This is a good topic. Yes, I have done my own arm chair analysis of Russell and Rutherford
Russel- I think Russel was INFP/ENFP type. He had strong faith and was shaped by events like the civil war and WWI as many others. He did not create the milleanilist or restoration movements. They were in swing as he grew up, but they addressed the sense of urgnecy and uncertainity that people felt after the civil war and leading up to WWI. Imagine the way people felt after 9/11 times a million.
Russel's subconcious motivation for writing was to sift out the religious dogma and replace with a more scriputal understanding of God and spirituality. This was exciting because it was now becoming possible to read and study things like never before. More people were becoming literate and the industrial revolution gave people more free time and access to printed materials. Imagine how the internet changed our own lives!
Russel conciously felt obligated to spread knowledge like a professor, spouting off provactive theories and inciting debate. Russell basically created a mail order bible study supply co. He traveled and wrote a lot of sermons that were carried in syndication by newspapers. He accurately saw himself as a commentator on religion and the bible most of the time.
I think for the time, Russel was making valid points. The pulpit was hyper-political and local religous leaders were being used motivate the voters and public for political purposes as they had been for thousands of years. But times had changed and the local preacher was no longer the only person one knew that could read or had access to other opinions. This helped Russel expose a lot of the hypocrisy he saw.
Russel was now in a position where he had to reconcile the hypocrisy with his own spiritual faith. This is how we got "religion is a snare and a racket" along with only a few select go to heaven which is a form Calvinism he was raised with as a Presbyterian. He was also exposed to the congregationalist (descended from the puritans) which is were we get KH's small bland worship houses with no religious icons. He also was interested int the seven day adventists who give us the door-to-door work among other things. I believe the 7th days and the Congregationalists are the basis for the way KH's have traditionally worked and appeared. Read the crucible by Aurthur Miller to see how closely the JW's are culturally to the Puritans.
I do not believe Russel ever saw himself as the ultimate authority like the GB does today. He wasn't a Joseph Smith as far as I can tell. Even though he did get wrapped up in prophecy a bit he saw himself as a scientest or archaeologist finding the truth through the testing of hypothesis. The truth was out there, we just had to discover it as opposed to simply creating it.
I believe his main purpose in life was to get people to wake up and start studying scripture on their own and challenging the hypocrites. As the bible study groups grew and became congregations I think he was proud but never really felt ownership or authoirty over them. I believe he really saw himself as a servant to the people he inspired to think for themselves. He saw his job as to provide the study materials and aids but not necessarily the answers like a good teacher would do.
I am sure it didn't hurt that his publications were the main source of these study materials which financially supported him...
NEXT, here comes Judge Rutherford.
I am very cyncial about Judge Rutherford. He was more of the ETSJ type. These are the take-charge and dominate types. Judge Rutherford was a lawyer (big surprise) that saw a huge monetary opportunity with what Rusell had created. Rutherford saw that if the JW's were more tightly organized it could become a real religion because the "bible students" had become so dependent on Russell's teachings. Under Rutherford the current WTBS corp was actually formed and the KH's became very organized and controlled from Brooklyn like never before. This the period where holidays, birthdays, crosses, were being banned not as a matter of scriputal suggestion but as policy under threat of being a heretic. Rutherford basically made the JW's the JW's we know today.
I know the source of some practices like neutrality, avoiding worldy friends and family, shunning, etc... were not all necessarily Rutherford's ideas but he made them policy or dogma. Before I would say these ideas were popular and even practiced but now it was "company policy". Rutherford had to make the GB and WTBS the ultimate authority and not just the prophet or teacher for the next phase: Making the JW's his army unpaid magazine salesmen.
As with any good company you need a structure of managers to make sure everyone is doing their job (selling more of Rusell's magazines). This is when COs, Elders, MS, Pioneers, etc.. were created as well as the door-to-door work becoming mandatory and reporting time. Also, any good sales organization stages regular training sessions like the TMS. Conventions are also important for building up morale and generating excitement withing the organization and the public for the latest product. The JW's just became a sales organization under Rutherford and he made a killing during the depression while the rest of America was starving.
Rutherford in his mind was just doing what needed to be done he didn't question it as right or wrong. He took the haphazard mess that Russell created and made it a lean and mean magazine sales machine in his mind. Keep in mind there was no TV and Radios were the size of night stands, magazines, comic books, and novels were the most portable form of information and entertainment for their time. Magazines were the ipads of their day. There was money to be made and Rutherford's mind would only see at as wasteful to not organize the JW's in such a manner. The fire was built by Russell, Rutherford just had to light the match.
Russell was definitely the philospher, writer, type. Believed in what he said and was a big thinker. Valued free thought, intellectual discussion.
Rutherford was the CEO, organizer type. Valued rules, order, productivity even at the cost of freedom or intellectual honesty.
As far as current GB, who knows. They don't really do anything but maintain what is and adjust to knew realities to maintain. Most of them have been born-in or converted in a time when they were not exposed to the interenet.
What will be interesing is to see what types the GB attracts after this generation passes. If the JW's still exist they will probably get more of the Rutherford types or Dwight Schrute (from the office) types that will try and gain position and then tighten up again. They might even challenge or change theology radically to do this and create a smaller but more intense fire.
That's my arm chair analysis.
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