Theme Park Bibles

Trinity Broadcasting Network's Holy Land Experience and the Evangelical Use of the Documentary Past

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12872467
AutoresJana Mathews (0000-0002-2265-4203, Rollins College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen27
Número2
Páginas89-104
Fecha de publicación2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Religion and Popular Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1703-289X • E-ISSN: 1703-289X
EditorialUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.3138/jrpc.27.2.2615
OpenAlexW2287534261
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas18

Trinity Broadcasting Network's (TBN) Holy Land Experience (HLE) is a bible-themed amusement park in Orlando, Florida, that also is home to one of the world's largest collections of biblical antiquities. This article contributes to the efflorescence of scholarship on biblical geographies by considering what it means to encounter an old bible in an unconventional place. Using HLE's theatrical presentation of its bible collection as a case in point, I show how ancient and pre-modern material bibles are recruited to serve as authorizing agents of televised evangelism. Specifically, I argue that the theme park grafts TBN into the lineage of the Bible and, in doing so, enacts a fundamental revision to the definition of “biblical literacy.”

Adornment · Aesthetics · Art · Evangelism · Literature · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Theme (computing · Theology · History · Law · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces