Practicing Pentecost: The Church Across the Color Line 1.0

This post begins a blog interview with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove about his fantastic and important book Free to Be Bound: Church Beyond the Color Line (NavPress, 2008). Thanks to Jonathan for his wilingness to particpate in this electronic conversation and dialogue.

I take the short title for this series of posts from Anthony Smith's chapter of the same title in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope and in recognition of teaching and inviting me to be part of the church beyond the color line.

Baldblogger (BB): A previous post introduced you to readers; we read some about your background, upbringing, and recent work and writing. Is there anything about your life and/or work you’d like to add? If you could, if it exists, what is a typical day at Rutba House and at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church?

Jonathn Wilson-Hartgrove (JWH): Most important thing is that I’ve become a dad. Leah and I adopted our son, JaiMichael, who is now 3 and a half. He’s a joy—and a bundle of energy. If we ever had a typical day, we don’t any more.

At Rutba, we try to start and end the day with prayer together. In between, we do our work, answer the door, eat together, listen, and play. Most of these things get interrupted. But sometimes grace is in the interruptions.

BB: Now, a writing question. Your first book was published in 2005, and, impressively, you’ve published two more books within the span of a year and will have some more books published soon. When and where do you write, and from where does your inspiration come to write? In other words, any tips for good and effective writing? For interested readers, any projects in the works?

JWH: I write because I have to. I don’t know what I think until I see what I say, so I sort out my life in words. The incredible gift I receive from readers is that they consider it worth their time and money to think these things through with me. So I’m not alone. And, by grace, the bills get paid.

The challenge, then, isn’t so much to find the time to write as it is to remember all the other things that are important. Words are powerful, for sure. But we live in an information age that is flooded with disembodied words. Unless the word is made flesh, it rings hollow.

As I said, I write my questions. More and more, I’m writing the questions I live with others. For a few years now I’ve been in conversation about a new monastic movement in the contemporary church. My book New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church (Brazos) will be out next month.

Shane Claiborne and I have a book on prayer coming out this fall. We’ve been talking for years about the connection between action and contemplation, while praying and getting in the Way together. Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers (IVP) is a little meditation that invites others into that conversation. We’re just about finished, and it will be out this fall.

I’m starting to write about money. Jesus said you can’t serve God and Mammon, which sets up an interesting either/or. Sometimes we talk about “stewarding” money well. But on the whole, I think we have a hard time seeing money as a power here in the richest nation to ever exist. Prosperity gospel gets good air time in this country, but we don’t have much of an alternative. So I’m working on that right now.

BB: Specifically, what inspired you to write Free to Be Bound? The subtitle of your book of course brings to mind the famous phrase from Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk (1903). Was it W.E.B. Du Bois specifically? Can you briefly explain the title of your book? It is catchy, punchy, yet deeply profound all at the same time.

JWH: I wrote Free to Be Bound because I needed to go deeper into the question I’d first asked at 16, when I met some black Christians—namely, why have I never met these brothers and sisters before? Following that question led me to join a black church, move into a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and, among other things, read Du Bois. He said the problem of the 20th century was the problem of the color line. My experience showed me that the color line was a dividing line in the body of Christ.

Forty years ago, the civil rights movement taught America that we’re bound to be free. This resulted in news laws liberating black people from second class citizenship. Forty years later, though, the question we have to ask is, “Free for what?” Christians have for the most part used our freedom to stay in race-based churches and pursue middle class success.

The good news of Jesus is that we’re free to be bound together in a beloved community where the rich are no longer rich and the poor are no longer poor because we all share our resources so that no one is in need. This book is about what it might mean to be that kind of community.

[Photo credit here.]

Something Funny for Friday

I guess these were the days before RateMyProfessor.com......

[Source: Chronicle of Higher Education]

Du Bois in the Lone Star State 2.0

Last Thursday SDSU's Edward J. Blum gave a lecture/book talk at the University of Houston's Central Campus. The History and African American Studies departments co-sponsored the event. Thanks to Dr. Bob Buzzanco and Dr. James Conyers for making this event happen.

