| Within the past twenty-five years the religious landscape has undergone remarkable transformation. The rise of a new style of worship, the "megachuch", blends electronic media and contemporary architectural forms to produce a spectacular rendition of a traditional cultural practice. Their use of technology curies a particularly symbolic meaning; by re-purposing secular technologies, megachurches make visible God's hand at work in the conditions of 20th and 21st century mediated social life. This dissertation focuses on the media-architectural practices of a pioneering and influential megachurch, the Crystal Cathedral. Home to a congregation of more than 10,000 members and broadcast internationally, the Crystal Cathedral is one of the most visible Protestant churches in the world. Their unique history highlights the role Modern architecture and design played in transferring traditional Christian practices into a new technological regime. I will trace the church through three distinct formations: drive-in church (1955-1962), walk-in/drive-in/television church (1962-1980), and monumental postmodern edifice (1980-present). Together, these renderings link suburbia and automobility to television, modernism, and networked spatial formations. Ultimately, the production of this megachurch has been as much a reformation of religious aesthetics as a legitimation of postmodern geographies and mediated social life. |
