The theopolitical reasons for legitimate power are associated with the figure of charisma. In fact, charisma is one of those terms derived from charis, which, while being scarcely used in the ancient world, was appropriated by the Christian language, particularly by Paul of Tarsus. It was only much later that it was transferred into the language of politics, chiefly, but not only, by Max Weber. Clifford Geertz describes charisma as a manifestation of ‘the inherent sacredness of sovereign power’ and makes particular mention of the inherently theopolitical character of political power that is apparent in charisma.

Indeed, the theopolitical character of power has been compromised in the discursive journey of the word charisma. Many different aspects related to the sacredness of power are indicated within the meaning of a word, which is far from ever being fixed. In what follows, I will pursue those meanings and in particular the theopolitical transferences of meanings between the theological and the political discursive registers. In the semantic trajectory of the signifier charisma, if Paul marked a first point of inflection by appropriating it to Christian discourse, Weber marked a second and, so far, almost definitive point of inflection by appropriating it to the field of political theory and sociology. The aim of these pages, after briefly tracing the genealogy of the meaning of charisma, is to reinscribe the political idea of charisma in its theological locus, that is, to discover the political charisma as a figure of the divine.

The Genealogy of Charisma: A Crooked Line of Meaning

The word charis was already present in Greek literature and mythology. It can be found in Homer's Iliad (18, 382–8), where it is used to describe both a personification of grace and beauty and the wife of Hephaestus. Also in the Iliad (Il. 14.269), Pasiphae, who is destined to be the wife of Sleep, is called one of the younger charites. The plural charites occurs several times in the Homeric poems (Od. 18.194). Hesiod (Hes. Th. 945) for his part, in the Theogony names Aglaia as the wife of Hephaestus, and describes her as the youngest of the charites.