Author: Travis Warren Cooper
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253062276
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
When it comes to evangelical Christianity, the internet is both a refuge and a threat. It hosts Zoom prayer groups and pornographic videos, religious revolutions and silly cat videos. Platforms such as social media, podcasts, blogs, and digital Bibles all constitute new arenas for debate about social and religious boundaries, theological and ecclesial orthodoxy, and the internet's inherent danger and value. In The Digital Evangelicals, Travis Warren Cooper locates evangelicalism as a media event rather than as a coherent religious tradition by focusing on the intertwined narratives of evangelical Christianity and emerging digital culture in the United States. He focuses on two dominant media traditions: media sincerity, immediate and direct interpersonal communication, and media promiscuity, communication with the primary goal of extending the Christian community regardless of physical distance. Cooper, whose work is informed by ethnographic fieldwork, traces these conflicting paradigms from the Protestant Reformation through the rise of the digital and argues that the tension is culminating in a crisis of evangelical authority. What counts as authentic interaction? Who has authority over the circulation of information? While many studies claim that technology influences religion, The Digital Evangelicals reveals how Protestant metaphors and discourses shaped the emergence of the internet and explores what this relationship with global new media means for evangelicalism.
The Digital Evangelicals
Author: Travis Warren Cooper
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253062276
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
When it comes to evangelical Christianity, the internet is both a refuge and a threat. It hosts Zoom prayer groups and pornographic videos, religious revolutions and silly cat videos. Platforms such as social media, podcasts, blogs, and digital Bibles all constitute new arenas for debate about social and religious boundaries, theological and ecclesial orthodoxy, and the internet's inherent danger and value. In The Digital Evangelicals, Travis Warren Cooper locates evangelicalism as a media event rather than as a coherent religious tradition by focusing on the intertwined narratives of evangelical Christianity and emerging digital culture in the United States. He focuses on two dominant media traditions: media sincerity, immediate and direct interpersonal communication, and media promiscuity, communication with the primary goal of extending the Christian community regardless of physical distance. Cooper, whose work is informed by ethnographic fieldwork, traces these conflicting paradigms from the Protestant Reformation through the rise of the digital and argues that the tension is culminating in a crisis of evangelical authority. What counts as authentic interaction? Who has authority over the circulation of information? While many studies claim that technology influences religion, The Digital Evangelicals reveals how Protestant metaphors and discourses shaped the emergence of the internet and explores what this relationship with global new media means for evangelicalism.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253062276
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
When it comes to evangelical Christianity, the internet is both a refuge and a threat. It hosts Zoom prayer groups and pornographic videos, religious revolutions and silly cat videos. Platforms such as social media, podcasts, blogs, and digital Bibles all constitute new arenas for debate about social and religious boundaries, theological and ecclesial orthodoxy, and the internet's inherent danger and value. In The Digital Evangelicals, Travis Warren Cooper locates evangelicalism as a media event rather than as a coherent religious tradition by focusing on the intertwined narratives of evangelical Christianity and emerging digital culture in the United States. He focuses on two dominant media traditions: media sincerity, immediate and direct interpersonal communication, and media promiscuity, communication with the primary goal of extending the Christian community regardless of physical distance. Cooper, whose work is informed by ethnographic fieldwork, traces these conflicting paradigms from the Protestant Reformation through the rise of the digital and argues that the tension is culminating in a crisis of evangelical authority. What counts as authentic interaction? Who has authority over the circulation of information? While many studies claim that technology influences religion, The Digital Evangelicals reveals how Protestant metaphors and discourses shaped the emergence of the internet and explores what this relationship with global new media means for evangelicalism.
