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Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump
What happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions—and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history by a New York Times contributing opinion writer will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive.
Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?
With Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans to Black nationalists to Donald Trump, Worthen argues, America has seen figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. These leaders promise entry into a "promised land" where their hopes are fulfilled and their grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone know the way.
The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, Americans get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders meet spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.
Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.
Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?
With Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans to Black nationalists to Donald Trump, Worthen argues, America has seen figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. These leaders promise entry into a "promised land" where their hopes are fulfilled and their grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone know the way.
The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, Americans get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders meet spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.
Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.
447 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 27, 2025
71 people are currently reading
2624 people want to read
About the author
Molly Worthen
11 books23 followersMolly Worthen is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. She received her BA and PhD from Yale University. Her research focuses on North American religious and intellectual history.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
October 3, 2025
The manipulation of the masses through channeling feelings of dread, hopes and fears while taping into the ‘seal of the spirit’ does not need the false-equivalency of ‘both-sides’ use charisma as the author at times presents in this book. Monsters and their enablers are real and Hitler, Trump, Rush Limbaugh are not using charisma in the same way as Lincoln, Einstein or Obama did.
There’s an element of society that wants to feel hate of others and feel superior because of that hate and demagogues and religious leaders have tapped into that know that a compelling story is more important than facts, empirical, analysis, logic, or reason. Aristotle taught rhetoric for a reason. Bad actors manipulate us with anecdotal yarns through rhetorical tricks.
Lincoln and Roosevelt were masters at providing yarns that illustrated complex real-world situations into simple terms that everyone could understand as this book mentioned. They also had a grasp of reality and did not ignore facts.
The false-equivalency that both-sides necessitates is destroying democracy such as: “Scientist say vaccines work while Aunt Millie said her nurse told her that RFK says they cause autism if you take Tylenol,” or “Trump kicks out transgender people from the armed services, while some democrat you never heard of wants Harvard to kill Israeli protesters.” The author would have been better served telling the reader the story of why some charismatic monsters is horrible and are destroying society, and by not lumping rational charismatic leaders with emotional manipulators.
There’s an element of society that wants to feel hate of others and feel superior because of that hate and demagogues and religious leaders have tapped into that know that a compelling story is more important than facts, empirical, analysis, logic, or reason. Aristotle taught rhetoric for a reason. Bad actors manipulate us with anecdotal yarns through rhetorical tricks.
Lincoln and Roosevelt were masters at providing yarns that illustrated complex real-world situations into simple terms that everyone could understand as this book mentioned. They also had a grasp of reality and did not ignore facts.
The false-equivalency that both-sides necessitates is destroying democracy such as: “Scientist say vaccines work while Aunt Millie said her nurse told her that RFK says they cause autism if you take Tylenol,” or “Trump kicks out transgender people from the armed services, while some democrat you never heard of wants Harvard to kill Israeli protesters.” The author would have been better served telling the reader the story of why some charismatic monsters is horrible and are destroying society, and by not lumping rational charismatic leaders with emotional manipulators.
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June 18, 2025 Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump by Molly Worthen
Thank you to PRH Christian for the ARC.
Reading this book felt like walking into a lecture hall expecting a dynamic seminar and instead getting a dense PowerPoint with no room for questions. Worthen’s academic background is evident—her research is sweeping and often insightful—but for a book about the magnetic pull of charisma, this lacked, well... charisma. 😬
I don’t necessarily mind a secular lens—sometimes it makes space for thoughtful dialogue—but here, it filtered out key truths that simply can’t be ignored if you’re truly tracing spiritual authority and its impact. There’s a strange irony in a book about “spiritual longing” failing to acknowledge the power of actual spiritual transformation. It all felt just a little too intellectualized, like we were analyzing a fire through a textbook instead of feeling the heat.
What I appreciated:
• The scope is ambitious and bold 📚
• Some of the prose was beautifully phrased ✍🏼
• I walked away with historical connections I hadn’t seen before 🧠
What didn’t work for me:
• Often dense and meandering with too much sauce, not enough focus 🌀
• The spiritual aspects felt minimized or boxed in by bias 🙅♀️
• Missing nuance from the Christian worldview—truth got trimmed ✂️
• Read more like an academic dissertation than something accessible or energizing 🥱
TROPES / THEMES:
• Secular history as lens 🧭
• Charismatic leadership and societal yearning 🧲
• Cultural identity in crisis ⚡
• Political polarization 🔥
Final Thoughts:
Worthen tries to trace how American faith has shifted from pulpit to podium, but in trying to stay above the fray, she overlooks the sacred. The concept is intriguing—charisma is powerful, yes—but this work feels more like a tour through curated case studies than a revelation. If you’re interested in sociopolitical commentary with a historical edge, it might work for you. If you’re hoping for spiritual insight or theological grounding, this book will likely leave you dry.
2 out of 5 stars. And honestly? Could’ve used a little more soul. 🕯️
Thank you to PRH Christian for the ARC.
Reading this book felt like walking into a lecture hall expecting a dynamic seminar and instead getting a dense PowerPoint with no room for questions. Worthen’s academic background is evident—her research is sweeping and often insightful—but for a book about the magnetic pull of charisma, this lacked, well... charisma. 😬
I don’t necessarily mind a secular lens—sometimes it makes space for thoughtful dialogue—but here, it filtered out key truths that simply can’t be ignored if you’re truly tracing spiritual authority and its impact. There’s a strange irony in a book about “spiritual longing” failing to acknowledge the power of actual spiritual transformation. It all felt just a little too intellectualized, like we were analyzing a fire through a textbook instead of feeling the heat.
What I appreciated:
• The scope is ambitious and bold 📚
• Some of the prose was beautifully phrased ✍🏼
• I walked away with historical connections I hadn’t seen before 🧠
What didn’t work for me:
• Often dense and meandering with too much sauce, not enough focus 🌀
• The spiritual aspects felt minimized or boxed in by bias 🙅♀️
• Missing nuance from the Christian worldview—truth got trimmed ✂️
• Read more like an academic dissertation than something accessible or energizing 🥱
TROPES / THEMES:
• Secular history as lens 🧭
• Charismatic leadership and societal yearning 🧲
• Cultural identity in crisis ⚡
• Political polarization 🔥
Final Thoughts:
Worthen tries to trace how American faith has shifted from pulpit to podium, but in trying to stay above the fray, she overlooks the sacred. The concept is intriguing—charisma is powerful, yes—but this work feels more like a tour through curated case studies than a revelation. If you’re interested in sociopolitical commentary with a historical edge, it might work for you. If you’re hoping for spiritual insight or theological grounding, this book will likely leave you dry.
2 out of 5 stars. And honestly? Could’ve used a little more soul. 🕯️
October 8, 2025
An interesting survey of the role of charisma across American history in areas of religion and politics. Charisma is defined from various angles, beginning from ancient Greece as signaling “a relationship across a chasm of power” (xv). The NT developed the word to charisma indicating the idea of grace. But in current secular use charisma has the sense of “the irresistible and sometimes dangerous allure that gives a leader power to move a multitude” (xvii). The author treats charisma in a theological sense—good or bad, but powerful—and the political sense—also good or bad, but powerful (xix). She also notes the paradox that those moved by charisma are attracted to a new way or perspective that opens up fresh vistas of experience and understanding, while at the same time wanting “a sense of control and the security of submission” to a trusted charismatic leader. (369).
The book consists of stories of individuals who spawned movements that did not necessarily make scientific sense but certainly drew large followings. Many were people I’d never heard of, but some were familiar (e.g. Tecumseh, George Washington, George Whitefield, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joseph Smith, Martin Luther King, The Toronto Blessing, Benny Hinn, and of course ending with Trump and his alleged crimes and misdemeanors. One mention was of a Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita (1684-1706) from the Kongo who “blended Christian ideas with older African traditions …” (24). Of course, I’m chasing down the footnote references to Kongo and the references two centuries of Roman Catholic Christianization. [Note: I grew up in the Belgian Congo.] Though I’ve read of the forced conversions, I’d never seen much about slaves in America bringing Christianity, a fact conveniently ignored.
The leadership take-away is really to note the power of vision. Charisma in a leader has to do with his or her offering followers the opportunity of being involved in something bigger than self, but with the security of a credible (or at least perceived as credible) leader. The author of the book doesn’t state her own religious and political assumptions but the selection and treatment of the subjects suggests caution to the “premodern” and unscientific attraction of charism, unless perhaps if you agree with them. Of course, academic professors are expected to be objective, maintain critical distance, and perhaps themselves be among the elite. The book was long, and with lots of stories, but it was an interesting and challenging read.
The book consists of stories of individuals who spawned movements that did not necessarily make scientific sense but certainly drew large followings. Many were people I’d never heard of, but some were familiar (e.g. Tecumseh, George Washington, George Whitefield, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Joseph Smith, Martin Luther King, The Toronto Blessing, Benny Hinn, and of course ending with Trump and his alleged crimes and misdemeanors. One mention was of a Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita (1684-1706) from the Kongo who “blended Christian ideas with older African traditions …” (24). Of course, I’m chasing down the footnote references to Kongo and the references two centuries of Roman Catholic Christianization. [Note: I grew up in the Belgian Congo.] Though I’ve read of the forced conversions, I’d never seen much about slaves in America bringing Christianity, a fact conveniently ignored.
The leadership take-away is really to note the power of vision. Charisma in a leader has to do with his or her offering followers the opportunity of being involved in something bigger than self, but with the security of a credible (or at least perceived as credible) leader. The author of the book doesn’t state her own religious and political assumptions but the selection and treatment of the subjects suggests caution to the “premodern” and unscientific attraction of charism, unless perhaps if you agree with them. Of course, academic professors are expected to be objective, maintain critical distance, and perhaps themselves be among the elite. The book was long, and with lots of stories, but it was an interesting and challenging read.
September 25, 2025
I wanted to read this book because I already spend a lot of time thinking about how religion & spirituality intersect with politics. In Spellbound, Molly Worthen demonstrates that “charisma” is much more than personality or charm but rather a relationship between a leader and his/her followers. Leaders with charisma help followers connect their own lives with bigger cosmic forces, lending them meaning.
Worthen traces the history of charisma in religious and political leaders from the time of the Puritans to the present. She begins with the category of “Prophets”, followed by “Conquerors”, “Agitators”, “Experts”, and finally “Gurus” in the modern era.
For each of these categories Worthen highlights several exemplars and weaves together their stories and core messages. I admit to being fairly puzzled by some of the choices she makes to represent each category. For every slam dunk choice (Andrew Jackson, Joseph Smith) there were at least as many confusing, obscure (at least to me) selections.
Spellbound is written in a highly academic style though it is rarely dull or dry. I do wish she had shorter chapters and that the book had a touch more editing. It was just too long.
Worthen traces the history of charisma in religious and political leaders from the time of the Puritans to the present. She begins with the category of “Prophets”, followed by “Conquerors”, “Agitators”, “Experts”, and finally “Gurus” in the modern era.
For each of these categories Worthen highlights several exemplars and weaves together their stories and core messages. I admit to being fairly puzzled by some of the choices she makes to represent each category. For every slam dunk choice (Andrew Jackson, Joseph Smith) there were at least as many confusing, obscure (at least to me) selections.
Spellbound is written in a highly academic style though it is rarely dull or dry. I do wish she had shorter chapters and that the book had a touch more editing. It was just too long.
July 3, 2025
This was such a fascinating book- I listened to the audio but will probably buy a print copy at some point to reread and have to reference. The author’s writing style is academic, so if that’s not your jam you may get bored. I recently listened to the Christianity Today podcast series, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and this was the perfect follow up that deep dived some of the themes the podcast explored.
December 1, 2025
''The two great crises of the twentieth century, the Great Depression and World War II, drove Americans into the arms of experts and institution-builders. Only catastrophes of this scale, so easily blamed on demagogues and unreason, could temporarily quiet the American tradition of distrusting elites and feed the myth that charismatic leadership was a malady found only in premodern, non-Western societies. But the midcentury experts—the Cold War technocrats and professors, the Washington brain trusts, sensible public intellectuals, and even respectable liberal clergy in the most distinguished pulpits—failed to tell a good story. They could not offer a sense of cosmic assurance anywhere near as satisfying as the old enchantments.
When people say that America has become a more secular country, this is what they are describing: Americans’ trust in and loyalty to established institutions has collapsed. That includes an erosion of trust in established religious organizations, and so it means that fewer people attend church on a regular basis or claim a conventional religious affiliation. It means they feel freer to say they disagree with this or that point in a traditional statement of faith. But the trends that experts describe as “secularization” do not indicate that Americans’ deepest religious impulses are fading. A growing body of scholarship argues that Americans’ desires for a source of existential meaning, and for tribal boundaries, have simply migrated from religious affiliation to partisan political identity.
Consider one cultural barometer: how people feel about prospective spouses and in-laws. In the 1950s, relatively few Americans chose a spouse outside their own religious group, but party affiliation did not matter so much. When pollsters at Gallup asked Americans whether they wanted their daughter to marry a Democrat or a Republican, 72 percent either said they did not care or did not bother to respond. In recent years, the pattern has practically flipped. A 2015 Pew survey found that 39 percent of Americans who have married since 2010 had a spouse from a different religious background. On the other hand, a 2016 survey determined that only 45 percent did not care about the political affiliation of their child’s spouse. According to a 2020 poll, a scant 3.6 percent of Americans are in a “mixed marriage” between Republican and Democrat.
Increasingly, critics on both sides of the partisan divide insult political enemies by decrying their policy views as religions in disguise. Robert Reich, who served as Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, has warned of “the emerging Republican theocracy.” John McWhorter, a linguist at Columbia University, has characterized progressive anti-racist ideology as a “new religion” impervious to scientific evidence. To declare the other side “dogmatic” or “fundamentalist” may be a well-worn way to call your opponent unreasonable, but nowadays even secular commentators seem to realize that they are not using religion as merely a metaphor. Something deeper is going on: something pre-political, and more basic than allegiance to a specific set of scriptures or rituals.
From a global perspective, we are in the middle of an old-fashioned religious revival. Both Christianity and Islam are exploding in the Global South. Religious families tend to have more children, but it’s also true that more and more nonbelievers are converting—not to some respectable, modernized version of faith, but to lively supernatural worldviews full of angels and demons. Worldwide, the proportion of people who identify as atheists—about 7 percent, according to some studies—has been declining for years. In a globalized society like the United States, it would be the height of hubris to prophesy the long-term collapse of traditional religious faith and practice, regardless of current trends in church attendance.
Humans are fundamentally religious, in the sense that we yearn to impose order on the chaos of existence and worship some source of ultimate meaning. These are our instincts. It will always be the practice of evidence-based reason that is highly unnatural for us, no matter how technologically advanced and scientifically informed our society becomes. The Reformation theologian John Calvin put the point starkly when he said that the human mind is “a perpetual forge of idols.” The contemporary Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor offered a gentler explanation in his 1989 book The Sources of the Self. “The aspiration to fullness can be met by building something into one’s life, some pattern of higher action or some meaning; or it can be met by connecting one’s life up with some greater reality or story,” he wrote. “It would be a mistake to think that this kind of formulation has disappeared even for unbelievers in our world.”'
- pg 373'
When people say that America has become a more secular country, this is what they are describing: Americans’ trust in and loyalty to established institutions has collapsed. That includes an erosion of trust in established religious organizations, and so it means that fewer people attend church on a regular basis or claim a conventional religious affiliation. It means they feel freer to say they disagree with this or that point in a traditional statement of faith. But the trends that experts describe as “secularization” do not indicate that Americans’ deepest religious impulses are fading. A growing body of scholarship argues that Americans’ desires for a source of existential meaning, and for tribal boundaries, have simply migrated from religious affiliation to partisan political identity.
Consider one cultural barometer: how people feel about prospective spouses and in-laws. In the 1950s, relatively few Americans chose a spouse outside their own religious group, but party affiliation did not matter so much. When pollsters at Gallup asked Americans whether they wanted their daughter to marry a Democrat or a Republican, 72 percent either said they did not care or did not bother to respond. In recent years, the pattern has practically flipped. A 2015 Pew survey found that 39 percent of Americans who have married since 2010 had a spouse from a different religious background. On the other hand, a 2016 survey determined that only 45 percent did not care about the political affiliation of their child’s spouse. According to a 2020 poll, a scant 3.6 percent of Americans are in a “mixed marriage” between Republican and Democrat.
Increasingly, critics on both sides of the partisan divide insult political enemies by decrying their policy views as religions in disguise. Robert Reich, who served as Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, has warned of “the emerging Republican theocracy.” John McWhorter, a linguist at Columbia University, has characterized progressive anti-racist ideology as a “new religion” impervious to scientific evidence. To declare the other side “dogmatic” or “fundamentalist” may be a well-worn way to call your opponent unreasonable, but nowadays even secular commentators seem to realize that they are not using religion as merely a metaphor. Something deeper is going on: something pre-political, and more basic than allegiance to a specific set of scriptures or rituals.
From a global perspective, we are in the middle of an old-fashioned religious revival. Both Christianity and Islam are exploding in the Global South. Religious families tend to have more children, but it’s also true that more and more nonbelievers are converting—not to some respectable, modernized version of faith, but to lively supernatural worldviews full of angels and demons. Worldwide, the proportion of people who identify as atheists—about 7 percent, according to some studies—has been declining for years. In a globalized society like the United States, it would be the height of hubris to prophesy the long-term collapse of traditional religious faith and practice, regardless of current trends in church attendance.
Humans are fundamentally religious, in the sense that we yearn to impose order on the chaos of existence and worship some source of ultimate meaning. These are our instincts. It will always be the practice of evidence-based reason that is highly unnatural for us, no matter how technologically advanced and scientifically informed our society becomes. The Reformation theologian John Calvin put the point starkly when he said that the human mind is “a perpetual forge of idols.” The contemporary Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor offered a gentler explanation in his 1989 book The Sources of the Self. “The aspiration to fullness can be met by building something into one’s life, some pattern of higher action or some meaning; or it can be met by connecting one’s life up with some greater reality or story,” he wrote. “It would be a mistake to think that this kind of formulation has disappeared even for unbelievers in our world.”'
- pg 373'
December 20, 2025
I came to this book expecting a thesis on charisma (/charismatic figures) and its (/their) impact on history, eventually culminating in Trump. However, most of this book is just a historical survey of American history, moving from one figure that Worthen considers charismatic to another, with only a little analysis at the end of each chapter. Though there is some hint of her thesis in the Introduction, I think the Afterword was a lot clearer and would have preferred it if some of its contents were moved to the front of the book. I am also not convinced of her fivefold division of figures into Prophets, Conquerors, Agitators, Experts, and Gurus. I do not see a substantive difference between, for example, the anti-institutional "Agitator" and "Guru" (Worthen places Trump in the latter; but I would think he fits perfectly well in the former category as well) – I think a more accurate division of figures would simply be between institutionalists and anti-institutionalists. Granted, to her credit, she recognises in the Afterword that history is a "call-and-response" between a "messenger [that] represents hope, grace, and the call to build something new" and "terrifying power" and "apocalyptic destroyers" (Worthen uses a dove and fire [referencing El Greco's Pentecost] to represent each group of figures respectively), with Prophets, Agitators, and Gurus belonging to the latter and the Conquerors and Experts belonging to the former group.
Worthen's thesis consists of three parts (she calls these "paradoxes"): First, "The history of charisma in America has unfolded as a call-and-response between the fire and the dove. Each age of apocalyptic destroyers—the Prophets, the Agitators, and the Gurus—alternated with an age of institution-builders, the Conquerors and the Experts." As stated above, I think this is true, and Worthen has demonstrated this quite clearly with her historical survey.
Second, "humans want a sense of control and the security of submission at the same time." This manifests itself in the human desire for assurance – that is, the confidence that one can control things along with a guarantee that that choice is good. Beginning with the Puritans and their followers searching for assurance of salvation, to Joseph Smith "summoning displays of the Holy Spirit", to Trump's assurance that he will save the country – history does appear to bear this out.
