In Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church, Katelyn Beaty argues that celebrity is a fixture of contemporary evangelical Christianity, not an anomaly, and that “a life well lived, not a brand well-cultivated” is what should bring accolades (6, 8). Beaty seeks to highlight the difference between fame and celebrity, and argues that Christians would do better to seek icons rather than idols. She does this in several ways: she traces the history of the first evangelical celebrities such as D.L. Moody and Billy Graham; she outlines the rise of the megachurch and celebrity pastor movement by following the rise and fall of Bill Hybels and the claims of bullying and abuse surrounding his church leadership; she expounds on three temptations facing Christian leaders using fallen evangelical leaders as illustrations of each; and she uses the final two chapters to argue for the necessity of everyday, obscure faithfulness as the antidote to celebrity in the Christian church.
Beaty offers a helpful definition of celebrity as “social power without proximity” (17), and contrasts it to fame, which is attributed to someone because of their “skill, innovation, or accomplishment” (8). One of the major strengths of Beaty’s book is her apt and timely illustrations of the failure of Christian celebrity culture. She has her finger on the pulse of pop culture as well as evangelical culture and this, coupled with her willingness to share personal stories, will certainly strike a chord with her audience. By interspersing the book with her own story of growing up in the evangelicalism of the 1990s and early aughts, Beaty powerfully illustrates how extensively evangelical celebrity culture permeated (and still permeates) all aspects of individual churchgoers’ lives at that time, whether they intentionally sought out celebrity pastors or not.
Using recent falls from grace to show how abuse, narcissism, and moral hypocrisy are ripe for growth in environments where one man (and it is always a man in the environments she describes) is considered the chosen instrument of Christ, Beaty expounds upon these instances to answer the question: “How did we get here?” She argues that by giving celebrity pastors and parachurch leaders power without true peers to call them to account when they need rebuke or correction, and by platforming them after they have proven to be immature or problematic, the evangelical church as a whole carries part of the responsibility for the environment in which they thrive unchecked.
But Beaty does not merely address how we got here. She also asks, “Where do we go from here?” With all the setup she has done in the first two parts of the book, her proposal is poignant. Beaty explores her own faith journey, asking why she has stayed in the Christian faith despite the deconversion of many of her peers. The answer she arrives at centers on the ordinary Christians she knows who remain faithful “day in and day out” (161). For Beaty, these ordinary Christians are the icons that embody the image of Christ.
A great strength of the book is Beaty’s ability to cut to the heart of the matter while also engaging the reader through her own personal narratives. Every story Beaty tells about her own reckoning with the entanglement of evangelical church culture and celebrity is a mirror to the larger narrative of evangelicalism. Another strength is Beaty’s ability to define her terms clearly and succinctly. The definition of celebrity—“social power without proximity”— stands out as a strong example and is a key concept throughout the book. Beaty also is clear in her intention to combine contemporary issues in Christian church culture with pop culture and to present these topics from a journalistic point of view. The result is a book written about theological issues in a fresh style, free from jargon, and offered by a gifted crafter of words.
One way the book could have been even stronger is if it engaged more theological resources, though her engagement with books like Kate Bowler’s The Preacher’s Wife (Princeton University Press, 2019) and Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1989) is well done. It is clear that Beaty seeks to keep her book understandable and free of jargon, which is commendable, but in dealing with the topic of ecclesiology, Beaty’s work could benefit from engaging with evangelicals from more diverse backgrounds. While her book may have a largely white evangelical audience in mind, it would have been fascinating to see her in conversation with more Christian churches that identify as both evangelical and predominantly non-white. Doing so would provide critique from within but from a perspective that is more rarely consulted. Even engaging with some of the scholars critiquing White Evangelicalism from other traditions could help illustrate her arguments from another angle.
From beginning to end, Celebrities for Jesus is a captivating read with rich resources for Christian churches confronting evangelical celebrity culture and its aftermath. Beaty offers more than a summary of the problems: she proposes a clear solution. By proposing that Christians seek to live faithful, ordinary lives, rather than trying to “do big things for God,” and to honor those who embody this way of living, Beaty gives her readers practical guidance to untangle the Christian church from celebrity culture. This book would be a helpful resource for small group study in Christian churches wrestling with these issues, and it could also be used in seminary ministry courses to help future ministers avoid pitfalls. Beaty’s succinct and playful writing style, combined with her thorough research and excellent journalistic instincts, make Celebrities for Jesus a powerful read that is refreshingly accessible. It is an excellent resource for individuals, church communities, and seminary courses alike.
Luci Frerichs Parrish is a postgraduate research student at Nazarene Theological College.
Luci Frerichs Parrish
Date Of Review:
April 3, 2023