In "Sensational Devotion, " Jill Stevenson examines a range of
evangelical performances, including contemporary Passion plays,
biblical theme parks, Holy Land re-creations, creationist museums,
and megachurches, to understand how they serve their evangelical
audiences while shaping larger cultural and national dialogues.
Such performative media support specific theologies and core
beliefs by creating sensual, live experiences for believers, but
the accessible, familiar forms they take and the pop culture motifs
they employ also attract nonbelievers willing to "try out" these
genres, even if only for curiosity's sake. This familiarity not
only helps these performances achieve their goals, but it also
enables them to contribute to public dialogue about the role of
religious faith in America. Stevenson shows how these genres are
significant and influential cultural products that utilize
sophisticated tactics in order to reach large audiences comprised
of firm believers, extreme skeptics, and those in between. Using
historical research coupled with personal visits to these various
venues, the author not only critically examines these spaces and
events within their specific religious, cultural, and national
contexts, but also places them within a longer devotional tradition
in order to suggest how they cultivate religious belief by
generating vivid, sensual, affectively oriented, and individualized
experiences.
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