Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in Twenty-First-Century America

2/ Energetic Enactments of Jesus

50 2 Energetic Enactments of Jesus As with all dramaturgical systems, evangelical dramaturgy’s tactics promote certain ways of seeing or experiencing the world. In the previous chapter, I argued that evangelical dramaturgy shapes the rhythmic points of contact between medium and user in order to create resonant and commodifiable experiences. Those experiences orient the believer-user’s religious selfdiscovery through certain conceptualizations of representation and religious experience, affective piety, and engaged orthodoxy. In this chapter I focus on the specific point of contact between actor and spectator. Borrowing concepts from Phillip Zarrilli’s psychophysical acting theory,1 I will suggest that actors in certain evangelical performances use dramaturgical strategies designed to cultivate an “energetic” performer-audience dynamic that will foster “religiously real” re-experiences for spectators. To demonstrate this, I analyze “Last Supper Communion,” the performance event at Holy Land Experience (HLE) that I described briefly at the end of Chapter One. Holy land Re-experience Holy Land Experience promises visitors an inspiring, educational, theatrical, and historical multisensory encounter “that takes you 7000 miles away and 2000 years back in time to the land of the Bible.” The park’s website claims, “Its combination of sights, sounds, and tastes will stimulate your senses and blend together to create a spectacular new experience.”2 ITEC, the theme park design company that worked on HLE, “thoroughly researched every Energetic Enactments of Jesus 51 detail of biblical Jerusalem and its environs” as part of their “commitment to accuracy.”3 Yet, as the ITEC project description explains, because of the vast time span that the park tries to represent, the designers had to make very specific choices about what to include in order to make HLE understandable for guests: Every ITEC project begins with the crafting of a story that forms the heart of the guest experience and guides the designers in the creative development process. With The Holy Land Experience, where the “story” is the entire Bible, ITEC’s designers carefully selected personalities, places and events that best represent key biblical ideas identified by the client. The larger story was thus broken down into separate museum-quality experiences, each able to stand alone. Collectively, however, they provide guests with a deeper, more thorough understanding of the Bible as a whole.4 This approach alone suggests compatibility between the theme park genre and evangelical dramaturgy. Both use material, spatial, and performative means to engage visitors in lived experiences that will engender meaningful knowledge. The Christian missionary organization Zion’s Hope opened HLE in February 2001. The motivating force behind the $16 million project was Marv Rosenthal, founding president and executive director of Zion’s Hope. Rosenthal was raised in a conservative Jewish household but converted to Christianity as a teenager and later became an ordained Baptist minister. Conversion , particularly of Jews, is the central mission of Zion’s Hope: The Purpose of Zion’s Hope is a simple one, yet also bold, direct, and farreaching . Zion’s Hope seeks to graciously proclaim to the Jewish people their need for personal salvation through Jesus the Messiah and to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all men regardless of race, religion, gender, education, or national origin. Accordingly, Zion’s Hope seeks to educate the Bible-believing Church concerning the place of Israel in both history and prophecy and assist it in fulfilling its God-given obligation to rightfully include the Jewish people in its program for world evangelism. Zion’s Hope is also committed to using the latest resources and media forms to achieve these goals: 52 Sensational Devotion Our call is to communicate the unchanging message of saving grace through faith in Christ alone. But while our message is fixed, our methods of communicating that message are flexible. We continually strive to employ new and innovative ways of sharing the truth of God’s Word with a world that is desperately searching for real answers.5 In many respects, Holy Land Experience represents the perfect manifestation of that philosophy. Almost 30,000 people visited HLE in its first year of operation. However, in subsequent years dwindling numbers led to financial problems until, in 2005, HLE and Zion’s Hope parted ways.6 Tom Powell was named president of the park, and in 2007 he brokered a merger between HLE and Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the largest religious broadcasting network in the world.7 A 2007 TBN press release asserted...