The Digital Evangelicals
Author: Travis Warren Cooper
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253062284
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When it comes to evangelical Christianity, the internet is both a refuge and a threat. It hosts Zoom prayer groups and pornographic videos, religious revolutions and silly cat videos. Platforms such as social media, podcasts, blogs, and digital Bibles all constitute new arenas for debate about social and religious boundaries, theological and ecclesial orthodoxy, and the internet's inherent danger and value. In The Digital Evangelicals, Travis Warren Cooperlocates evangelicalism as a media event rather than as a coherent religious tradition by focusing on the intertwined narratives of evangelical Christianity and emerging digital culture in the United States. He focuses on two dominant media traditions: media sincerity, immediate and direct interpersonal communication, and media promiscuity, communication with the primary goal of extending the Christian community regardless of physical distance. Cooper, whose work is informed by ethnographic fieldwork, traces these conflicting paradigms from the Protestant Reformation through the rise of the digital and argues that the tension is culminating in a crisis of evangelical authority. What counts as authentic interaction? Who has authority over the circulation of information? While many studies claim that technology influences religion, The Digital Evangelicals reveals how Protestant metaphors and discourses shaped the emergence of the internet and explores what this relationship with global new media means for evangelicalism.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253062284
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When it comes to evangelical Christianity, the internet is both a refuge and a threat. It hosts Zoom prayer groups and pornographic videos, religious revolutions and silly cat videos. Platforms such as social media, podcasts, blogs, and digital Bibles all constitute new arenas for debate about social and religious boundaries, theological and ecclesial orthodoxy, and the internet's inherent danger and value. In The Digital Evangelicals, Travis Warren Cooperlocates evangelicalism as a media event rather than as a coherent religious tradition by focusing on the intertwined narratives of evangelical Christianity and emerging digital culture in the United States. He focuses on two dominant media traditions: media sincerity, immediate and direct interpersonal communication, and media promiscuity, communication with the primary goal of extending the Christian community regardless of physical distance. Cooper, whose work is informed by ethnographic fieldwork, traces these conflicting paradigms from the Protestant Reformation through the rise of the digital and argues that the tension is culminating in a crisis of evangelical authority. What counts as authentic interaction? Who has authority over the circulation of information? While many studies claim that technology influences religion, The Digital Evangelicals reveals how Protestant metaphors and discourses shaped the emergence of the internet and explores what this relationship with global new media means for evangelicalism.
Evangelicals Incorporated
Author: Daniel Vaca
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674243978
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674243978
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.
Redeem All
Author: Corrina Laughlin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520379683
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
The church -- The start up -- Media missions -- The influencers -- Racial reckoning and repair.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520379683
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
The church -- The start up -- Media missions -- The influencers -- Racial reckoning and repair.
Decoding the Digital Church
Author: Stephanie A. Martin
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817320849
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
A nuanced look at the rhetorical narratives used by conservative Republicans and evangelicals to make both personal and political choices As a political constituency, white conservative evangelicals are generally portrayed as easy to dupe, disposed to vote against their own interests, and prone to intolerance and knee-jerk reactions. In Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump, Stephanie A. Martin challenges this assumption and moves beyond these overused stereotypes to develop a refined explanation for this constituency’s voting behavior. This volume offers a fresh perspective on the study of religion and politics and stems from the author’s personal interest in the ways her experiences with believers differ from how scholars often frame this group’s rationale and behaviors. To address this disparity, Martin examines sermons, drawing on her expertise in rhetoric and communication studies with the benefits of ethnographic research in an innovative hybrid approach she terms a “digital rhetorical ethnography.” Martin’s thorough research surveys more than 150 online sermons from America’s largest evangelical megachurches in 37 different states. Through listening closely to the words of the pastors who lead these conservative congregations, Martin describes a gentler discourse less obsessed with issues like abortion or marriage equality than stereotypes of evangelicals might suggest. Instead, the politicaleconomic sermons and stories from pastors encourage true believers to remember the exceptional nature of the nation’s founding while also deemphasizing how much American citizenship really means. Martin grapples with and pays serious, scholarly attention to a seeming contradiction: while the large majority of white conservative evangelicals voted in 2016 for Donald J. Trump, Martin shows that many of their pastors were deeply concerned about the candidate, the divisive nature of the campaign, and the potential effect of the race on their congregants’ devotion to democratic process itself. In-depth chapters provide a fuller analysis of our current political climate, recapping previous scholarship on the history of this growing divide and establishing the groundwork to set up the dissonance between the political commitments of evangelicals and their faith that the rhetorical ethnography addresses.
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817320849
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
A nuanced look at the rhetorical narratives used by conservative Republicans and evangelicals to make both personal and political choices As a political constituency, white conservative evangelicals are generally portrayed as easy to dupe, disposed to vote against their own interests, and prone to intolerance and knee-jerk reactions. In Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump, Stephanie A. Martin challenges this assumption and moves beyond these overused stereotypes to develop a refined explanation for this constituency’s voting behavior. This volume offers a fresh perspective on the study of religion and politics and stems from the author’s personal interest in the ways her experiences with believers differ from how scholars often frame this group’s rationale and behaviors. To address this disparity, Martin examines sermons, drawing on her expertise in rhetoric and communication studies with the benefits of ethnographic research in an innovative hybrid approach she terms a “digital rhetorical ethnography.” Martin’s thorough research surveys more than 150 online sermons from America’s largest evangelical megachurches in 37 different states. Through listening closely to the words of the pastors who lead these conservative congregations, Martin describes a gentler discourse less obsessed with issues like abortion or marriage equality than stereotypes of evangelicals might suggest. Instead, the politicaleconomic sermons and stories from pastors encourage true believers to remember the exceptional nature of the nation’s founding while also deemphasizing how much American citizenship really means. Martin grapples with and pays serious, scholarly attention to a seeming contradiction: while the large majority of white conservative evangelicals voted in 2016 for Donald J. Trump, Martin shows that many of their pastors were deeply concerned about the candidate, the divisive nature of the campaign, and the potential effect of the race on their congregants’ devotion to democratic process itself. In-depth chapters provide a fuller analysis of our current political climate, recapping previous scholarship on the history of this growing divide and establishing the groundwork to set up the dissonance between the political commitments of evangelicals and their faith that the rhetorical ethnography addresses.
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
Author: Mark A. Noll
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467464627
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467464627
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.
Christians Under Covers
Author: Kelsy Burke
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520286332
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
"Christians under Covers shifts how scholars and popular media talk about religious conservatives and sex. In an ethnography drawn from Christian sexuality websites, Kelsy Burke examines how some evangelical Christians use digital media to promote the idea that God wants married, heterosexual couples to have satisfying sex lives. These evangelicals maintain their religious beliefs while incorporating feminist and queer language into their talk of sexuality--encouraging sexual knowledge, emphasizing women's pleasure, and justifying marginal sexual practices within Christian marriages. This book complicates boundaries between normal and subversive, empowered and oppressed, and sacred and profane"--Provided by publisher.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520286332
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238
Book Description
"Christians under Covers shifts how scholars and popular media talk about religious conservatives and sex. In an ethnography drawn from Christian sexuality websites, Kelsy Burke examines how some evangelical Christians use digital media to promote the idea that God wants married, heterosexual couples to have satisfying sex lives. These evangelicals maintain their religious beliefs while incorporating feminist and queer language into their talk of sexuality--encouraging sexual knowledge, emphasizing women's pleasure, and justifying marginal sexual practices within Christian marriages. This book complicates boundaries between normal and subversive, empowered and oppressed, and sacred and profane"--Provided by publisher.
Evangelical Is Not Enough
Author: Thomas Howard
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1681491567
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
In this deeply moving narrative, Thomas Howard describes his pilgrimage from Evangelicalism (which he loves and reveres as the religion of his youth) to liturgical Christianity. He soon afterward became a Roman Catholic. He describes Evangelicalism with great sympathy and then examines more formal, liturgical worship with the freshness of someone discovering for the first time what his soul had always hungered for. This is a book of apologetics without polemics. Non-Catholics will gain an appreciation of the formal and liturgical side of Catholicism. Catholics will see with fresh eyes the beauty of their tradition. Worship, prayer, the Blessed Virgin, the Mass, and the liturgical year are taken one after the other, and what may have seemed routine and repetitive suddenly comes to life under the enchanting wand of Howard's beautiful prose. Howard unfolds for us just what occurs in the vision and imagination of a Christian who, nurtured in the earnestness of Protestant Evangelicalism, finds himself yearning for "whatever-it-is" that has been there in the Church for 2000 years. It traces Howard's soul-searching and shows why he believes the practices of the liturgical Church are an invaluable aid for any Christian's spiritual life. Reminiscent of the style and scope of Newman, Lewis and Knox, this book is destined to be a classic. "The question, What is the Church? becomes, finally, intractable; and one finds oneself unable to offer any very telling reasons why the phrase 'one, holy, catholic, and apostolic', is to be understood in any other than the way in which it was understood for 1500 years." -- Thomas Howard
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1681491567
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
In this deeply moving narrative, Thomas Howard describes his pilgrimage from Evangelicalism (which he loves and reveres as the religion of his youth) to liturgical Christianity. He soon afterward became a Roman Catholic. He describes Evangelicalism with great sympathy and then examines more formal, liturgical worship with the freshness of someone discovering for the first time what his soul had always hungered for. This is a book of apologetics without polemics. Non-Catholics will gain an appreciation of the formal and liturgical side of Catholicism. Catholics will see with fresh eyes the beauty of their tradition. Worship, prayer, the Blessed Virgin, the Mass, and the liturgical year are taken one after the other, and what may have seemed routine and repetitive suddenly comes to life under the enchanting wand of Howard's beautiful prose. Howard unfolds for us just what occurs in the vision and imagination of a Christian who, nurtured in the earnestness of Protestant Evangelicalism, finds himself yearning for "whatever-it-is" that has been there in the Church for 2000 years. It traces Howard's soul-searching and shows why he believes the practices of the liturgical Church are an invaluable aid for any Christian's spiritual life. Reminiscent of the style and scope of Newman, Lewis and Knox, this book is destined to be a classic. "The question, What is the Church? becomes, finally, intractable; and one finds oneself unable to offer any very telling reasons why the phrase 'one, holy, catholic, and apostolic', is to be understood in any other than the way in which it was understood for 1500 years." -- Thomas Howard
Still Evangelical?
