Pentevangelical youth subcultures
Between resistance and compromise
BY IBRAHIM ABRAHAM
Although there is a continuing decline in religiosity in
Australia, significant changes to religious identity and
practice involving young people are occurring within and
around conservative Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity.
While contextualising and quantifying the growth of
“Pentevangelicalism”, this article also argues that the social
identity and practice of young Pentevangelicals is of a
“subcultural” form, deriving from a sense of contradiction
with what is conceived of as the dominant culture of
liberal secularism. Critically analysing existing theories of
Evangelical subcultures, the article draws on interviews
with Pentevangelical punks in Australia to illustrate the
tension between resistance and compromise that frames
Pentevangelical youth subcultures.
An article about youth subcultures emerging
Hebdige 1979), has long been overtaken by less
from within Evangelical and Pentecostal
radical, more empirical categorisations such as
Christianity – “Pentevangelicalism” – may
“scenes”, “networks” and “neo tribes” (Muggleton
seem old fashioned. While religions thrive in
& Weinzierl 2003; Bennett 2011). This article will
much of the developing world, Religion has
argue, however, that within the overall decline
continued to decline in Australia and similar
of religiosity in Australia, significant changes
countries to the point that Generation Y –
to religious identity and practice affecting
those born in the 1980s and after – is the
young people have been occurring within
least conventionally religious generation on
and around Pentevangelicalism, changes that
record (Pew Research Centre 2010; Bruce 2011,
a youth subcultures perspective can help to
pp.69-71). Moreover, the very notion of youth
understand. My case study will be the Australian
“subcultures”, popularised by Marxists in the
Pentevangelical punk rock subculture.
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
(CCCS) in the 1970s (Hall & Jefferson 1976;
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
The significance of changes within the religious
lives of young Australians has been intensified
by the decline of traditional religion. Because
other Pentevangelical youth subculture.1
of their commitment to traditional morality, to
sharing their beliefs with others, to the notion
of God’s supernatural presence in everyday life,
and to engaging with popular culture, the sheer
otherness of young Pentevangelical Christians is
more obvious than ever. Part of this otherness
is Pentevangelicalism’s moral seriousness.
The subcultural forms Pentevangelicalism
assumes, like Pentevangelical punk, debate the
fate of our eternal souls and the very origins
of the universe. This makes them difficult
to fold into “post-subcultural” categories of
youth culture, such as neo-tribes, which have
moved towards more ephemeral connections
based on fluctuating tastes and consumerism.
So although different from the CCCS’s classbased subculture theory, the notion of youth
subculture emerging from an experience of
contradiction with what is conceived of as the
dominant culture of a secular, liberal capitalist
society like Australia helps explain the vitality
of Pentevangelical youth culture, as well as
illustrating the tension between resistance and
compromise these youth cultures experience.
The first part of this article will contextualise
Pentevangelical beliefs and practices
among Australian youth, drawing on recent
surveys. The second part will analyse
recent studies of specifically Evangelical
subcultures, focusing on ethnographies of
Evangelical university students. The final
part of this article will draw on fieldwork in
Australia’s Pentevangelical punk scene to
illustrate the ways in which one example of
Pentevangelicalism engages secular culture
to strengthen religiosity by resisting what is
viewed as the superficiality of mainstream
culture. Seeking to negotiate identity and
maintain a sense of belonging with irreligious
and anti-religious peers, Pentevangelical
punk also demonstrates the tension between
resistance and compromise that frames
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
Contextualising Australia’s
pentevangelical youth
“Pentevangelicalism” is a collection of beliefs
and practices emerging from within Protestant
Christianity, reflecting the intertwined nature
of long-established Evangelical churches
that emphasise personal commitment to
traditional Christian beliefs, and more
recent Pentecostal forms of Christianity that
focus on individual ecstatic experiences.
