RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP

Characteristics, Traits and Attributes of Religious Leadership



Characteristics, Traits and Attributes of Religious Leadership

Introduction

Leadership is claimed, exercised, and contested in religious groups in many of the same ways that it is in other social situations. But religious leadership also has distinctive features, particularly its appeal to supernatural forces for unsurpassable legitimization. Religious leaders draw legitimacy from diverse resources, including direct interaction with what they identify and others acknowledge as the sacred, possession and interpretation of authoritative collections of traditions in either oral or written form, specific ritual competencies, formation and interpretation of religious law, and communication of moral insight. This ...