Author: Mark Labberton
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830880429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Evangelicalism in America has cracked. What defines the evangelical social and political vision—is it the gospel or is it culture? Edited by Mark Labberton, this collection of essays offers a diverse and provocative set of reflections from evangelical "insiders" who wrestle with the question of what it means to be evangelical in today's polarized climate.
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830880429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Evangelicalism in America has cracked. What defines the evangelical social and political vision—is it the gospel or is it culture? Edited by Mark Labberton, this collection of essays offers a diverse and provocative set of reflections from evangelical "insiders" who wrestle with the question of what it means to be evangelical in today's polarized climate.
The Nature of Confession
Author: George A. Lindbeck
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 9780830818693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Voted one of Christianity Today's 1997 Books of the Year! Ours is an age of profound cultural change, in which new categories and alliances are bound to arise. In theology, the liberal strategy has lost support, having degenerated into mere anthropology and succumbed to the political agendas of its proponents. And while the evangelical movement appears to be gaining ground, it is simultaneously suffering an acute identity crisis.Currently the postliberal (or "Yale school") movement has found a strong resonance in some mainline denominational circles. Its emphasis on the biblical text and Jesus Christ--through which all other reality needs to be construed--may turn out to be the most significant theological realignment in more than a century.Are we witnessing a paradigm shift? Can evangelicals and postliberals make common confession? Might they even combine forces to reinvigorate the church--its theology and its mission--for a new era? In this groundbreaking book, creative evangelical and postliberal thinkers explore exactly how they agree and disagree along a range of issues, from epistemology and theological method to doctrinal concerns.Evangelical contributors include such significant theologians as Alister McGrath and Gabriel Fackre. Postliberal contributors include George Lindbeck, a "founding father" of postliberalism, and George Hunsinger, the former student and major interpreter of the late Hans Frei, another "founder" of postliberalism.In The Nature of Confession we are presented with the beginnings of a robust discussion of real importance to both the academy and the church.
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 9780830818693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Voted one of Christianity Today's 1997 Books of the Year! Ours is an age of profound cultural change, in which new categories and alliances are bound to arise. In theology, the liberal strategy has lost support, having degenerated into mere anthropology and succumbed to the political agendas of its proponents. And while the evangelical movement appears to be gaining ground, it is simultaneously suffering an acute identity crisis.Currently the postliberal (or "Yale school") movement has found a strong resonance in some mainline denominational circles. Its emphasis on the biblical text and Jesus Christ--through which all other reality needs to be construed--may turn out to be the most significant theological realignment in more than a century.Are we witnessing a paradigm shift? Can evangelicals and postliberals make common confession? Might they even combine forces to reinvigorate the church--its theology and its mission--for a new era? In this groundbreaking book, creative evangelical and postliberal thinkers explore exactly how they agree and disagree along a range of issues, from epistemology and theological method to doctrinal concerns.Evangelical contributors include such significant theologians as Alister McGrath and Gabriel Fackre. Postliberal contributors include George Lindbeck, a "founding father" of postliberalism, and George Hunsinger, the former student and major interpreter of the late Hans Frei, another "founder" of postliberalism.In The Nature of Confession we are presented with the beginnings of a robust discussion of real importance to both the academy and the church.