Ed's talk was titled "The Noose and the Cross: Race, Religion, and the Redemption of Violence in the Works of W. E. B. Du Bois," and discussed lynching and the way W.E.B. Du Bois worked to find redemptive value in this violent expression of white supremacy. Ed discusses this in great detail ch. 4 of his book W.E.B. Du Bois, American Prophet. (On a side note, the University of Pennsylvania Press has a unique deal for adopting Ed's book for your course--open access to the author who could conduct an email exchange about the book, conference call dialogue, or face-to-face interaction with your students.) The lecture also covered Du Bois's short stories, religious art from the Harlem Renaissance, Jeremiah Wright, and even religiously-themed artwork relating to the life of Tupac Shakur and Barack Obama (and here), among other topics.


Listen to the lecture here (53.5 MB). Ed used the image below--"Christmas in Georgia, A.D., 1916," by Lorenzo Harris, and taken from the December 1916 issue of The Crisis (pp. 78-79)--to begin the discussion. The caption reads: "Inasmuch as ye did unto the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me."

As I remember it, these were the Q&A question topics (question are hard to hear on audio):

1) religion/hip-hop/"G" not gangsta but reference to "God/deity"

2) LeBron James/messianic images

3) Du Bois's use of religion for strategic, pragmatic purposes only

4) religious imagery/Nation of Islam/civil religion

5) Du Bois's "lost voice" prior to/during the Civil Rights Movement

6) Is Du Bois spiritual and/or religious? Neither? Religious not spiritual; spiritual, but not religious?

7) religiously-sanctioned violence (Christianity)

8) secularization and narratives of American religious history

Ed Blum, Baldblogger, and The Proletarian.

[Photographs courtesy of Caleb Alexander, African American Studies Department, U. of Houston.]

A Meditation on the "Ebony Disciple": Martin, Memphis, and Memory

Today is the 40th anniversary of MLK's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.

I haven't really spent time canvassing the Internet in search of stories, but Ed Gilbreath offers his usual insightful commentary about contemporary affairs--in this case MLK--here.

A few weeks back I began to make my way through Michael Eric Dyson's latest book: April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Death and How it Changed America. Dyson will discuss this book on C-SPAN2's Book TV live on Sunday, April 6.

Dyson examines the end of King's life, offers a literary analysis of his sermons, and discusses black America 40 years after King's death. Dyson also address black leadership in the wake of King's death, with chapters on Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama--and most interesting of all takes creative license to write an Afterword titled "Interview with Dr. King on His 80th Birthday." It is the most intriguing part of the book. [UPDATE: Ed Gilbreath informs me that this interview is available over at The Root.]

Here’s a memorable King quote, whom Dyson calls Jesus’s “ebony disciple,” full of prophetic insight and admonishing encouragement: “I wish today, that Christians would stop talking so much about religion, and start doing something about it, and we would have a much better world. But the problem is that the church has sanctioned every evil in the world. Whether it’s racism, or whether it’s the evils of monopoly-capitalism, or whether it’s the evils of militarism. And this is why these things continue to exist in the world today” (pp. 126-27).


[Photo credit here.]

Du Bois in the Lone Star State

And find out more about the lecture here.

What's In Store: The Spiritual Marketplace

Readers of baldblogging may remember previous posts about various issues dealing with today's spiritual marketplace. I've commented about it in the context of my teaching, documentaries, the installation of a Cardinal, recent scholarship (here too), and religious celebrity (be sure to read this scholar's work on religious celebrity and keep an eye open for her forthcoming work on the religious celebrity of Oprah). Darren Grem has some keen thoughts on the topic as well, in addition to what looks like a great dissertation on related subjects.

Well, I'm happy to announce another "offering" on the subject--a book titled Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace. Co-authored with friend and comrade Shayne Lee, a sociologist at Tulane University and author of T.D. Jakes: America's New Preacher, New York University Press will publish Holy Mavericks in 2009.

