Preaching to Convert: Evangelical Outreach and Performance Activism in a Secular Age John Fletcher. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013.

Preaching to Convert: Evangelical Outreach and Performance Activism in a Secular Age John Fletcher. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013.Fletcher in Preaching to Convert demonstrates a carefully, methodical, and extensively researched approach to his examination of evangelical outreach efforts. As a "theater historian" trained "to identify, categorize, and interpret evidence" (11), he studies "performances that aim to change the world" (2). More than providing an intriguing new perspective on evangelicals, the author sets out on his own mission to include evangelicals "in the performance activist conversation in the United States" (4). He argues, "evangelicalism qua activism" should be included in any conversations "about the aims and methods of social change performance practices" (4). He describes evangelicals as being "by nature performance activists" (3), stating the simple point, "Evangelicals evangelize. They seek converts" (3). In doing so, they bring to bear "every tactic employed by performance activists the world over" (3). Like the "progressive left" in theater for social change, evangelicals grapple with exclusivistinclusivist tensions, "proclaiming a straight-and-narrow message" of salvation while, at the same time, making the presentation as "broadly inclusive as possible" (5). They wrestle with the "same problems, conundrums, and frustrations that confront activist performers" relative to facilitating "worldview shifts" in people (3).Organizing his work into four sections of two chapters each, Fletcher presents key definitions and an overview of performance activist scholarship in the first chapter. Abandoning any attempt to define evangelicalism in exact ways, he examines its movements through historical, sociological, and theological perspectives in his second chapter. Chapters Three and Four address personal, kerygmatic ("gospel of Christ") and meta-kerygmatic proclamation, the latter becoming more aggressive, confrontational, and persuasive. The third section (Chapters Five and Six) zooms to "large-scale.. .'theatrical' evangelism performance" (9). Chapter Five explores "walk-through" dramas known as "hell houses" and "judgment" houses. Chapter Six "examines Creation Museum," a multi-milliondo liar combination of science museum and discoveryfun-center based around a strictly young-earth creationist viewpoint" (9). The final section (Chapters Seven and Eight) describes how weekend worship services have been "re-imagined" to attract new members and concludes by looking at individual conversion ministries aimed to help people with same-sex attractions (11).Preaching to Convert critiques a "progressive left" in the theater for social change that allows its "inclusivity imperatives" to clash with the "exclusivity of its value claims" (4). Inclusivity calls for "openness, tolerance, and plural deliberations," yet, ironically, the "progressive left" has excluded those who disagree with its singular notions of "justice, quality, and empowerment," including evangelicals traditionally thought of as representing the oppression, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness that "performance activists have to work against" (4). …