Hearing, Viewing, and Touched by the Spirit: Televangelism in Contemporary African Christianity

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature and increasing importance of televangelism in Africa. References will be made to the historic mission denominations and the older African independence churches, but the focus will be on the contemporary Pentecostals for whom the use of media is considered part of a divine provision and mandate. For the new movements under study here, television, the internet, radio, and religious recordings are the media by which the Spirit of God carries the word to every nation. The open access to media ministries means that denominational loyalties have ceased to matter for many people, particularly Africa’s upwardly mobile youth. But televangelism also means participation in religious globalization, and for a continent that feels marginalized in the modern world events its contemporary Christian representatives feel obliged to make their presence felt on the world stage. A lot of that happens through placing religion in the media and building up new virtual communities beyond physical audiences.