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Volume
- 94
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 203–220
- Publication date
- 17 February 2026
- Language
- EN