Holy Mavericks uses the theory of religious economy to study contemporary religious trends in the United States. It imagines this country as a spiritual marketplace where religious firms offer spiritual goods and services to religious consumers.

The result of nearly three years of research and extensive participant-observation in Connecticut, Florida, California, Georgia, and Texas, our project explores the extraordinary appeal of five evangelicals who make strong cases to replace Billy Graham as America’s leading preacher and evangelist: Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and Brian McLaren. They pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism.

They write best-selling books and draw thousands of people to their conferences. They are fixtures on the airwaves, appearing as special guests on television programs. Newspapers report on their vast influence. Thousands of websites, blogs, and chat rooms dispatch their names throughout cyberspace, both praising and chastising their ministries.

Through the power of their appeal, rather than the authority of ecclesiastical positioning, they assemble multi-million dollar ministries and worldwide renown. With weak or no denominational ties, they are free agents who make their mark on contemporary American society.

When the time comes, get your copy here.

[Photo credits here, here, here, here, and here.]

For Those With Eyes to See and Ears to Hear

Svend Akram White, who blogs over at Akram's Razor, recently published this article on responses to Barack Obama's recent speech. Thanks, Svend, for prophetic clarity in these times of fog and haze.

Scholar Jon Pahl also has some insightful points--a Holy Week meditation on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Ed Blum muses about prophets and politicians here.

God's Time

God's Time

"I've only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can't refuse it,
Didn't seek it, didn't choose it,
But it's up to me to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give an account if I abuse it,
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it."

Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays
(Be sure to check out Randal Jelks's forthcoming book on Mays. Click here to watch Jelks's February 19, 2008, lecture on Mays at the U. of Kansas. You may have to scroll down to find it.)

Knight is Right, Too

In the previous post I argued that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's denunciations of white power and white Christianity were right. In this post, I suggest that some of what Steve Knight observes about the Wright/Obama controversy is right on as well.



Steve blogs over at Knightopia and routinely has insightful posts and keen insight into the complexities of faith and culture. He is the co-founder and co-organizer of the Emergent Cohort in Charlotte, NC. Steve also arranged things for Brian McLaren's stop in Charlotte for his Everything Must Change tour.

On Monday, March 17, Steve and Anthony Smith (a.k.a. the "Postmodern Negro") taped a conversation--in the context of the Wright/Obama controversy--about the implicit whiteness that shapes and forms North American evangelical theology on the one hand, and on the other the imperative for white Christians to read deeply in black theology and literature and culture to understand, for example, why the Rev. Wright said what he said, and made the claims he made. Smith discusses key elements of how many African Americans see the church and the world and explains what an Afrocentric theology actually looks like. Knight discusses white privilege and how it plays out in politics and in the church, and suggests that white folks own up to the history of privilege, what it looks like today, and why a deconstruction of it matters. There's also a discussion of the black Jesus. These are simply a few highlights of the conversation; the entire discussion deserves a good listening.



In sum, Knight offers these thoughts: "The bottom line is: White Christians need to work harder to understand the history and complexity of the black church tradition and the role of prophetic voices (like Rev. Jeremiah Wright)."



I couldn't agree more. Like Wright, Knight is right.



[Update: read the text and watch Obama's Philadelphia "race" speech here, and check out Obama's discussion on the Tuesday episode of ABC's Nightline. Ed Gilbreath offers up some good commentary, as usual.]

[Photo credits here and here.]

Wright is Right

"The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority."


The Internet is abuzz with stories, columns, and musings about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments regarding the United States and 9/11, as well as his criticism of white America in the context of his support of Barack Obama. Some pundits are even calling the seasoned pastor and prophetic cleric a racist.


Denial and amnesia are unfortunate, and today seem to afflict the rich and the powerful. Truth telling and prophetic witnessing, yet again, scream from the margins. For those with ears to hear, and with eyes to see....

