The Encyclopedia of World Religions

80 S charismatic movement

Practices, such as speaking in tongues and faith healing, spread among both Roman Catholics and Protestants. Church leaders were sometimes suspi cious, and noncharismatic members often looked askance at charismatic practices. Nevertheless, after the initial enthusiasm died down, charismatic groups have managed to maintain small but dedi cated followings. In the 20th century, Pentecostalism grew more rapidly than any other Christian movement, espe cially in the Southern hemisphere. Similarly, the charismatic movement was not confined to North America. Charismatic practices made their way to Britain and the European continent. They have also had a large impact on Christians in places as widely separated as Nigeria in Africa, Korea in East Asia, and far northern Canada among Inuit (Eskimo). Today, scholars also identify charismatic move ments in other religions, such as B UDDHISM . Clearly, Buddhists do not attribute charismatic behavior to the Holy Spirit, but some of them have the same sort of practices. For example, in a Buddhist com munity in Taiwan known as Ciji, members, espe cially women, sometimes weep uncontrollably when they recite Buddhist scriptures ( see SCRIPTURE , B UDDHIST ) or the name of a B UDDHA or BODHISATTVA . They also sometimes weep when viewing a statue of the Buddha. Charismatic movements sometimes appear odd to outsiders. They have, however, made important contributions to religious life in the past 50 years. charms and amulets In popular religion, devices to assure the everyday protection of G OD or the gods. Charms are properly words or simple practices of quasi-magical significance that are said or done to this effect, such as the frequent chant ing of a mantra or short PRAYER under one’s breath as one goes about daily work, or saying “Bless you!” to a person who has sneezed (originally in the hope that the soul would not escape through the sneeze), or knocking on wood for good for tune. Amulets, or talismans, are small objects worn for the same purpose, although the word charm has sometimes come to be applied to these

Caesar stressed that the Celts practiced SAC RIFICE , especially human sacrifice. Indeed, he described a RITUAL in which the Celts built a human figure out of wicker, filled it with people, and set it on fire, burning the occupants. Many scholars have doubts about his account. It is worth noting that some famous prehistoric monuments in Brit ain, such as the passage tomb at Newgrange, Ire land, and the megaliths at Stonehenge, England, were not built and used by the Celts. They were built and used by earlier peoples. The Celts had priests called DRUIDS . The Druids preserved the oral traditions of the people, served as judges, conducted religious rituals, and divined. According to Irish traditions, the Celts divided the year into two equal parts. The most important fes tival, Samain, took place on October 31/Novem ber 1. (Like the Jewish day, the Celtic day began at sundown.) The festival of Beltine occurred on April 30/May 1. These festivals are the ancestors of Halloween and May Day, respectively. charismatic movement A Christian move ment, emphasizing emotional, demonstrative reli gious practices that began in the 1960s. It is similar to P ENTECOSTALISM but is found in other Christian communities. “Charisma” is originally a Greek word; it refers to a gift of grace. People in the charismatic move ment see behavior such as speaking in tongues, faith healing, vigorous weeping, or laughing as gifts of the Holy Spirit. They differ from Pentecos tals by remaining in their own communities rather than founding Pentecostal churches. In a narrow sense, the charismatic movement refers to the appearance of charismatic practices in Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in the United States during the 1960s. For Protestants the decisive year was 1960. That was when an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California, Dennis Bennett (1917–91), informed people that he had experienced the gift of glossolalia, speaking in tongues. For Roman Catholics the decisive year was 1967, when students in several Catholic uni versities began to experience charismatic gifts.