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Radio Preaching in Southern Appalachia



Author(s)

Rebecca Dean

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DOI:10.17265/2160-6579/2017.05.004

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Appalachian inspired Pentecostal radio preaching maintains the Protestant legacy of that region first settled through the medium of radio. These sermons are characterized by high levels of affect in delivery, and serve to differentiate “preacher culture” from those denominations that abandoned their original heritage for admittance into middle class status. Thus, preacher culture is an act of both religious and class descent because they are “inspired” by the Holy Spirit (that is, not composed before delivery). Gramscian notions of hegemony are used to interpret how “preacher culture” has maintained itself since the settlement by the northern British and the Scots to Appalachia. The genre of melodrama and “preacher culture” share significant parallels and content, dynamics of presentational styles, and because of these basic parallels, theories of melodrama offer analytical methods for analysis of the content of the inspired sermons and the way of life they elaborate. Gramscian notions of negotiation and consent are used to analyze the maintenance of “preacher culture”, which maintains both tradition and cultural specificity that is characteristic of southern Appalachia.

Preacher culture, southern Appalachian inspired radio preaching, cultural maintenance, cultural specificity