American evangelicalism, megachurch source request

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Maren Haynes

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Mar 9, 2012, 1:11:18 PM3/9/12
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Hi SRM-SIG,

I am a current Master's student at the University of Washington in Seattle. I plan to research the music of Seattle megachurch Mars Hill for one of my Master's papers and ensuing doctoral work. At this juncture, my framework for this project surrounds semiotics (Peirce) and ritual theory (Collins, Durkheim, et. al.) as they relate to music, popular culture, entrepreneurial capitalism, and religion. Thus far, I have been interested in - and influenced by - the work done by Monique Ingalls, Birgitta Johnson, Robin Sylvan, David Stowe, Jay R. Howard, John M. Streck and others in the areas of American evangelicalism, megachurch music, contemporary Christian and gospel music, and popular music as ritual.

Since many of you have written, researched and read extensively in this area, I hoped to consult this forum as a means for gathering a more extensive and thorough bibliography on these subjects. I would very much appreciate suggestions for books, articles, documentaries and other sources considered invaluable or provocative in this research area.

If you get an opportunity, please send titles my way!

Thank you very much in advance - I have enjoyed updates from this SIG, attending papers and forums presented by numerous members of the SRM-SIG at SEM, and meeting others involved in sacred and religious music research. Your scholarship has proven inspirational and motivational.

Thanks,
Maren Haynes
mmha...@u.washington.edu


Hulsether, Mark D

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Mar 9, 2012, 1:24:36 PM3/9/12
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Maren, probably you should contact Andrew Wall (at U of Chicago) who is
writing a dissertation on CCM.

On megachurches am bullish on Omri Elisha's new book, Moral Ambitions (on
two Knoxville megachurches) and Jonathan Walton's Watch This! (on black
megachurch televangelists). I also very much like Jeff Sharlet's chapter
on Ted Haggard's church in The Family.

Good luck!

Mark


--

Mark Hulsether
Professor, Department of Religious Studies
Director, Interdisciplinary Program in American Studies
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Web site: http://web.utk.edu/~hulseth/default.html


A> Hi SRM-SIG,

Shawn Young

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Mar 9, 2012, 1:38:45 PM3/9/12
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Hi Maren,

I also suggest the following: 

Witnessing Suburbia: Conservative and Christian Youth Culture, University of California Press. Eileen Luhr

God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America 1966-1977, Larry Eskridge

Sacred Song in America: Religion, Music, and Public Culture, Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Stephen Marini

The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers. Mark Allan Powell

Also, my dissertation was on Jesus People USA and their Cornerstone Festival.  My advisor was David W. Stowe.

Best wishes,

Shawn David Young, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Visual & Performing Arts
Clayton State University

http://a-s.clayton.edu/vpa/Faculty/Young.htm

Andrew Mall

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Mar 9, 2012, 3:08:29 PM3/9/12
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Hello Maren,

I recently filed my dissertation on the Christian recording industry,
so it should be available via ProQuest shortly (thanks for the plug,
Mark!). I don't talk so much about megachurches in the dissertation,
but I do have some ethnographic research on alternative evangelical
worship practices at Cornerstone Festival in Illinois, Jesus People
USA in Chicago (the Cornerstone organizers), and the Anchor Fellowship
in Nashville (who also run a worship tent at Cornerstone).

I found Shawn's dissertation very helpful, as well as Anna Nekola's
(UW Madison, 2009) on the worship wars. In addition to Powell's
Encyclopedia, Don Cusic's identically-titled Encyclopedia of
Contemporary Christian Music is a decent historical compendium
(despite a few factual errors and inconsistencies in many of the
entries). In terms of the relationship between evangelicalism and U.S.
capitalism, certainly consider looking at Heather Hendershot's Shaking
the World for Jesus (UofC Press, 2004) and Colleen McDannell's
Material Christianity (Yale, 1995) in addition to Eileen Luhr. More
sensationalist books on U.S. evangelical cultures by journalists
Andrew Beaujon and Daniel Radosh might provide an interesting
perspective. Charlie Peacock's At the Crossroads (Broadman & Holman,
1999) is a critical insider's perspective.

All best,

Andrew Mall.

--
Andrew Mall
PhD Candidate, Ethnomusicology
University of Chicago

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