Holy Mavericks Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace [Hardcover]

Joel Osteen, Paula White, T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, write best-selling books, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism today. Spurred by the phenomenal appeal of these religious innovators, sociologist Shayne Lee and historian Phillip Luke Sinitiere investigate how they operate and how their style of religious expression fits into America’s cultural landscape. Drawing from the theory of religious economy, the authors offer new perspectives on evangelical leadership and key insights into why some religious movements thrive while others decline.

Holy Mavericksprovides a useful overview of contemporary evangelicalism while emphasizing the importance of supply-side thinking in understanding shifts in American religion. It reveals how the Christian world hosts a culture of celebrity very similar to the secular realm, particularly in terms of marketing, branding, and publicity.Holy Mavericksreaffirms that religion is always in conversation with the larger society in which it is embedded, and that it is imperative to understand how those religious suppliers who are able to change with the times will outlast those who are not.

"A fascinating journey into the worlds of five of the most influential religious leaders in the United States.Holy Mavericksprovides an open window to view change both in American religion and American culture. In reading this book, you will find that these five religious giants do not practice old time religion, and yet, ironically, they do.Holy Mavericksshows us how."
-Michael O. Emerson,co-author ofPeople of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States