All of this is interesting in light of the attention Jeremiah Wright's jeremiads have gotten. Some of the saner, more illuminating posts on Wright come from historians Ralph Luker and Ed Blum (HT: Paul Harvey) and religious studies scholar Jonathan Walton. Diana Butler Bass also offers important thoughts over at God's Politics. Anthony Smith weighs in here, and antiracist activist Tim Wise clarifies matters, too. Jim Wallis crafts a customary illuminating response here, and Adam Taylor discusses the context of prophetic preaching here. And Ed Gilbreath muses about events here and here.

Wright's criticism of America--and indeed criticism of white America and white Christianity--not only took place in the context of a black church, but also is part of a long history of prophetic utterance and righteous indignation. Wright spoke the truth--and he did it with rage, and screaming, and with what we might call a performative utterance--but he spoke the truth that many still refuse to hear. And, the Christian church possesses the concepts and categories to work toward reconciliation, and this is one of the aims of Wright's church. Reconciliation can't come about without truth-telling, and truth-speaking--and truth-seeking.

Do you remember.....Richard Allen, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, David Walker, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Vernon Johns, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, James Baldwin, etc.? The list goes on and on.


Luker and Blum trace out the history of these folks, and Bass adds key thoughts to the retelling of this story (and Wise is his usual contrarian, prophetic self), but I would like to highlight the work of David Walker, a free black man deeply involved in the abolitionist movement and who worked in Boston at a second hand clothing store in the early 19th century. Famously, he published in 1829 An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World and shipped the pamphlet South. Word spread about Walker's Appeal, and it is to this document I appeal in 2008. It is simply one part of the history about which Luker, Blum, and others offer reflections.

Like Rev. Wright, Walker spoke in the context of the prophetic Christian tradition.

Here is Walker:
"Are we MEN! ! -- I ask you, 0 my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance before the tribunal of Heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the body, as well as we? Have we any other Master but Jesus Christ alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? -- What right then, have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord, and we cannot precisely tell -- but I declare, we judge men by their works....The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority."

Jesus said that you can judge a tree by its fruit.

Walker continues: "Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: -- and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood? They must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction upon them. The Americans have got so fat on our blood and groans, that they have almost forgotten the God of armies...."

And finally:
"What nation under heaven, will be able to do any thing with us, unless God gives us up into its hand? But Americans. I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men, and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible with God."

Indeed, nothing is impossible with God.

Read more from Walker's Appeal here.







And on a final note.....I don't remember where I read or heard this [Update: found it.], but I can't recall seeing or hearing anyone denouncing the inflammatory statements made by San Antonio minister the Rev. John Hagee, the fiery parson who recently endorsed John McCain. Hagee has thrown his full support behind the nation of Israel, and recently called for a U.S. invasion of Iran.



Once again, Wright is right.


[Photo credits here and here.]

The Unveiling: Free to Be Bound

Author, pastor, activist, and thinker and Rutba House member Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is the subject of a series of forthcoming posts. I first heard of Jonathan in 2005 when I came across his book about peacemaking in Iraq, and have seen his name in various places and have read his work ever since.




I was intrigued and interested when in early February I received word of his latest offering: Free to Be Bound: Church Across the Color Line.

Jonathan's work is not a "how-to" manual for race reconciliation, but an honest and open examination, exploration and critique of white privilege and white supremacy. He tells stories, sings and feels the blues, interprets the scriptures from refreshing and challenging angles, and offers his thoughts on the radical life that death can bring.

Part-memoir, part-manifesto, part-confession, and wholly prophetic, I read it last week, underlined a good portion of the book, made tons of comments and observations, and have a whole slew of questions. This book is quite important, controversial, well-written, readable, and worthy of much discussion and reflection.

I hope you will join us in the coming weeks as I interview Jonathan here at bald blogger. Pick up a copy of Free to Be Bound and leave your thoughts, comments, questions, and observations.

You may also want to check out some interviews with Jonathan and other assorted links here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

[Photo credit here.]

