ABSTRACT
It is one of the many paradoxes of America that a large part of the population of one of the most advanced and productive industrial economies in the world claim to follow a deviant schism of the ancient religion of a small, pastoralist people and believe that God created the world in six days, that all our animals are descended from the pairs saved by Noah from the Flood, and that the world will end shortly in a plan announced in the Bible books of Daniel and Revelations. Western Europeans find much American religion incomprehensible. Even if the beliefs themselves can be accepted, the styles in which they are presented and the enthusiasm with which they are embraced are thought to be strange. Few aspects of American religious life cause more interest, confusion, and derision than television evangelism. Although Europeans have become accustomed to the brashness, commercialism, and ersatz spontaneity of the television game show, they have yet to view American religious television with anything other than horror or morbid curiosity. This book is a description of the phenomenon of ‘televangelism’ (to use the abbreviation coined by Hadden and Swann 1981) and an explanation of its appeal.
