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Overview
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States.This is not "old-time" religion. It is a fresh hybrid of Pentecostal fervor, mainstream evangelicalism, and bible-believing millenialism distributed by modern means: innovative megachurches and parachurches, televangelism and computerized crusades. Engaging in spiritual warfare with their global competitors--Islam, socialism, feminism, secular humanism, and Catholicism--the new fundamentalists are helping to reconfigure the role of the United States in the "new world order."
Is this kind of Christianity equipping its believers to live in free and democratic societies? The authors think not. More likely it is hastening their adaptation to a global culture of consumer gratification. The fastest-growing, most influential, and most American of the new churches are praying for imminent health and wealth, while displaying indifference to growing poverty and authoritarianism. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations across Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Synopsis
As the pressures of globalization are crushing local traditions, millions of uprooted people are buying into a new American salvation product. This fundamentalist Christianity, a fusion of American popular religion and politics, is one of the most significant cultural influences exported from the United States.
This is not "old-time" religion. It is a fresh hybrid of Pentecostal fervor, mainstream evangelicalism, and bible-believing millenialism distributed by modern means: innovative megachurches and parachurches, televangelism and computerized crusades. Engaging in spiritual warfare with their global competitors--Islam, socialism, feminism, secular humanism, and Catholicism--the new fundamentalists are helping to reconfigure the role of the United States in the "new world order."
Is this kind of Christianity equipping its believers to live in free and democratic societies? The authors think not. More likely it is hastening their adaptation to a global culture of consumer gratification. The fastest-growing, most influential, and most American of the new churches are praying for imminent health and wealth, while displaying indifference to growing poverty and authoritarianism. With illuminating case studies based on extensive field research, Exporting the American Gospel demonstrates how Christian fundamentalism has taken hold in many nations across Africa, Latin America and Asia.