In Class with The Professor: W.E.B. Du Bois Teaching Workshop

In collaboration with Ed Blum and Eddie Carson, I will co-lead a teaching seminar on W.E.B. Du Bois in early April. I'm thrilled to be working alongside two wonderful people, two fine teachers, and two great friends.

Ed is coming to the University of Houston for a book talk (get your copy of Ed's book here) and we've put together a companion workshop for high school teachers, graduate students, and university faculty.

Hope you can make it. Check out the workshop website here.

I will podcast Ed's UH lecture and we'll probably record the teaching seminar as well. Look for links in future posts.

[Photo credit here.]

A King for Our Times

Around this time every year, as with many, King is on the mind. For many years the "I have a dream" mantra has dotted the airwaves and enveloped the history classroom. I sought to try to begin changing that a few years ago--at least in my classroom.

My students had already memorized a good part of the "dream" speech in their literature classes, so I introduced them first to the King who had a doctorate in theology. I then introduced a King who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 by having students read the speech. Discussions were interesting. This assignment preceded my reading of a few paragraphs of King's 1967 Vietnam War speech. The prophet was speaking, and speaking loudly and clearly, and he suffered for it.

Who is King for our times? A radical King, a prophetic King.

Harvard Sitkoff, a historian at the University of New Hampshire, just published a new biography that recollects--or resurrects--a radical and religious King who saw as part of the call to justice economic equality and antiwar activism.

And how is King remembered by some? Historian Andrew Manis published a short piece in 2005 titled "White America and the MLK Holiday." It is a penetrating article, and deserves to be read and re-read every January if not more frequently. A sampling of lines: "White America loves the colorblind King of 1963, but we studiously avoid the more radical King of 1968," and "King's birthday is a wonderful opportunity for the majority of white Americans to awake from our dreamworld."



While King's "I Have a Dream" speech is a profound and important oration, let us not forget his equally powerful and prophetic musings from the late 1960s.

It is here we may find a King for our times.

[Photo credit here.]

Christmas with Du Bois, ca. 1909-10

O Thou Incarnate Word of God to man, make us this Christmas night to realize Thy truth; We are not Christians because we profess Thy name and celebrate the ceremonies and idly reiterate the prayers of the church, but only in so far as we really comprehend and follow the Christ spirit- we must be poor and not rich, meek and not proud, merciful and not oppressors, peaceful and not warlike or quarrelsome. For the sake of the righteousness of our cause we must bow to persecution and reviling, and again and again turn the stricken cheek to the striker; and above all the cause of our neighbor must be to us dearer than our own cause. This is Christianity. God help us all to be Christians. Amen.

Luke 2:8-14

Christmas

--from W.E.B. Du Bois, Prayers for Dark People, ed. Herbert Aptheker (U. of Mass. Press, 1980), p. 63

[Photo credit here.]

"For unto us a child was born...in Harlem...in 1924...."

As this time of year is the season of birth(s) and beginnings, what some call Advent, or an all-out capitalist bonanza at the store of your choice, it is also a time to remember a death--the 20-year commemoration of the passing of James Baldwin.

Readers of this blog are already aware of my affection for St. James.

Democracy Now recently devoted part of a show to Baldwin's legacy, interviewing his sister-in-law Carole Weinstein as well as actor Calvin Levels, who is performing a one-man-show of James Baldwin called "James Baldwin: Down From the Mountaintop." Hopefully it will come to Houston. (Read a review here.)

As I reflect on the life of St. James, particularly during the Advent season, I'm drawn to the hope--critical, exacting, honest, and yes, prophetic--resident in Baldwin's writing, his plays, his speaking, and above all the hope evidenced by his living. And, in a sense, Baldwin's words, whether written or spoken, seem to never return void.

So take time during the holiday season to read something of Jimmy's--The Fire Next Time, Another Country, Nobody Knows My Name, or anything else that comes to mind. Share your reflections and thoughts--gift someone with Baldwin during the holidays.

Or, you can following Baldwin on-line. Watch a C-SPAN special here. Visit the blog of Professor Zero who has a page of Baldwin links. For those more familiar with Baldwin's work, there's tons to read here, or here. Or, read Baldwin quotes with links to other great sites.

