Whither Televangelism: Opportunities, Trends, Challenges

Abstract

In less than 30 years televangelism has become a truly global phenomenon. The pioneering studies by Horsfield (1984) and Hoover (1988) that focused on what was then a phenomenon restricted to the USA, highlighted issues such as the personality and politics of televangelists within a context characterized by the commercialization of broadcasting and the waning influence of mainstream Christianity. It can be argued that today the globalization of Christian televangelism has gone hand in hand with the globalization of Pentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism. However, and unlike 30 years ago, the deregulation and liberalization of the media along with its commercialization on a global scale has allowed televangelism to find a home among all the world’s major religions including Islam and Hinduism. The resurgence of contestations over offline religious identity along with both intra-and inter-religious competition and disputes over meaning and doctrine have spilled over onto old and new media platforms — and these public struggles over meaning and authority are indicative of the fact that ferment within and between religions is a fundamental reality of life in the twenty-first century. The spectre of terrorism, and in particular Islamic terrorism, has met with a counter-response from Islamic televangelists. Islamic Salafist televangelist of Indian origin Zakir Naik has, for example, thrown down the gauntlet to the West on Dubai-based Peace TV.