Religion, Media and Culture

In her article Religious Sensations: media, aesthetics, and the study of contemporary religion (2012) Birgit Meyer discusses how the aesthetics of mediated religion affect the way people experience religion. She posits that the growing trend in charismatic Pentecostalism is due to the fact that they "not only generate but also heat up and intensify religious feelings" through an immediate connection to the Holy Spirit.  She states that the "phenomenological reality of religious experience is grounded in bodily sensations" which "evoke and perpetuate shared experiences, emotions, and affects that are anchored in a taken-for-granted sense of self and community". 

This clip from the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp shows how ritual charismatic services encourage an experiential connection with the Holy Spirit. Pastor Becky Fisher talks about how 'usable' children are in Christianity because they are so open. I think her success in converting children to Pentecostal christianity is related to what Meyer talks about in her article. In her sermons Fisher makes the children feel guilty for not believing enough or for reading Harry Potter before the ritual of speaking in tongues begins. The children are so emotional by this point that many of them end up crying, prostrate on the floor, filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Sources:

Jesus Camp. Dirs. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Loki Films. 2006.

Meyer, Birgit. "Religious Sensations: Media, aesthetics, and the study of contemporary religion." Religion, Media and Culture. Ed. Gordon Lynch and Jolyon Mitchell. New York, 2012.