| In the wake of the so-called return-to-religion both in the academy and American contemporary life, my dissertation applies rhetorical analysis to religious discourse in order to study the evolving language of the megachurch. My study seeks to understand the relationship between rhetoric and homiletics at work in the proliferation of Protestant megachurches over the past three decades and speculates that both have altered the face of American religion. I provide the historical context within which the megachurch movement emerged as well as discourse analysis of the evolving religious rhetoric at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, a distinctly social-justice oriented megachurch led by preacher Rob Bell. My case study complicates the over-hasty generalization in recent academic portrayals of the rhetoric of religion in America, revealing a more liberal rhetoric and social activism at work than quick dismissals of Christian discourse have allowed.;I contend that foundational moments in history give rise to distinct habiti that consequently shape the ways that communities identify and interact with one another. Influenced by rhetorical, cultural studies, communications, and sociology of religion theory, I use the Ciceronian topics, the concepts of commonplace and kairos, Pierre Bourdieu's habitus, and Kenneth Burke's critical frameworks of logology and identification, to analyze the contemporary texts of pastor Rob Bell---his sermons, podcasts, books, short films, and speaking tours---in order to elucidate how studying one particular megachurch's rapprochement with American culture offers critical insight into the contemporary values, class structure, and politics of evangelical Christianity. I provide instances of how the church latches on to other discourses such as capitalism and environmentalism, and I demonstrate a methodology for how to analyze discourse at work in social institutions. Ultimately I argue that the rhetorical commonplaces of "community," "empire," and "paradox" establish identification at a specific megachurch in Western Michigan and provide a nuanced narrative about the constantly changing rhetoric of religion in America. |
