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This book examines the complex relationship between religion and business in twentieth-century America. It is the story of how Christianity’s most basic institution, the local church, wrestled with the challenges and compromises of competing in the modern marketplace through adopting the advertising, public relations, and marketing methods of business. It follows these sacred promoters, and their critics, as they navigated between divinely inspired and consumer demanded. Amid an animated and contentious battleground for principles, practices and parishioners, John C. Hardin explores the landscape of selling religion in America and its evolution over the twentieth century.
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.
The Bible makes remarkable claims about people and events in world history. Creation, Adam and Eve, Israel's escape from Egypt, the rise and fall of Israel's kingdom, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, the growth of the church--all points of interest by scholars for the historical veracity of the Scriptures. Yet, the Bible does not appear to present the acts of God in history for the purpose of vindicating historical accuracy of the text. The Bible is a story that reveals the living God through inspired writings that communicate the meaning of historical events. In light of the Bible as the revelation of God, and the high stakes of historical veracity for the claims of the Bible, how should Christians approach the interpretation of the Scriptures in a faithful way? Carl F. H. Henry offers guidance as a foremost theologian regarding God, revelation, and the Scriptures. In Did it Really Happen? Jonathan Wood engages the thought of Carl Henry in dialogue with the major alternatives to revelation, history, and the biblical text. The value of Carl Henry's approach is shown to provide a path forward for affirming the historicity of the Bible while interpreting the text well.
In an age that is increasingly conflicted about evangelical identity and theological truth, Christians need a foundation for navigating the shifting culture. Although forgotten by some, twentieth-century theologian Carl F. H. Henry stands as one of the most influential leaders of modern evangelicalism. In this collection of essays written by leading theologians, readers will discover the extraordinary legacy that Henry left behind—a legacy desperately needed in our world today. Highlighting Henry’s unshakable confidence in the truth of God’s Word, these essays demonstrate how a renewed commitment to theology will lead to a greater love for God and others.
How do evangelism and social concern relate to one another in the mission of the church? How should the Old Testament's emphasis on social justice inform the praxis of modern believers? Does the Bible emphasize individual salvation, or does it teach a broader, more inclusive concept? Theologians, missiologists, pastors, and educators have wrestled with these questions for centuries. But especially since the early part of the twentieth century, this debate has increasingly become a point of contention among evangelical Christians, with few indications that a consensus may soon be forthcoming. Yet few have offered so thorough an answer to these questions as has Carl F. H. Henry. Henry's regenerational model of evangelism and social concern stands on the shoulders of Augustine and many others, and offers what may be the best way forward. This book explores Henry's thoughts on this subject and sets him in dialogue with numerous others who have written on these topics. Thus it will prove a valuable resource for all interested in this topic.
Whether the issue is the rise of religiously inspired terrorism, the importance of faith based NGOs in global relief and development, or campaigning for evangelical voters in the U.S., religion proliferates in our newspapers and magazines, on our radios and televisions, on our computer screens and, increasingly, our mobile devices. Americans who assumed society was becoming more and more secular have been surprised by religions' rising visibility and central role in current events. Yet this is hardly new: the history of American journalism has deep religious roots, and religion has long been part of the news mix. Providing a wide-ranging examination of how religion interacts with the news by applying the insights of history, sociology, and cultural studies to an analysis of media, faith, and the points at which they meet, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media is the go-to volume for both secular and religious journalists and journalism educators, scholars in media studies, journalism studies, religious studies, and American studies. Divided into five sections, this handbook explores the historical relationship between religion and journalism in the USA, how religion is covered in different media, how different religions are reported on, the main narratives of religion coverage, and the religious press.
This investigation into the little-known genre of mission-oriented films uncovers how Protestant missionaries overseas sought to bring back motion picture footage from remote parts of the world. In the broader religious community, mission films aimed to educate congregants back home about efforts to evangelize communities around the world. This book, however, demonstrates the larger impact of mission films on American visual culture. The evolution and development of the genre is highlighted from an early emphasis on "foreign views" in the 1910s, to interwar films providing a more detailed look at how mission stations functioned in far-flung lands, to Cold War productions which at times functioned as veritable propaganda tools parroting anti-communist discourse emanating from the CIA.