Finally, artist Claire Burch has created some wonderfully stunning artwork with Baldwin as its subject, shares articles and letters, and offers poetic reflections on St. James as well--ironically titled "Arrival of James Baldwin; Mysterious Circumstances."

This is Advent with St. James.

[Photo credit here.]

Merry Chri$tma$ with Rev. Billy

If you've seen Super Size Me, then you will want to go see this documentary. It opens at the River Oaks theatre in Houston on Dec. 7. Check it out. Read some reviews of the film here.

(HT: Brands of Faith)

[Photo credit here.]

No Holiday for the Spiritual Marketplace: Religious Celebrities in H-Town

The elevation of Houston Archbishop Daniel DiNardo to the position of Cardinal this weekend has me thinking of religious celebrities.

CBS affiliate KHOU has a newstory here that features an interview with DiNardo's sister, a Houston resident. See DiNardo's Houston-Galveston Archdiocese bio here, newstories from Pittsburgh, the priest's old stomping grounds (read here also). Houston Chronicle religion reporter Tara Dooley blogs about DiNardo here, and writes about DiNardo here.

Some of my current research deals broadly with this topic, and it is interesting to note that Houston--the nation's 4th largest city--is quickly becoming a haven for religious celebrities. If we consider Texas more broadly--we might as well call it the Lone Star Spiritual Marketplace. Perhaps I'll compose another blogpost on the state later on, but in the meantime read Roy Spence's The Amazing Faith of Texas. Check out the book's website here.

If you know Houston, the first religious celebrity that comes to mind is probably Joel Osteen. There are other Protestant and Catholic religious celebrities, as well as prominent folks from other faith traditions.

These figures may or may not embrace the title "religious celebrity," but today's hyper-capitalist society influences and informs the performative aspects of just about everything. Plus, the separation of church and state, dating back to the 1790s, first created the possibility for a religious or spiritual marketplace.

Scholars have written about religious celebrity (read about Dr. Phil here, and Mother Theresa here, for example), and one of the people to read on this topic is Kathryn Lofton--whose own work deals with Oprah and spirituality. Read here, here, and here, too.

So, since there's no holiday for America's spiritual marketplace, pardon the pun, feel free to leave your $.02 worth about the topic. Also, who are some other religious celebrities in Houston, or Texas more broadly?

[Photo credit here.]

On Writing

During these days of dissertation writing, essay composition, and other projects of various kinds, writing is on my mind--and I feel it in my fingers, too. I'm also reminded of some advice I once received from one of my former philosophy professors: "good writing is re-writing."





Writing readable prose comes from reading good writers, and I've read enough dense, academic stuff to know that writing clearly and in an engaging way takes a lot of work. To this end, John Fea has an interesting post over at the Religion in American History blog on who the best writers are in American religious history. Cast your vote.





On a side note, any good books to suggest on the craft of writing itself? I understand Stephen King has a book out on writing, which sounds like an interesting read.

[Photo credit here.]

Christmas in October

Perhaps it is rather vain to offer up unsolicited Christmas wish lists, but I can't resist mentioning two items since W.E.B. Du Bois has been a consistent topic on bald blogging.

I'd love to have a W.E.B. Du Bois doll on my desk to watch me as I read and write. This plush little toy would also certainly be a great asset in the classroom as a teaching aide.

And why not wear a W.E.B. Du Bois t-shirt on a day when I lecture about him? Or perhaps wear it when I go for my daily run? I can hear the questions from fellow joggers: "Excuse me, but is that the American Prophet on your t-shirt, and the Black Radical Democrat from Massachusetts?" What a great way to strike up conversations about history.

Although these are products worthy to receive as gifts, and despite the fact that I've taken a humorous tone, I wonder what Du Bois would think about this kind of commidifcation?

It is an interesting thought.

Market Shares Yielding Dividends for Joel Osteen, or Reflections on America's Spiritual Marketplace

Joel Osteen's stock in America's religious economy is up and rising.