Third, "as America has become a more secular society and modern scientific expertise has risen in cultural status, the human impulse to prefer a meaningful and comforting story over inconvenient facts has persisted. Moreover, displays of religious enthusiasm have only become weirder." Worthen points to a number of "revivals" in American history, involving "trances, healings, barking, shouting, and other varieties of bedlam". Given that most (if not all) of these "revivals" claim the Christian label, writing as a Christian myself, I think this should prompt the church (both American and parts of the global church that has been heavily influenced by American [Pentecostal] Christianity) to reflect and wonder: are these "impulses" of the Spirit truly an outpouring of God, or is it simply a way to deal with inconvenient facts, such as increasing secularisation, that has been exported around the world (through media, missionaries, etc.)?*
Linked to this third part/paradox is also the proposition that "what scholars call “secularization” has been, primarily, a story about traditional institutions losing influence over individuals, not the collapse of Westerners’ spiritual needs." (Introduction) "Humans are fundamentally religious" (Afterword). This, I think, is accurate, and also links to the first two parts of Worthen's thesis – as traditional institutions lose influence, the public look to mavericks and/or their movements (often political and/or spiritual) for their spiritual needs. Worthen ends the book by opining that we are in such a moment today. For example, in the 1950s most Americans would not choose a spouse outside their religious group but party affiliation did not matter as much, while recent Gallup polls show that an increasing percentage of Americans have married spouses from a different religious background, and only "a scant 3.6% of Americans are in a "mixed marriage" between Republican and Democrat." Given the way the historical survey ends (with Trump), I am inclined to agree.
Overall, I am convinced of Worthen's thesis. I just think the book can be better organised and it could even have been an article (or at least, a shorter book).
*For example, Worthen's historical survey covered the Azusa Street "Revival", which many Pentecostals today claim as their heritage. The background of the "revival" entailed tongues becoming a popular sign of the Spirit (cf. the need for "assurance") among Pentecostals because it "posed fewer risks" compared to healings, "which often left the sick and lame uncured". At Azusa, contemporaries report a "high carnival" of "people barking like dogs and shrieking", "women lay on their backs[,] screaming and hoisting their rears ends higher and higher". To the many Pentecostals who today claim the Azusa Street "revival" as their heritage – is this truly how the Spirit of life and peace moves? With people calling on God to heal, and in response to Him not doing so (and thus lacking a visible sign/assurance from God), resorting to "barking" and "shrieking"?
Worthen's thesis consists of three parts (she calls these "paradoxes"): First, "The history of charisma in America has unfolded as a call-and-response between the fire and the dove. Each age of apocalyptic destroyers—the Prophets, the Agitators, and the Gurus—alternated with an age of institution-builders, the Conquerors and the Experts." As stated above, I think this is true, and Worthen has demonstrated this quite clearly with her historical survey.
Second, "humans want a sense of control and the security of submission at the same time." This manifests itself in the human desire for assurance – that is, the confidence that one can control things along with a guarantee that that choice is good. Beginning with the Puritans and their followers searching for assurance of salvation, to Joseph Smith "summoning displays of the Holy Spirit", to Trump's assurance that he will save the country – history does appear to bear this out.
Third, "as America has become a more secular society and modern scientific expertise has risen in cultural status, the human impulse to prefer a meaningful and comforting story over inconvenient facts has persisted. Moreover, displays of religious enthusiasm have only become weirder." Worthen points to a number of "revivals" in American history, involving "trances, healings, barking, shouting, and other varieties of bedlam". Given that most (if not all) of these "revivals" claim the Christian label, writing as a Christian myself, I think this should prompt the church (both American and parts of the global church that has been heavily influenced by American [Pentecostal] Christianity) to reflect and wonder: are these "impulses" of the Spirit truly an outpouring of God, or is it simply a way to deal with inconvenient facts, such as increasing secularisation, that has been exported around the world (through media, missionaries, etc.)?*
Linked to this third part/paradox is also the proposition that "what scholars call “secularization” has been, primarily, a story about traditional institutions losing influence over individuals, not the collapse of Westerners’ spiritual needs." (Introduction) "Humans are fundamentally religious" (Afterword). This, I think, is accurate, and also links to the first two parts of Worthen's thesis – as traditional institutions lose influence, the public look to mavericks and/or their movements (often political and/or spiritual) for their spiritual needs. Worthen ends the book by opining that we are in such a moment today. For example, in the 1950s most Americans would not choose a spouse outside their religious group but party affiliation did not matter as much, while recent Gallup polls show that an increasing percentage of Americans have married spouses from a different religious background, and only "a scant 3.6% of Americans are in a "mixed marriage" between Republican and Democrat." Given the way the historical survey ends (with Trump), I am inclined to agree.
Overall, I am convinced of Worthen's thesis. I just think the book can be better organised and it could even have been an article (or at least, a shorter book).
*For example, Worthen's historical survey covered the Azusa Street "Revival", which many Pentecostals today claim as their heritage. The background of the "revival" entailed tongues becoming a popular sign of the Spirit (cf. the need for "assurance") among Pentecostals because it "posed fewer risks" compared to healings, "which often left the sick and lame uncured". At Azusa, contemporaries report a "high carnival" of "people barking like dogs and shrieking", "women lay on their backs[,] screaming and hoisting their rears ends higher and higher". To the many Pentecostals who today claim the Azusa Street "revival" as their heritage – is this truly how the Spirit of life and peace moves? With people calling on God to heal, and in response to Him not doing so (and thus lacking a visible sign/assurance from God), resorting to "barking" and "shrieking"?
August 16, 2025
This is such an interesting and informative book. What Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne did to explain the American evangelical church, that’s what Worthington’s book did to explain American history.
And she brings receipts. There’s 50 pages of end notes. 😳
She covers so much ground in this book AND manages to make it readable. Great work. 10/10
And she brings receipts. There’s 50 pages of end notes. 😳
She covers so much ground in this book AND manages to make it readable. Great work. 10/10
July 6, 2025
This is book has a lot of information and is a big help of putting the pieces together in where we are today.
January 2, 2025
Reading this book truly felt like taking a semester's worth of college courses – in all the best and not as great ways. The amount that Worthen covers is truly astonishing, and I do feel that I learned a lot. However, where there are moments where she phrases something complex absolutely perfectly, it is very, very easy to, for lack of a better term, get lost in the sauce. While the book has a clear focus on tracing charisma and charismatic figures, at a page level, it feels very meandering and often hard to track, especially with the amount of detail that doesn't always make clear what it's referring back to. Overall, I think I would love to take this class.– but the reading experience was perhaps less enjoyable for me.
January 31, 2025
This is college-textbook worthy, with a deep dive into the idea of charisma from the puritans to Trump. There are so many little-known historical moments and players, but as history goes on, it becomes easier to pick out patterns, see repetitions, and understand how we got to where we are. There are so many aspects to charisma, from religion to politics and celebrity. I went into this expecting a lighter read, but it was very dense and nuanced, and definitely an investment of time and attention for anyone who is interested in a scholarly view of history. That said, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how charisma has shaped America since the Puritans.
November 16, 2025
A well-researched and innovative history of the United States illustrating how the dominant anxieties and fears of different eras found expression in stories and support for charismatic leaders that articulated and amplified those dominant themes. Molly Worthen’s deep and original insight is to see the default setting of Americans as religious with sporadic outbreaks of support for leadership that relies upon evidence-based reason. Therefore President Trump is the latest variation in a long, fascinating, and often weird history of American charismatic leaders.
“… the heart of charisma is not charm. It’s a kind of storytelling. It’s a relationship between the leader and followers, premised on the leader’s ability to invite followers into a new, transcendent narrative that connects their individual, puny, private chaos and suffering and frustration to a much bigger story with a meaning well beyond themselves and gives them simultaneously a sense of some agency, some idea where it’s all headed, but not too much control; also provides a sense of security, having turned over the reins to a person to forces bigger than yourself.
I think the reason it’s polarizing is because charisma resides in the story. So, if a leader is inviting you into a narrative that makes better sense of your life than the other narratives on offer in the culture, and you like the role he’s offering you, then you’re probably going to be attracted. But if instead he or she has written you out of the story or cast you as a villain, you are going to find that individual pretty repulsive, regardless of their public speaking skills.”
From Spellbound:
Page 372: But the trends that experts describe as “secularization“ do not indicate that Americans’ deepest religious impulses are fading. A growing body of scholarship argues that Americans’ desires for a source of existential meaning, and for tribal boundaries, have simply migrated from religious affiliation to partisan political identity.
Page 373: Humans are fundamentally religious, in the sense that we yearn to impose order on the chaos of existence and worship some source of ultimate meaning. These are our instincts. It will always be the practice of evidence-based reason that is highly unnatural for us, no matter how technologically advanced and scientifically informed our society becomes. The reformation theologian John Calvin put the point starkly when he said that the human mind is “a perpetual forge of idols“. The contemporary Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor offered a gentler explanation in his 1989 book “The Sources of the Self”. “The aspiration to fullness can be met by building something into one’s life, some pattern of higher action or some meaning; or it can be met by connecting one’s life up with some greater reality or story,“ he wrote. “It would be a mistake to think that this kind of formulation has disappeared even for unbelievers in our world.“
Page 374: The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell them themselves.
“America is a land of paradox, one that separates church and state but invests its politics with a religious fervor and looks every four years to elect the new Messiah.”—Carl Trueman
“… the heart of charisma is not charm. It’s a kind of storytelling. It’s a relationship between the leader and followers, premised on the leader’s ability to invite followers into a new, transcendent narrative that connects their individual, puny, private chaos and suffering and frustration to a much bigger story with a meaning well beyond themselves and gives them simultaneously a sense of some agency, some idea where it’s all headed, but not too much control; also provides a sense of security, having turned over the reins to a person to forces bigger than yourself.
I think the reason it’s polarizing is because charisma resides in the story. So, if a leader is inviting you into a narrative that makes better sense of your life than the other narratives on offer in the culture, and you like the role he’s offering you, then you’re probably going to be attracted. But if instead he or she has written you out of the story or cast you as a villain, you are going to find that individual pretty repulsive, regardless of their public speaking skills.”
From Spellbound:
Page 372: But the trends that experts describe as “secularization“ do not indicate that Americans’ deepest religious impulses are fading. A growing body of scholarship argues that Americans’ desires for a source of existential meaning, and for tribal boundaries, have simply migrated from religious affiliation to partisan political identity.
Page 373: Humans are fundamentally religious, in the sense that we yearn to impose order on the chaos of existence and worship some source of ultimate meaning. These are our instincts. It will always be the practice of evidence-based reason that is highly unnatural for us, no matter how technologically advanced and scientifically informed our society becomes. The reformation theologian John Calvin put the point starkly when he said that the human mind is “a perpetual forge of idols“. The contemporary Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor offered a gentler explanation in his 1989 book “The Sources of the Self”. “The aspiration to fullness can be met by building something into one’s life, some pattern of higher action or some meaning; or it can be met by connecting one’s life up with some greater reality or story,“ he wrote. “It would be a mistake to think that this kind of formulation has disappeared even for unbelievers in our world.“
Page 374: The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell them themselves.
“America is a land of paradox, one that separates church and state but invests its politics with a religious fervor and looks every four years to elect the new Messiah.”—Carl Trueman
July 20, 2025
In a land skeptical of authority figures and institutions, to whom will people listen, and why?
In Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History From the Puritans to Donald Trump (galley received as part of an early review program), Molly Worthen considers American history in terms of charisma and charismatic leadership.
The author considered both the development of the theory of charisma in the social sciences over the past century along with considering applications of that theory from Anne Hutchinson to Donald Trump.
Her journey through American history by means of considering charisma proves quite profitable. Sure, the journey involves a lot of people who had charisma and attracted people to their cause through their personal magnetism and speech. But the author also did well at showing how it did not need to be so personal, considering, for instance, how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was able to grow well beyond just the work and efforts of Joseph Smith.
The author also did well at considering what happens in America once there was consciousness of charisma, and the “anti-charisma” backlash of the post-WWII period on account of totalitarianism and its effects. This is well typified by Robert McNamara and the “egghead” approach of replacing charisma with expertise. And then Vietnam blew that all up.
In this way the author well characterized how we got here: the ways in which Americans are pulled toward charismatic people and approaches to belief, especially when such people and institutions speak to the situation and need of the moment. Even experts have to show some charisma. The author made the somewhat curious decision to frame the current moment in terms of the Toronto Blessing of 1994, and tracing the charismatic impulse in religion and American culture, and especially in how religion has affected American culture, in the past thirty or so years. There are many points of connection between Pentecostalism and the current religious and socio-political moment, especially with the “New Apostolic Reformation” crowd and what they are all about (all of which the author well addressed), but not sure the connection with the Toronto Blessing experience was the strongest “hook” for explanation.
What to do about this theme within American history is a different question entirely, of course. But the exploration of the theme is profitable, for American history has been defined by those who have exerted charisma to accomplish their own ends, for better and for worse, and it very much seems as if that trend will continue.
In Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History From the Puritans to Donald Trump (galley received as part of an early review program), Molly Worthen considers American history in terms of charisma and charismatic leadership.
The author considered both the development of the theory of charisma in the social sciences over the past century along with considering applications of that theory from Anne Hutchinson to Donald Trump.
Her journey through American history by means of considering charisma proves quite profitable. Sure, the journey involves a lot of people who had charisma and attracted people to their cause through their personal magnetism and speech. But the author also did well at showing how it did not need to be so personal, considering, for instance, how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was able to grow well beyond just the work and efforts of Joseph Smith.
