Religious broadcasting 1920 - 1980: Four religious broadcast pioneers and the process of evangelization

Abstract

This dissertation, through an examination of four religious broadcast pioneers, investigates the development of the broadcast technologies of radio and television and their influence on the process of evangelization in the American Christian experience of the twentieth century. The religious broadcasters are examined in two pairs of a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian according to two specific periods of technological development: (1) the advent of religious broadcasting and the radio; (2) the transition from radio to television as the medium of religious broadcasting. The process of evangelization and the spiritual roots and denominational traditions of the four religious broadcast pioneers—Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, Father Charles E. Coughlin, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and Reverend Robert H. Schuller—are discussed. This study contributes to the existing body of literature in the areas of the history and the development of broadcast technology, the history of twentieth-century American religious broadcasting, and the role of broadcast technology in the process of Christian evangelization.

First Advisor

Khalil Habib

Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

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