Today Osteen's second book hits the stores. A follow-up to his first book, Your Best Life Now, by all accounts Become a Better You will far surpass Osteen's first book in sales and influence. Time will tell, as will Osteen's media presence this week. He was on 60 Minutes Sunday evening, will be on Good Morning America three times this week, Larry King Live on Tuesday, and will make a few other appearances as well.

Osteen is for many a household name by now. The "smiling preacher" (a phrase coined by Washington Post writer Lois Romano) from Texas whose positive preaching impacts millions, inspires countless others, and as testimonials attest, transforms many, makes a case to replace Billy Graham as America's (and perhaps across the world) leading evangelical.

He has one best-selling book, and most likely two, a massive church with state of the art everything, a huge following, and a message that offers second chances to those who want a fresh start. In short, to use the title of psychologist Dan McAdams's recent book, Osteen provides individuals with the possibility of acquiring a redemptive self. Everyone has a story of struggle, a tale of despair--as well as an end to the story that results in victory or inspires hope. McAdams focuses on these sorts of stories to discuss the redemptive self.

Osteen masterfully fills his sermons with just these kinds of stories, assures listeners that God smiles on them with great favor, and provides a simple formula for life change: think right and speak right. One can transform one's circumstances by the power of positive thinking and by uttering change into existence. And his books offer scores and scores of practical ways to achieve the redemptive self--one key I think to understanding his immense popularity. America is a land of second chances, and Osteen offers all of that and more.

So, do market shares yield dividends in America's religious economy? I'll leave that one to the theologians and doctrinal specialists.

The study of Osteen deserves more than doctrinal websites that proclaim the smiling preacher as a heretic, and more than just sound bites from theologians not readily associated with Osteen's denominational history.

For historians and other interested scholars the rise and presence of Joel Osteen (or any other megaminister) offers an important subject of study as we all try to make sense of the increasingly diverse and unboundingly fascinating landscape of American religion. There's currently one book on offer about Osteen, but it mainly collates media reports and offers a somewhat thorough but largely uncritical perspective on America's most popular preacher. More work remains.

As I've indicated in other posts, I'm persuaded that one way to understand megaministers and megachurches is to use a marketplace approach to studying American religion. Popularized by the likes of sociologists of religion--and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke in particular--this approach more or less see churches as firms that offer religious goods and services to spiritual consumers. This is not as reductionistic as it sounds, nor am I necessarily proposing statistical understandings of religious firms and spiritual consumers, but suggesting a historically-grounded sociological analysis tempered with insights drawn from anthropology, media studies, ethnography, etc. Using multiple angles of analysis, with enough participant-observation, allows one to examine conceptions of sacred space, understand the lived religion of participants and members, explore the uses of media, intersections between religion and commodification, etc. Check out Shayne Lee's book on T.D. Jakes, or Mara Einstein's study on branding and religion to get a better sense of what I mean. Perhaps you may want to read up on some current projects underway related to Osteen as well.

So, what do you think are productive, helpful ways to study such contemporary religious figures? What other theoretical perspectives might scholars deploy in their analysis? Also, if you caught Osteen on 60 Minutes or see him on any other the other shows this week, let us know your thoughts and reflections.

UPDATE: Mara weighs in on Joel's 60 Minutes segment last night and points out key features of the segment while she offers keen thoughts on Osteen's marketing tactics.

Mara's post prompted this further reflection about how Osteen is answering his critics now: It dawned on me watching the interview that Joel is starting to answer his critics differently--and it makes all the sense in the world from a marketplace perspective. He challenges his critics by saying that he is fulfilling God's specific call with his specific message--in other words he's fitting into his market niche and perfecting his message for that particular niche. Osteen's critics charge him with having a hollow theology and lite preaching, but he counters by saying that he's not a theologian or a scripture scholar therefore that's not his thing. It follows then, Osteen seems to imply, that his critics miss the point of his message and ministry and therefore their criticisms don't pass muster.

[Photo credit here.]