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The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches book cover

1st Edition

The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches

Edited By Afe Adogame, Chad M. Bauman, Damaris Parsitau, Jeaney Yip Copyright 2024
    508 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    508 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge
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    The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches provides a survey of global megachurch phenomena, with an international slate of authors introducing existing and emerging research on a wide variety of relevant topics.

    Over the past decade, the field of megachurch studies has matured and become global in its scope and orientation. The Handbook offers 33 chapters by top scholars in the field, focusing in particular on:

    • The location, demographic nature, and transnational connections of megachurches.
    • Megachurch worship, hermeneutics, and theology (in theory and practice).
    • Megachurch institutional dynamics.
    • The various ways that megachurches have both influenced and been influenced by their social contexts in terms of class, age, gender, sexuality, and pop culture.

    The Handbook's interdisciplinary orientation makes it essential reading for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, media specialists, pop culture observers, business strategists, leadership consultants, marketing analysts, scholars of religion, and Christian historians, theologians, and missiologists. Experienced scholars of megachurches will gain valuable insight into aspects of megachurch research beyond their own specializations. Scholars new to the field will find the chapters useful as signposts for where to begin their own academic exploration. Christian pastors and laypeople will learn more about this increasingly prominent and influential form of their faith.

    Introduction 

    Afe Adogame, Chad M. Bauman, Damaris Parsitau, and Jeaney Yip 

    PART I: Geographical Overviews 

    1. North America 

    Scott Thumma  

    2. Latin America 

    Henri Gooren, Hans Geir Aasmundsen, Joaquín Algranti, Virginia Garrard, and Ramiro Jaimes Martínez  

    3. Europe 

    Abel Ugba  

    4. Central Africa

    Henrietta Nyamnjoh and Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot  

    5. East and Southern Africa 

    Chammah J. Kaunda and Yabibal Teklu  

    6. Southeast Asia and Australia

    Yan Liu and Chang-Yau Hoon  

    7. East and South Asia 

    Jungyeon Yi and Chad M. Bauman  

    PART II: Transnational Connections  

    8. African Megachurch Missions Abroad 

    Babatunde Adedibu  

    9. African Diasporia Megachurches in Europe 

    Richard Burgess  

    10. Korean Diasporic Megachurches in the United States 

    Hyemin Na  

    11. Transnational Lusophone Megachurches 

    Andrew Johnson  

    12. Networking and Collaboration 

    Allison L. Norton  

    Part III: Megachurch Worship  

    13. The Transnationalization of Megachurch Music 

    Tom Wagner  

    14. The Production and Performance of Multisensory Worship Services 

    Katja Rakow  

    15. Affect, Effervescence, and the Megachurch Ritual Cycle 

    Kate J. Stockly 

    16. Preaching 

    Felicity Apaah  

    PART IV: Hermeneutics and Theology in Practice  

    17. Prosperity and the Therapeutic Turn 

    Jayeel Cornelio  

    18. Charismatic Gifts 

    J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu  

    19. Deliverance Naomi Richman  

    PART V: Institutional Dynamics  

    20. Theories of Growth Chad M. Bauman 

    21. How and Why People Participate in Megachurches 

    Warren Bird and Scott Thumma  

    22. Leadership 

    Ed Stetzer and Andrew MacDonald  

    23. Megachurches’ First Ladies  

    Damaris Parsitau and Abimbola Adelakun  

    24. Marketing and the Business of God  

    Jeaney Yip and Susan Ainsworth  

    25. Controversies, Scandals, and Crises 

    Dodeye U. Williams  

    PART VI: Social Context  

    26. Urbanisms and Imaginaries of Space 

    Daniel P. S. Goh  

    27. Ethnicity and Multiculturalism  

    Sarbeswar Sahoo  

    28. Class Terence Chong  

    29. Youth Wanjiru M. Gitau  

    30. Gender and Sexuality 

    Kim Knibbe and Marju-Riika Komulainen  

    31. Social Media and Pop Culture 

    Kathleen Openshaw and Adam Possamai  

    32. Aesthetics, Architecture, and Ambition  

    Simon Coleman 

    PART VII: Response  

    33. Response: Revivalism and the Meaning of Megachurches 

    Timothy Wadkins 

    Index

    Biography

    Afe Adogame is the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society and Chair of History and Ecumenics Department at Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA.

    Chad M. Bauman is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Butler University in Indianapolis, USA.

    Damaris Parsitau is Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies and the Director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin University, USA.

    Jeaney Yip is Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Sydney, Australia.

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