Charismania

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Charismania is a derogative Christianese term usually applied by American Fundamentalist Christians to the extremists in the Christian Charismatic movement. In some cases it is used as a byword to describe the entire movement in a negative light. It was specifically coined to describe the perceivable chaos and mood swings (hence mania) that sometimes occurs during Charismatic revival meetings. Such disorderly occurrences as barking, howling, speaking in tongues, excessive laughing/crying, screaming, wild dancing, violent shaking, and interruptive prophesying led many fundamentalists to believe that the Devil was involved while Charismatic Christians asserted that these were manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The term has also been applied to televangelists and other prosperity gospel preachers who use grandiose charismatic preaching styles, melodramatic appeals, and posh surroundings to garner money and/or respect from their followers. The term is still in wide use among many English speaking churches in the 21st century.