MAGIC WITH A MESSAGE: The Poetics of Christian Conjuring

This article examines the performance practices of U.S. gospel magicians, evangelical Christians who convey religious messages with conjuring tricks. Emphatically denying that they possess supernatural powers and scrupulously avoiding effects that resemble biblical miracles, they take pains to prese...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jones, Graham M. (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013-11-06T21:41:54Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
LEADER 01574 am a22001813u 4500
001 82013
042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Jones, Graham M.  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Jones, Graham M.  |e contributor 
245 0 0 |a MAGIC WITH A MESSAGE: The Poetics of Christian Conjuring 
260 |b John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,   |c 2013-11-06T21:41:54Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82013 
520 |a This article examines the performance practices of U.S. gospel magicians, evangelical Christians who convey religious messages with conjuring tricks. Emphatically denying that they possess supernatural powers and scrupulously avoiding effects that resemble biblical miracles, they take pains to present their tricks as unambiguously skillful performances intended to entertain, uplift, and instruct. When patterned on a Christian motif, otherwise self-referential magic tricks constitute a versatile signifying medium. Addressing the poetics of gospel magic in the setting of instructional workshops, this analysis explores a variety of ways performers utilize iconic resemblances between conjuring effects and Christian referents to produce complex and evocative expressions of faith. At the same time, they carefully manage signifiers of virtuosic agency that are intrinsic to the efficacy of gospel magic performance, but that also threaten to undermine their Christian message. 
520 |a Fellowship of Christian Magicians 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Cultural Anthropology