An Eternal Pitch examines the homiletic life and afterlife of Bishop G. E. Patterson, the dynamic spiritual leader of the Church of God in Christ from 2000 to 2007. Although Patterson died in 2007, his voice remains a staple of radio and television broadcast, and his sermons have taken on a life of their own online, where myriad YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok users enact innovative forms of religious broadcasting. Their preoccupation with Patterson’s “Afterliveness” punctuates the significance of Patterson’s preoccupation with musical repetition: across the decades of Patterson’s ministry, a set of musical gestures recur as sonic channels, bringing an individual sermon into contact with scripture’s eternal transmission.

About the Author

Braxton D. Shelley is Associate Professor of Music, Sacred Music, and Divinity at Yale University, where he is also Director of the Program in Music and the Black Church. He is the author of Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Author’s Note on Media Files
Acknowledgments
Prologue

Introduction
1. Broadcast Religion
2. Broadcast Medium
3. Broadcast Grammar
4. Broadcast Frequency, or The Politics of Key
5. Broadcast Ensemble: The Logic of the Prayer Cloth
Eternal Life: An Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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Reviews

"With fluid pen and discerning ear, An Eternal Pitch shows that broadcasting and recording need not be the enemy of the sacred: they can be its very vehicles. Bishop G. E. Patterson, a religious technophile of the first order, meets his perfect interpreter in Braxton Shelley, a scholar attuned to every nuance of prophetic pitch and transcendent technique."—John Durham Peters, Maria Rosa Menocal Professor of English and of Film and Media Studies, Yale University

"Uniquely groundbreaking in its analysis of media, Pentecostalism, and Black preaching, An Eternal Pitch reimagines the ways in which sonic techniques shape our relationship to spiritual and material worlds. Shelley's deft theoretical interpretation of Bishop Patterson's homiletic afterlife is a must-read, technical masterpiece for all those interested in how 'Broadcast Religion' has touched the lives of millions and reshaped a culture's relationship to the divine."—Marla Frederick, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

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