Prosperity Gospel in the Contemporary Society

Televangelism and the recent adaption of social media in religion has brought in new concepts and ways of doing things as concerns religious influence on culture and social aspects. These new and creative methods for correspondence can play out in a wide range of channels to incorporate web based life for example, Facebook and Twitter. Individuals visit online networking outlets and sites to get more data, see the administrations offered, and to contrast with different houses of worship. This paper looks into the current trends involving prosperity gospel and the theoretical frameworks explaining the circumstances. As noted throughout the research, there is need for a rethink of the theoretical frameworks explaining the prosperity gospel and similar subjects. Most of the major churches around the globe have initiated television and radio programs.

Megachurches in the U. S. have existed from about the nineteenth century especially during the industrialization and urbanization period. In any case, it was just in the mid-twentieth century that megachurches turned into a marvel in the United States of America when urbanization and industrialization had been well stablished. Broadcasting the morning administration from the Crystal Cathedral both broadened the span of the congregation and enabled individuals to appreciate Sunday adore benefit from the solace of their front rooms (Watson, and Scalen, 2008: 171). The occasion creations finish with exhibitions from live creatures and performing artists, were gone for carrying individuals into the congregation to see, hear and encounter scriptural stories. Different gospel teachings would be enacted and broadcasted through the television. However, maybe more essential than those ensemble shows, was establishing Minister Robert Schuller's plan to utilize a neighborhood drive-in motion picture theater for Sunday administrations.

Roused in any event to a limited extent by the absence of accessibility of different settings, Schuller turned the need of meeting in a drive-in theater into a social adjustment (Borowik, 2011: 177). Some of the Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of megachurches have more than 10,000 followers. These quantities of members indicate how the assemblage leans towards to impart on Facebook and Twitter and maybe different types of web based life (Bonds-Raacke and Raacke, 2010: 27). Both methods for correspondence give data about occasions and take into consideration cooperation between the congregation and the assembly. The delights, for example, to get data, to feel near God and as an escape, feature particular internet based life the congregation ought to proceed to utilize and others they can dispense with.

Church pioneers take signals from these patterns in arranging ministry components, for example, transitory Facebook pages for a present arrangement, advanced mobile phone applications and so forth. Amid the time for testing before they completely confer; and generally, church initiative is completely mindful of this pattern. The web opens a large group of possibilities for houses of worship to advertise their fundamental belief systems too as fusing the everyday parts of the World Wide Web (Campbell, 2005: 22). These sorts of media take into account open correspondence between the congregation also, individuals who go to, also motion picture cuts, music cuts, and other famous casings of reference that may be utilized to make a sermon significant and satisfying. Individuals who go to non-denominational mega houses of worship have an interesting knowledge contrasted with conventional divisions.

All chapels are unique yet some utilization smoke machines, video, live groups, electrical instruments, DJs, multifaceted lighting, voting through instant messages, hashtags with internet based life, well known mainstream tunes, and the sky is the limit from there (Kim, 2007: 209). Marx argued that “religion is the opium of the people. ” In this perspective, Karl Marx asserted that religion is meant to calm uncertainty in the society especially with regards to people’s roles and with a focus on maintaining a status quo (Uchegbue, 2011: 52). In addition, the theory addresses the issue of social inequalities in the society which are brought about class structures. The current religious setting has also these divisions whereby the preachers and the followers fall into different categories. There is disparity between the preachers and the followers in terms of economic and social status.

Marx contended that religion could do this by promising prizes in the great beyond, rather than in this life (Uchegbue, 2011: 52). Marx is requiring the working class to dispose of religion and its duplicity about other common occasions. At exactly that point would this class of individuals have the capacity to ascend against the bourgeoisie and pick up control of the methods for generation, and at exactly that point would they accomplish genuine prizes, in this life (Farris, 2000: 465). Consequently, the social-clash way to deal with religion features how religion, as a wonder of human conduct, capacities to keep up social disparity by giving a perspective that legitimizes abuse. Social Phenomenology Social phenomenology is a concept inside social science that means to uncover what part human knowledge acts in the generation of activities, circumstances and the world of sociology (Shaikh, 2013: 5).

The theoretical framework takes a glance at the unpredictability of the world around us and endeavors to comprehend it. Moreover, the perspective plans to locate the general request of social frameworks, and especially social frameworks that are like each other. The suspicion here is that the capriciousness in a framework can be spoken to as general conduct, which gives some measure of consistency, notwithstanding when the framework is insecure (Farazmand, 2003: 341). A system that is chaotic is not necessarily an irregular framework. Such frameworks exhibit some direction and a particular quality that influences the general behavior. Social Exchange Theory Social exchange perspective is an approach for unraveling the social world as an association of correspondences amongst people and depending assessments of rewards (Shaikh, 2013: 8).

As showed by the theory, society’s joint efforts are directed by the gains each individual anticipates gaining from the rest of the society in which they are part of. Principal to the theory is the possibility that a collaboration that rewards support to an individual would most stir a reiteration of similar actions unlike a relationship which brings disappointment. In this case, individuals would gain the ability to anticipate whether an affiliation would be strengthened by processing the reward levels (support) or disappointment towards fruition as result of the relationship (Shaikh, 2013: 8). Whenever the reward of associating with a particular individual or group of people is larger than the disadvantages then, such an association is more likely to thrive. Consistently, reasonable choice researchers have ended up being logically numerical (McKinnon, 2012: 530).

Rational choice scholars have fought that comparable general measures could be utilized to appreciate communications between human beings where information, underwriting, and greatness constitute some of benefits shared (Shaikh, 2013: 2). In accordance with this perspective, persons are impelled by their own particular needs. The targets are normally influenced by singular needs. Because it is not useful for persons to accomplish most of the diverse goals, they should settle on picks which are closed connected to the objectives and the strategies for achieving the targets. Subjective consequences are granted matchless quality for it is hypothesized that individuals demonstrate in light of what they accept and not the fair-mindedly significant issues. The Functionalist Perspective The functionalist hypothesis, also referred to as functionalism, is among the real theoretical viewpoints in sociology.

The theory was crafted by Emile Durkheim. Everything thought of it as, is a speculation that spotlights on the full scale level structure of the social world, rather than the tiny scale level of customary day by day presence (Thompson, 2013: 180). Researchers such as Herbert Spencer, Talcott Parsons, and Robert K Merton also made substantial contributions in the development of this perspective as dictated by prevailing conditions as of when they were active. He has very instrumental in building up success gospel around the world through televangelism (CNN Library, 2018). William Franklin Graham Jr. (famously known as Billy Graham), November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018, was an American evangelist, a prominent religious figure, and a designated Southern Baptist serve who ended up being outstanding all-inclusive in the late 1940s (Christianity Today International, 2018).

Biographers have put him among the most influential Christian pioneers of the twentieth century. As an evangelist, he sorted out enormous indoor and outside revives with messages disseminated on radio and TV; some were at the same time being re-conveyed into the 21st century. Most of the major churches around the globe have initiated television and radio programs. Megachurches in the U. S. have existed from about the nineteenth century especially during the industrialization and urbanization period. In any case, it was just in the mid-twentieth century that megachurches turned into a marvel in the United States of America when urbanization and industrialization had been well stablished. "The Changing Meanings of Religion. Sociological Theories of Religion in the Perspective of the Last 100 Years.