Christendom, the ummah and community in the age of televangelism

The author extends the comparative analysis of religion in late modernity beyond its place of origin in North Atlantic Christian-heritage countries to the Muslim world, asking whether processes of industrial and post-industrial change that have intensified religious individualization and the erosion of the parish-based religious community in the early-developer countries have stimulated similar transformations in the social forms of religious life in the later-developing Muslim-heritage countries as well. Analysis of a newly salient type of religious mobilization in Muslim Indonesia – mass audience religious revival (dakwah) ministries promoted through televangelism and mass prayer rallies – shows that key features of late-modern North Atlantic religiosity, including seeker spirituality, fluidity of participation, the importance of religious experience, the prominence of lay leaders and preference for an immanent, loving God, are also evident in these new Asian Islamic mobilizations.