The Charisma of Ideas and Personal vs. Sacral Authority in Vineyard Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz

This article applies the terms “charisma of ideas” (Winfried Gebhardt) as well as “personal authority” and “sacral authority” (Heinrich Popitz) to the German-speaking branch of the neo-charismatic Vineyard Church to reveal its uniqueness within the broader international organization. Theoretically, it moves beyond a traditional Weberian focus on charismatic leadership to focus on ideas ascribed with charisma and the role of authority in disseminating them. Empirically, it reveals that individual communication with God, perceiving Jesus as a role model, and cultivating an intellectual self-image are such central ideas. Both personal and sacral authority come into play in communicating them within and beyond the religious organization.

Bonhoeffer’s “Religionless Christianity” and the Evangelical Rejection of “Religion”:A Comparison

The following article compares Bonhoeffer’s writings on “religionless Christianity” with the opinion, common among evangelicals, that Christianity is not about “religion,” based on a study of members of the Vineyard Church in T.M. Lurhmann’s When God Talks Back. While there are important similarities between Bonhoeffer and the evangelical rejection of religion, the article argues that the two theologies part ways on a number of points, most importantly concerning the theology of suffering.

A Theology of Wisdom as the imago Dei: A Response to When God Talks Back

This article provides an Evangelical response to When God Talks Back by Tanya Luhrmann. Her book gives a unique perspective on Charismatic practices and provides a way of understanding the Vineyard Church, from a psychological anthropologist’s perspective. This response contends that, despite some areas of agreement, Luhrmann’s reasons for the Vineyard’s practices are inadequate, and argues that the Vineyard’s discernment practices echo a biblical wisdom tradition. Not only this but also that this tradition is based upon a different interpretation of the image of God, which understands the imago Dei as a ‘wisdom-image’. These ideas are developed through the exegesis of Gen. 1:1, 26; Prov. 3:19–20; 8:22–23; and selected passages in Colossians, in order to give support for this interpretation of the imago Dei, to engage with Luhrmann, and to justify the Vineyard Church’s practices.