The author also did well at considering what happens in America once there was consciousness of charisma, and the “anti-charisma” backlash of the post-WWII period on account of totalitarianism and its effects. This is well typified by Robert McNamara and the “egghead” approach of replacing charisma with expertise. And then Vietnam blew that all up.
In this way the author well characterized how we got here: the ways in which Americans are pulled toward charismatic people and approaches to belief, especially when such people and institutions speak to the situation and need of the moment. Even experts have to show some charisma. The author made the somewhat curious decision to frame the current moment in terms of the Toronto Blessing of 1994, and tracing the charismatic impulse in religion and American culture, and especially in how religion has affected American culture, in the past thirty or so years. There are many points of connection between Pentecostalism and the current religious and socio-political moment, especially with the “New Apostolic Reformation” crowd and what they are all about (all of which the author well addressed), but not sure the connection with the Toronto Blessing experience was the strongest “hook” for explanation.
What to do about this theme within American history is a different question entirely, of course. But the exploration of the theme is profitable, for American history has been defined by those who have exerted charisma to accomplish their own ends, for better and for worse, and it very much seems as if that trend will continue.
October 22, 2024
I chose Spellbound by Molly Worthen for review because of my love for Christianity (I’m a Christian) and my growing interest in American history and politics in recent years. Spellbound traces the origins, rise, and dangerous influence of various forms of charisma America has seen till today. While much of this term’s notoriety is doubtlessly associated with Christian charisma, she argues that its scope is much broader, not confined to Christianity alone. Prophets, military leaders, agitators, experts, and spiritual/philosophical gurus can all possess charismatic qualities. Another thing is that the term ‘charisma’ isn’t what we commonly think it is; rather, it has a long history (dating back to the ancient Greeks) and profound and complex psychological meanings. It’s a power linking a leader with their followers that defies reason.
America, often described as a “city on a hill,” is a deeply religious nation, founded by Puritan Christians in the seventeenth century. Consequently, they treat God as the nation’s invisible sovereign, and Americans fear disobeying Him. Charismatic leaders invariably cause harm, making it vital to exercise vigil on newcomers. By intervening in time, it’s possible to prevent their rise proactively. This book aims to open Americans’ eyes to the dangers of blindly following such charlatans.
Spellbound provides a rich, well-researched history of the USA over the (nearly) last four centuries (1634–now), in which charismatic leaders have been culled out for detailed study. As I am a lover of American history, I enjoyed reading it. It’s a scholarly book on the subject and a protracted attack on charisma. The pics inside add to its appeal and the nearly 100-page long Notes section toward the end lends a degree of authority to it. The author’s narrative skills are excellent. These features taken together make the book stand out.
That said, the book does have shortcomings. The version I reviewed has language and other errors. I also wished the narratives had been more concise/compact in places.
Taking the praiseworthy points and the shortcomings together, I award the book a full 5 stars because the former far outweigh the latter.
I recommend it to all adult Americans eligible to vote, as well as to students and professionals in history, politics, political science, religion, and American studies.
America, often described as a “city on a hill,” is a deeply religious nation, founded by Puritan Christians in the seventeenth century. Consequently, they treat God as the nation’s invisible sovereign, and Americans fear disobeying Him. Charismatic leaders invariably cause harm, making it vital to exercise vigil on newcomers. By intervening in time, it’s possible to prevent their rise proactively. This book aims to open Americans’ eyes to the dangers of blindly following such charlatans.
Spellbound provides a rich, well-researched history of the USA over the (nearly) last four centuries (1634–now), in which charismatic leaders have been culled out for detailed study. As I am a lover of American history, I enjoyed reading it. It’s a scholarly book on the subject and a protracted attack on charisma. The pics inside add to its appeal and the nearly 100-page long Notes section toward the end lends a degree of authority to it. The author’s narrative skills are excellent. These features taken together make the book stand out.
That said, the book does have shortcomings. The version I reviewed has language and other errors. I also wished the narratives had been more concise/compact in places.
Taking the praiseworthy points and the shortcomings together, I award the book a full 5 stars because the former far outweigh the latter.
I recommend it to all adult Americans eligible to vote, as well as to students and professionals in history, politics, political science, religion, and American studies.
July 2, 2025
Really interesting study of the role of charisma in American history. MW makes a couple of big arguments in this book. She defines charisma not as mere charm, but as a leader's abilities to create a story within which people find meaning and to position themselves as the conduit or main interpreter of that story. Charisma requires a sense of the historical moment and what people are lacking and yearning for.
Charisma, however, is not a fixed quality; it shifts with the context. The biggest shift that MW documents in this book is from a publicly religious society to a more secular, modern one. Charismatic leaders have always thrived as anti-institutionalists that give people both a sense of meaning and order in the universe but also a freedom to think and feel outside of conventions and structures. With the rise of a modern, professional, highly structured, expert-driven society in the 20th century (also an ostensibly secular one), attaching oneself to a charismatic movement is a form of revolt. MW makes a good case that this kind of seeking for higher, unstructured meaning will never go away, even in an era when religious institutions are weak. That's why figures who tell the best story (regardless of facts) and position themselves as the revealers and interpreters of hidden truths still pull people in, whether they are religious or not.
The subtextual mission of this book is to get historians to take religious more seriously, treating it not as epiphenomenal of class or as something human beings will simply grow out of, but as a profound part of humanity itself. I'm pretty secular myself, but it's clear that secular people can also have de facto religious commitments to things they consider sacred. I was actually a TA for MW in graduate school, and I could see the continuity of her religious history class with her arguments here.
My only criticism of this book is that it's a little long, and occasionally it meanders a bit. There are a lot of examples of charisma in here, and it isn't always clear what the rationale is for choosing one person or another. That leads to a sense of a lack of focus at times, even though overall I found it really interesting.
Charisma, however, is not a fixed quality; it shifts with the context. The biggest shift that MW documents in this book is from a publicly religious society to a more secular, modern one. Charismatic leaders have always thrived as anti-institutionalists that give people both a sense of meaning and order in the universe but also a freedom to think and feel outside of conventions and structures. With the rise of a modern, professional, highly structured, expert-driven society in the 20th century (also an ostensibly secular one), attaching oneself to a charismatic movement is a form of revolt. MW makes a good case that this kind of seeking for higher, unstructured meaning will never go away, even in an era when religious institutions are weak. That's why figures who tell the best story (regardless of facts) and position themselves as the revealers and interpreters of hidden truths still pull people in, whether they are religious or not.
The subtextual mission of this book is to get historians to take religious more seriously, treating it not as epiphenomenal of class or as something human beings will simply grow out of, but as a profound part of humanity itself. I'm pretty secular myself, but it's clear that secular people can also have de facto religious commitments to things they consider sacred. I was actually a TA for MW in graduate school, and I could see the continuity of her religious history class with her arguments here.
My only criticism of this book is that it's a little long, and occasionally it meanders a bit. There are a lot of examples of charisma in here, and it isn't always clear what the rationale is for choosing one person or another. That leads to a sense of a lack of focus at times, even though overall I found it really interesting.
June 11, 2025
In Spellbound, Molly Worthen begins by zooming in on Anne Hutchinson, a 17th-century Puritan whose care for women during childbirth grew to an uncanny authority over crowds. Throughout history, humanity has sought transcendence, either through outrageous manifestations of power or through political influence. Charisma is agile, so it shows up within its historical context in ways that are shaped by the prevailing culture.
Worthen identified five distinct eras in which successful leaders show up as:
Prophets
Conquerors
Agitators
Experts
Gurus
While the pendulum swung from era to era, it wasn’t until the 20th century that sociologist Max Weber borrowed the word “charisma” from the biblical text and used it in academic circles to describe some relational power that invites potential followers into a shared story. I’ve never heard anyone describe a work of non-fiction as “character-driven,” but that’s what kept me turning pages to discover which surprising personality from history (and from the newsfeed!) would make an appearance next. In Spellbound, the stories of Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey, George Whitefield, Napoleon, and Steve Jobs find common ground with the Jesus People, George Washington, and Adolf Hitler.
While church attendance and the outward expression of religious devotion may ebb and flow, humanity has never lost its yearning for ultimate meaning and willingness to find it in some charismatic relationship. As Worthen has so wisely observed, “The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell to themselves.”
Worthen identified five distinct eras in which successful leaders show up as:
Prophets
Conquerors
Agitators
Experts
Gurus
While the pendulum swung from era to era, it wasn’t until the 20th century that sociologist Max Weber borrowed the word “charisma” from the biblical text and used it in academic circles to describe some relational power that invites potential followers into a shared story. I’ve never heard anyone describe a work of non-fiction as “character-driven,” but that’s what kept me turning pages to discover which surprising personality from history (and from the newsfeed!) would make an appearance next. In Spellbound, the stories of Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey, George Whitefield, Napoleon, and Steve Jobs find common ground with the Jesus People, George Washington, and Adolf Hitler.
While church attendance and the outward expression of religious devotion may ebb and flow, humanity has never lost its yearning for ultimate meaning and willingness to find it in some charismatic relationship. As Worthen has so wisely observed, “The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell to themselves.”
April 1, 2025
Rating: 5/5 stars.
I'm thankful to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC.
Spellbound is an incredibly fascinating book that expertly delves into the concept of modern charisma. The author’s writing style is superb, drawing you in without ever feeling dry, even when exploring dense, historical topics. Worthen’s ability to go in-depth while keeping things both entertaining and informative is rare and refreshing in this genre.
I particularly appreciated the historical perspective on charisma, especially the classification of charismatic individuals over time. The vivid descriptions, even in non-narrative sections, really bring the history to life, making every decision about the structure of the book feel intentional and logical. The way it intertwines real stories and actual people is engaging and thought-provoking.
The inclusion of religious elements adds a fascinating dimension to the exploration of human nature, making it even more complex and compelling. This book paints a great examination of those who gain leadership based on their charisma, making it especially relevant in today’s political climate.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, as it offers both an enlightening historical perspective and a deep dive into human nature and leadership in a way that feels urgent and necessary for understanding the world we live in today.
I'm thankful to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC.
Spellbound is an incredibly fascinating book that expertly delves into the concept of modern charisma. The author’s writing style is superb, drawing you in without ever feeling dry, even when exploring dense, historical topics. Worthen’s ability to go in-depth while keeping things both entertaining and informative is rare and refreshing in this genre.
I particularly appreciated the historical perspective on charisma, especially the classification of charismatic individuals over time. The vivid descriptions, even in non-narrative sections, really bring the history to life, making every decision about the structure of the book feel intentional and logical. The way it intertwines real stories and actual people is engaging and thought-provoking.
The inclusion of religious elements adds a fascinating dimension to the exploration of human nature, making it even more complex and compelling. This book paints a great examination of those who gain leadership based on their charisma, making it especially relevant in today’s political climate.
I highly recommend this book to everyone, as it offers both an enlightening historical perspective and a deep dive into human nature and leadership in a way that feels urgent and necessary for understanding the world we live in today.
April 30, 2025
This book has about 20% of its pages taken up with detailed notes. That might put the average reader off ~ but it shouldn’t. You don’t need to read the notes to absolutely get and enjoy the content of this book. If, however, as you’re reading it, you think that a person being discussed sounds interesting and you’d like to know more, the follow up information is all there for you.
The content might seem academic, and it’s not an ‘easy’ read, but it’s well within anyone’s capabilities if they have an interest in the concept of charisma, how we recognise it, and how it can be used by people ~ for good or ill.
There are evangelical Christians, political leaders, media celebrities and each is examined to understand how they have created their ‘persona’ and what they do with it. The title mentions Trump but I wasn’t particularly interested in him as I don’t see him as charismatic as much as manipulative and controlling. But the chapters on the early female preachers (including one who thought the deaths of her children was God freeing her up to preach 😲) and especially Oprah Winfrey were really fascinating and there were a few I want to learn more about.
I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley
The content might seem academic, and it’s not an ‘easy’ read, but it’s well within anyone’s capabilities if they have an interest in the concept of charisma, how we recognise it, and how it can be used by people ~ for good or ill.
There are evangelical Christians, political leaders, media celebrities and each is examined to understand how they have created their ‘persona’ and what they do with it. The title mentions Trump but I wasn’t particularly interested in him as I don’t see him as charismatic as much as manipulative and controlling. But the chapters on the early female preachers (including one who thought the deaths of her children was God freeing her up to preach 😲) and especially Oprah Winfrey were really fascinating and there were a few I want to learn more about.
I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley
November 28, 2025
A tour de force through most American history with the goal of understanding what is "charisma". A gift of the spirit (as in the days of the apostles)? Or a magnetic power between a leader and his/her followers? The author might say that both are true, because they both use one very important concept: the narrative. Its always about a story that is used to draw lines, to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong etc etc. The book explores this chronologically, from puritan mystics to the corporate gurus and ofc president Donald Trump.
This whole concept of charisma is based on a very specific paradox that seem straight out of the ancient world. Every movement is marked by people who think they are in control of their own destinies, that they know how things really are, yet each and every time they find himself in submission under someone urging them to be free. You could say that one's charisma is successful as long as it manages to provide this feeling. How exactly? Well, through a story. In this sense all charisma is religious in one way or another
This whole concept of charisma is based on a very specific paradox that seem straight out of the ancient world. Every movement is marked by people who think they are in control of their own destinies, that they know how things really are, yet each and every time they find himself in submission under someone urging them to be free. You could say that one's charisma is successful as long as it manages to provide this feeling. How exactly? Well, through a story. In this sense all charisma is religious in one way or another
July 28, 2025
This is an extremely good, and refreshing, historical study. It's almost a full 5 stars for me.
I love how Worthen balances both religious and political narratives, and ably demonstrates the fascinating areas of overlap between them (for example, tactics used during revivals in the 1800s, while secular science was researching the impact of "magnetism" on public speaking). The reader of this book also gains a broad perspective on American history, beginning right from the colonial period.
I may do a video review of this at some point, but for now I can say I highly recommend it. I only wish Worthen had done a bit more explicit interpretation in the opening and closing chapters, as I think there are profound insights to be gained from her angle on our historical situation that need much more reflection and application to our current moment.
I love how Worthen balances both religious and political narratives, and ably demonstrates the fascinating areas of overlap between them (for example, tactics used during revivals in the 1800s, while secular science was researching the impact of "magnetism" on public speaking). The reader of this book also gains a broad perspective on American history, beginning right from the colonial period.
I may do a video review of this at some point, but for now I can say I highly recommend it. I only wish Worthen had done a bit more explicit interpretation in the opening and closing chapters, as I think there are profound insights to be gained from her angle on our historical situation that need much more reflection and application to our current moment.
October 2, 2025
This was definitely better than I expected - I especially liked how much time she spent on Joseph Smith and appreciated the tone and focus when she wrote about him. Fascinating to see the people before him she pointed out who built up the cultural trends that prepared the perfect cultural situation and moment for the message he brought.
As a side note - it appears the author is NOT a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but she is very respectful in the way she writes about the restoration. As is typical, though - I wish she'd use the correct name of the church more often (above) instead of the well-known and outdated pejorative label "Mormon".
Overall, a fascinating book and a fun look at some of the most magnetic leaders of the last 400 years. The book also contains useful comments on the difference between charisma & charm.
As a side note - it appears the author is NOT a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but she is very respectful in the way she writes about the restoration. As is typical, though - I wish she'd use the correct name of the church more often (above) instead of the well-known and outdated pejorative label "Mormon".
Overall, a fascinating book and a fun look at some of the most magnetic leaders of the last 400 years. The book also contains useful comments on the difference between charisma & charm.
July 1, 2025
Worthen traces the American cycle of losing faith in their institutions and leaders, picking a charismatic outsider, who better listens to/magnifies the masses. This history weaves context into the outliers showing where they are special and where they are part of their time and place.
Why I started this book: Mentioned in one of my book podcasts, I immediately downloaded it from Audible and started.
Why I finished it: Fascinating and poignant, as she described how America has always swung from institutions to chaos, with charismatic leaders railing against religious and political authority, especially during times when the needs of the many are being ignored for the wants of the few. Interesting take on American history.
Why I started this book: Mentioned in one of my book podcasts, I immediately downloaded it from Audible and started.
Why I finished it: Fascinating and poignant, as she described how America has always swung from institutions to chaos, with charismatic leaders railing against religious and political authority, especially during times when the needs of the many are being ignored for the wants of the few. Interesting take on American history.
October 1, 2025
Some of material of Spellbound makes it wondering many times what the book is doing. And at the time, there are some m an y very good pieces. We get things to keep this book going abount things.
The book also gave us must of the things of the parts of Christianity from one spots where Jesus ws doing in times of talking and in and taking people to Jesus.
The book tells us that people today can do somethings to change the manyu (many, many) themes of we wonder of Jesus.
It's a good book for any group people who want to understand Jesus and the Bible in a the weeks we have. It's good to have these groups talking around all of us from a church or other churches.
The book also gave us must of the things of the parts of Christianity from one spots where Jesus ws doing in times of talking and in and taking people to Jesus.
The book tells us that people today can do somethings to change the manyu (many, many) themes of we wonder of Jesus.
It's a good book for any group people who want to understand Jesus and the Bible in a the weeks we have. It's good to have these groups talking around all of us from a church or other churches.
October 16, 2025
"Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship." - David Foster Wallace
Molly Worthen zeros in on this human axiom and provides a rich tapestry of examples of those who have been particularly adept at channeling it toward the achievement of their desires ("charisma"). It's a fascinating process that presents itself in a myriad of different forms, but at the end of the day, we all seek connection to a compelling story that has the potential to imbue our life with meaning.
Molly Worthen zeros in on this human axiom and provides a rich tapestry of examples of those who have been particularly adept at channeling it toward the achievement of their desires ("charisma"). It's a fascinating process that presents itself in a myriad of different forms, but at the end of the day, we all seek connection to a compelling story that has the potential to imbue our life with meaning.
May 26, 2025
A very, very interesting book which narrows down and attempts to define what charisma is. However, and maybe even better, are the individual tales of movers and shakers (or quakers, upstarts, and just good old fashioned solid people and how they used their charisma. I think the author argues effectively that the charismatic leader has rushed to fill in the void left by losing so much of our faith. All in all pretty cool.
October 19, 2025
Worthen's trek through American history through the lense of charism thoroughly fascinated me. She handled complex, nuanced subjects with care, tracing a through-line that - although it does not connect directly form event to event - showcases just how these groups and individuals have so thoroughly shaped American history, leaving the door wide open for the situation we find ourselves in today. I strongly recommend this book.
December 14, 2025
Such a good and interesting tour of the history of the particularities of American meaning-making. Worthen’s book explored the extreme and pervasive ways we don’t really live into Enlightenment-style rationality like we believe we do, but instead look for stories that provide “the right balance of personal agency and surrender to a great cause.” Takeaway: Americans are a quirky bunch!
“The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship and the stories they tell themselves.”
“The best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship and the stories they tell themselves.”
July 27, 2025
Big survey of American religious and political history and how charismatic leadership has tapped into people's longing to belong to a bigger story. It's a large book but relevant to nearly everyone. Whether approaching the book from a religious, political, sociological lens, you will find some compelling connections that make you view America's historical arc in a different way.
August 1, 2025
"people in anguish seek a savior"
"the best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell themselves."
there's something elusive and unavoidable in the water of american history and worthen puts her finger right on it. this was a captivating read. worthen's analysis of charisma, movements, and afterword of "paradoxes" need to be chewed on.
"the best way to understand people is to examine the idols they worship, and the stories they tell themselves."
there's something elusive and unavoidable in the water of american history and worthen puts her finger right on it. this was a captivating read. worthen's analysis of charisma, movements, and afterword of "paradoxes" need to be chewed on.
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July 16, 2025This was not what I expected (in a good way)! (Mainly in that Trump felt more like a postscript than the point of the book.) As always, Worthen's work is excellent. I liked how she thought about charisma as a concept and the mix of typological and intellectual history.
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