Reciprocity‐Based Moral Sanctions and Messianic Salvation¹

The twofold theoretical assumption is developed that accumulation of social debt or credit in reciprocal transaction generates moral sanctions; and that guilt and indignation, thus generated, comprise resources which can be mobilized under charismatic intervention to bring about a sense of salvation. Four types of manipulation of these sanctions are identified: reciprocation, reversal, neutralization, and moralization. Empirical illustration is drawn from a study of a messianic sect, of Japanese origin, in Hawaii.