THE CORE BELIEFS OF SOUTHERN EVANGELICALS:
A PSYCHO-SOCIAL INVESTIGATION OF THE
EVANGELICAL MEGACHURCH PHENOMENON
JENNIFER EATON DYER
Dissertation under the direction of Professor Lewis V. Baldwin
In this dissertation, I explore the worldview of southern evangelicals. In doing so, I first describe the current, thriving evangelical subculture including the social, political, and commercial spheres of influence and behavior. Because evangelicalism predominantly arises out of southern culture, I explore the interplay of influence between southern cultural themes and evangelical themes in myth, perception, and reality. Furthermore, I consider how southern evangelicalism and evangelical behavior now influence greater America, particularly through the evangelical megachurch phenomenon.
I investigate the evangelical megachurch phenomenon from both a sociological and psychological perspective. With a critique of rational choice theory, I suggest the theatre, as an alternative model to the marketplace, may be the best model by which to understand the megachurch today. Concomitantly, I approach a psychological understanding of evangelicals from three different psychological schools of thought: object-relations theory, psychoanalytic development theory, and cognitive theory. All provide a different angle by which to understand the thought-world of evangelicals in the megachurch, yet all point to the fundamental core beliefs of evangelicals as helplessness and unloveability. Thus, cognitive theory provides the best theory by which to understand the psychology of evangelicals. In this research, I provide a new way to understand southern evangelicals using a psychological lens.
Approved: Professor Lewis V. Baldwin
Date: March 12, 2007
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03142007-161353 |
| Date | 12 April 2007 |
| Creators | Dyer, Jennifer Eaton |
| Contributors | Lewis V. Baldwin |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03142007-161353/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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