Routinization of Charismatic Authority in American Zen Communities

• In Event: 50461 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Religious Organizations & Religion in Place

Abstract

Zen is the oldest convert tradition in American Buddhism when their communities were established in the 1960s and 70s as the first generation of native-born Zen practitioners were authorized by their Japanese teachers to be teachers of their Zen communities (Seager 2002). The long history of American Zen communities offers an opportunity to examine changes in Buddhist communities in the United States. This paper is part of a larger study investigating the ways in which Zen communities in the United States have responded to the changing religious needs of Americans. A dataset of American Zen centers has been constructed using publicly available information about each organization. The goal is to examine the variation in the degree of institutionalization among Zen communities in the United States and identify possible explanations. This paper will focus on the varying degree of institutionalization that results from routinization of charismatic authority. According to Weber’s theory of routinization, Zen communities that are led by successors of their founder would have undergone higher degree of routinization and thus display greater degree of organizational development. It is found that Zen communities that are no longer led by their founder are significantly more likely to have higher degree of organizational development, supporting the routinization theory. The implication of the findings will be discussed.

Author

• Rebecca S.K. Li, The College of New Jersey