The Famous Faithful: Classifying Evangelical Celebrities on Social Media

Abstract Studies of media, religion, and society have often connected religion and celebrity culture in ways that apply religious concepts and terminology to secular celebrities. This article reverses this trend and calls attention to the importance of religious celebrities, or celebrities who specifically emerge within and contribute to specific religious contexts. After reviewing recent literature at the intersections of celebrity, influencer, and religious cultures, this article offers a basic classificatory schema that describes distinct types of religious celebrities within the evangelical Christian context in the United States. These categories, descriptions, and definitions serve as the starting point for discussions about religious celebrity, social media, and culture, and invite complication, clarification, and diversification by future research.