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T.D. Jakes: America's New Preacher
Examines the rise of one of the most prolific spiritual leader of modern times
T.D. Jakes has emerged as one of the most prolific spiritual leaders of our time. He is pastor of one of the largest churches in the country, CEO of a multimillion dollar empire, the host of a television program, author of a dozen bestsellers, and the producer of two Grammy Award-nominated CDs and three critically acclaimed plays. In 2001 Time magazine featured Jakes on the cover and Is Jakes the next Billy Graham?
T.D. Jakes draws on extensive research, including interviews with numerous friends and colleagues of Jakes, to examine both Jakes’s rise to prominence and proliferation of a faith industry bent on producing spiritual commodities for mass consumption. Lee frames Jakes and his success as a metaphor for changes in the Black Church and American Protestantism more broadly, looking at the ramifications of his rise―and the rise of similar preachers―for the way in which religion is practiced in this country, how social issues are confronted or ignored, and what is distinctly “American” about Jakes's emergence. While offering elements of biography, the work also seeks to shed light on important aspects of the contemporary American and African American religious experience.
Lee contends that Jakes’s widespread success symbolizes a religious realignment in which mainline churches nationwide are in decline, while innovative churches are experiencing phenomenal growth. He emphasizes the “American-ness” of Jakes’s story and reveals how preachers like Jakes are drawing followers by delivering therapeutic and transformative messages and providing spiritual commodities that are more in tune with postmodern sensibilities.
As the first work to critically examine Bishop Jakes’s life and message, T.D. Jakes is an important contribution to contemporary American religion as well as popular culture.
T.D. Jakes has emerged as one of the most prolific spiritual leaders of our time. He is pastor of one of the largest churches in the country, CEO of a multimillion dollar empire, the host of a television program, author of a dozen bestsellers, and the producer of two Grammy Award-nominated CDs and three critically acclaimed plays. In 2001 Time magazine featured Jakes on the cover and Is Jakes the next Billy Graham?
T.D. Jakes draws on extensive research, including interviews with numerous friends and colleagues of Jakes, to examine both Jakes’s rise to prominence and proliferation of a faith industry bent on producing spiritual commodities for mass consumption. Lee frames Jakes and his success as a metaphor for changes in the Black Church and American Protestantism more broadly, looking at the ramifications of his rise―and the rise of similar preachers―for the way in which religion is practiced in this country, how social issues are confronted or ignored, and what is distinctly “American” about Jakes's emergence. While offering elements of biography, the work also seeks to shed light on important aspects of the contemporary American and African American religious experience.
Lee contends that Jakes’s widespread success symbolizes a religious realignment in which mainline churches nationwide are in decline, while innovative churches are experiencing phenomenal growth. He emphasizes the “American-ness” of Jakes’s story and reveals how preachers like Jakes are drawing followers by delivering therapeutic and transformative messages and providing spiritual commodities that are more in tune with postmodern sensibilities.
As the first work to critically examine Bishop Jakes’s life and message, T.D. Jakes is an important contribution to contemporary American religion as well as popular culture.
201 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 16, 2012
Lee uses "America's preacher" to explain themes within the prosperity movement more generally. He claims Jakes personifies American ideals and postmodern features that resonate with a diversity of needs and cultural tastes. Jakes is self-empowering, pluralistic, high-tech, and multidimensional--making him emblematic of postmodern evangelicalism. He (and the "new black church") combine an other-wordly worship style with a this-worldly content emphasis. Lee claims he is a signpost for postdenominational protestantism in America. Lee claims no one was more influential to neo-Pentecostalism than Oral Roberts, and Jakes is following in this tradition. Lee is continuing with his Holy Mavericks thesis that preachers/churches who use innovation and adaptation to meet the needs of the laity are gaining followers, while mainline traditionalists are declining. He agrees with Milmon Harrison that the black community is attracted to the material and spiritual promises of the prosperity message. Lee points out how Jakes is leaning towards a doctrineless, inoffensive, palatable message to increase his market share. While Lee claims the black church "shatters" secularization theory, he says the message is bland and doctrineless (172). Of note is the observation that Pentecostalism was among the most anti-secular branches, yet neo-Pent has most readily embraced technology, secularism, and capitalism
August 16, 2007
I taught the film _Woman, Thou Art Loosed_ (Kim Elise, Clifton Powell, Debbi Morgan, Loretta Devine, T.D. Jakes) in a Religion in Lit and Film course last semester and it went pretty well, believe it or not. Shayne Lee's accessible chapter on Jakes as both a feminist *and* an anti-feminist was a SPLENDID (and pleasantly controversial) teaching tool. Plus, the book (the first ever on Jakes) is great in that Lee gives folk good and careful background on this preacher all-around. This was important to me because I needed something to introduce students to this man -- some knew of/about him, of course, but others (especially if not church-y or black) had never heard his name. We could all start on the "same page." I assigned Lee's intro (along with the fem/anti-fem chapter) as supplementary reading. Check it out.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews