Background
Wheeler, Otis Bullard was born on February 1, 1921 in Mansfield, Arkansas, United States. Son of Clarence Charles and Georgia Elizabeth (Bullard) Wheeler.
(From Meetinghouse to Megachurch is a superb account, from...)
From Meetinghouse to Megachurch is a superb account, from the perspective of a material and cultural history, of the rise of the megachurch - a church architecturally designed to attract a large following. In 1970, there were only ten megachurches. By the mid 1990s, however, megachurches numbered around four hundred, representing nearly 2 percent of the Protestant churches in the United States. In this new study, Anne C. Loveland and Otis B. Wheeler demonstrate that megachurches evolved from multiple models and influences. The authors begin by focusing on the meetinghouses of the Protestant dissenters of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and the revival structures used by itinerant evangelists in the antebellum period. They proceed to the urban auditorium churches erected by evangelicals during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the gospel tents, tabernacles, and temples built by fundamentalists, holiness people, and pentecostals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and even the modern churches constructed by liberal, mainline Protestants during the mid-twentieth century. Loveland and Wheeler then focus on sixty-three of the more than one hundred modern megachurches they visited throughout the United States from 1996 to 2000 and treat representative churches of predominantly white, predominantly black, multiracial, and multiethnic congregations. They discuss both the exteriors and interiors of the megachuches, and how the structures reveal the congregations' perspectives on theology, worship practices, religious art and symbolism, evangelism, and community outreach. They argue that in their attempts to attract the masses, such churches have adapted architectural forms already proved to be effective in drawing and holding crowds. The authors stress two main themes in this book. The first one is the functionalist aesthetic that guided all of the church builders. The second is the way changes in evangelical architecture reflected and facilitated two important developments in the history of evangelical religion: the adaptation of church evangelism to changes in American culture and society, and the shift of emphasis from the preaching of the Word to music and other performing arts as well as from a participatory to a performance-oriented worship service. With more than 150 lavish illustrations, From Meetinghouse to Megachurch fills a significant gap in the historiography of evangelical religion in the United States. Church leaders, students of cultural and material history, church architects, or anyone interested in evangelism will find this book of great value.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826214800/?tag=2022091-20
English educator and university official
Wheeler, Otis Bullard was born on February 1, 1921 in Mansfield, Arkansas, United States. Son of Clarence Charles and Georgia Elizabeth (Bullard) Wheeler.
Bachelor, University Oklahoma, 1942. Master of Arts, University Texas, 1947. Doctor of Philosophy, University Minnesota, 1951.
Member of faculty, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, since 1952; Professor of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1965-1981; professor emeritus, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, since 1981; department chairman, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1974; assistant dean graduate school, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1962-1967; vice chancellor for academic affairs, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1974-1980; acting chancellor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1981. Fulbright-Hayes lecturer U. Innsbruck, Austria, 1968-1969.
(From Meetinghouse to Megachurch is a superb account, from...)
( An enormous number of churches and other religious stru...)
Served with United States Army, 1942-1946, 51-52. Member Phi Kappa Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa.
Married Doris Louise Alexander, January 17, 1943. Children: Ann Carolyn, Ross Charles. Married Anne Carol Loveland, March 23, 1991.