Evangelicalism owes its origins to the emergence
of European modernity, offering a personal
and comforting faith in the face of social
upheaval. Pentecostalism can be traced to the
early 1900s, emerging within marginalised
communities in the western United States whose
enthusiasm for intense religious experiences
contrasted with the rise of the United States
as a modern, industrial superpower. Despite
emerging from dissatisfactions with modern
life, Pentevangelicalism emphasises modern
individualism, adopting the language of personal
self-discovery familiar within secular ideologies
such as Romanticism and mass consumerism.2
Fundamental to what is a deeply emotional
identity is the act of being “born again” in
which an individual, regardless of religious
upbringing, makes a personal commitment
to Christian faith. Charles Taylor (1989, 2007)
argues this emphasis on embodied belief over
abstract dogma, and the rhetoric of individual
autonomy that comes from choosing your
own salvation, is the basis of the appeal of
Pentevangelicalism among contemporary youth.
Pentevangelicalism offers young people a reality
pregnant with possibility; the miraculous is
an everyday occurrence, and Christianity is
a physical activity in which worshipping God
involves jumping for joy. Pentevangelicalism
is not mere emotion; conservative doctrine
frames ecstatic experience and makes its
comprehensible. However, in contrast with
Within the macro-level “subtraction story”
“mainline” churches that are more willing to
(Taylor 2007, p.22) of the decline of Australian
incorporate the discoveries of the natural and
Christianity, micro-level changes are creating
social sciences and less willing to subsume life’s
a more diverse religious scene in which a
mysteries and miseries to a theology offering
minority of young people’s religious differences
miraculous solutions, the personal reassurance
are surprisingly visible. The emergence of
found in a faith grounded in an epistemology
vibrant Pentevangelicalism complicates
of “feeling right” (Flory & Miller 2008, pp.131-
assumptions about the trajectories of modernity,
32) is apparent within Pentevangelicalism.
such as assuming that increased affluence,
Understanding Pentevangelicalism as an intense
modern identity in tension with modern
society helps explain why Pentevangelical
youth subcultures develop; they are a part of
the cultural make-up of a world they are highly
critical of. Pentevangelicalism also needs to be
acknowledged as a minority concern among
Australian youth to understand its subcultural
manifestations. The 2011 Census records 61% of
Australians of all ages identifying as Christians,
down from 65% in 2001, and over 96% in 1901
individualism, technology and stability would
continue religious “regression to the mean”,
ironing out all but insignificant idiosyncrasies
(Bruce 2002, pp.140-50). Rather, Pentevangelical
churches have grown by differentiating
themselves from modernity’s most profound
changes. As I will argue in the next section, this
is constitutive of the “subcultural” nature of
much Pentevangelical activity that maintains
clear symbolic boundaries with dominant
cultural patterns, relishing cultural difference.
(Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012). This
Surveys of Australian religious life contextualise
decline is more apparent among young people.
these micro-level changes. The number of
The Spirit of Generation Y survey revealed 46%
young Pentevangelicals is small; the Spirit of
of young Australians identify as Christians,
Generation Y coded just 3% of young Australians
but just 17% of the sample is “engaged” with
as explicitly Evangelical (0.6%) or Pentecostal
Christian religious life (Mason, Singleton &
(2.4%). In addition, it can be assumed that
Webber 2007, p.69). Although around 20% of
‘implicitly’ Pentevangelical young people exist
young Australians can be classified has having
within branches of the Baptist and Anglican
an interested and inquiring approach to religion
churches; 1.6% of young Australians were
and spirituality, the Spirit of Generation Y report
coded as Baptist and 7.7% were coded as
rejects the notion that contemporary Australian
Anglican in the Spirit of Generation Y survey
youth are “spiritual seekers” hungering after
(Mason, Singleton & Webber 2007, p.72). These
transcendent truths (Mason, Singleton &
comparatively small numbers are not the whole
Webber 2007, pp.175-202). Similarly, Christian
story, however; attendance at Baptist churches
Smith’s (2005, pp.77-86) study of American
grew 9% between 1991 and 2001, while the
youth challenges the notion that American
Pentecostal Assemblies of God churches grew
teenagers are “spiritual seekers”. Australian
by 30% in the same period (Bellamy & Castle
youth generally express the “uninterested
2004, p.7). While this growth slowed over time,
tolerance” of religion found in Britain; there is
likely has a firm ceiling to it, and involved just
little longing for a more religious society, but, if
a few tens of thousands of people, micro-level
religions leave non-believers be, there is little
growth within the broader horizon of macro-
overt hostility (Glendinning & Bruce 2011, p.506).
level decline is significant in demonstrating a
3
certain vitality within Pentevangelicalism.
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
This Pentevangelical vitality is due, in part, to
subcultures is this absence of engagement
the role of young people in Pentevangelical
with existing debates; some work makes
life. Traditional attitudes towards gender
use of familiar terminology but no scholars
and sexuality produce younger and larger
acknowledge the thirty-year quarrel around
families than among secular Australians and
subcultural theory and methodology.
those belonging to mainline churches. The
Pentevangelical emphasis on converting
others to Christianity produces a greater
commitment to recruiting and retaining
young churchgoers. This produces a greater
willingness to engage contemporary cultural
practices, such as the pop-style worship bands
associated with churches like Hillsong. Thus,
members of Generation Y constitute 36%
of attendees at Pentevangelical Assemblies
of God churches, compared to just 7% of
the mainline and generally more liberal
Uniting Church (Powell & Jacka 2008, pp.1718). Because of their comparative growth
and social distinctiveness, Pentevangelical
Christians are arguably becoming the dominant
model of Christian life in Australian popular
consciousness. As mainline churches such as the
Catholic, Uniting and most Anglican churches
continue to age and generally moderate their
practices, Pentevangelical Christians stand
out as models of exuberant difference.
Theorising evangelical subcultures
The idea of an Evangelical youth subculture
has been theorised in several recent studies,
most prominently Smith’s (1998, pp.89119) “subcultural identity theory of religious
strength”, as well as ethnographic studies of
American Evangelical university students
(Wilkins 2008; Magolda & Gross 2009). Many
more general studies of Pentevangelicalism
employ the term “subculture” in an offhand
manner, assuming their readers will
understand the vague social form they are
hinting at while being unconcerned with the
genealogy of the concept. One of the striking
features for youth scholars looking at religious
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
Instead of debates about subculture, Smith’s
(1998) subcultural study relies upon a version of
rational action theory that assumes economic
calculations govern social lives. This theory
rejects earlier assumptions that western
modernity erodes religious difference, arguing
instead that churches act like corporations:
the more competition, the more response
to individual needs and the greater the
commitment of followers. Evangelicalism thus
“thrives on distinction, engagement, tension,
conflict and threat” (Smith 1998, p.89), and has
a competitive advantage, having “retained its
boundaries and survived better than movements
lacking firm boundaries” such as more liberal
mainline churches (Martin 2005, pp.5-6). The
root of Evangelical subculture, Martin argues,
is the positing of religious truths of universal
applicability, combined with the failure to
convert everyone to these truths. Consequently,
“being Christian comes to refer to a subcultural
lifestyle not a whole society” (Martin 2005, p.6).
According to Smith (1998, pp.75-88), America’s
Evangelical subculture combines creative
dynamism in religious expression with a
distinctive subjectivity that dissolves divides
like class while distinguishing itself from many
modern values and practices. Evangelicalism
thus provides people with a distinctive social
identity by drawing “symbolic boundaries”
between themselves and “the world” through
cultural refusals and positive cultural
alternatives. Contradicting social norms creates
the opportunity to display cultural difference
such that living as a religious minority can
actually strengthen religious commitment
(Smith 1998, p.105). This process involves
a constant tension between renegotiating
the expression of religion in changing
p.279). For all their Evangelical enthusiasm,
cultural contexts, and “resistance towards
group members are reluctant evangelists
accommodation with secular modernity”
since – as opposed to the view put forward by
(Smith 1998, p.105). This is exemplified by
Christian Smith – they try to avoid controversy.
Pentevangelical churches like Vineyard and
Claims of cultural marginalisation are hard
Calvary Chapel catering to the “culturally hip” by
to square with the privileges of the largely
combining conservative theology with tolerance
white, middle-class members, and the group
of fashion and music (Smith 1998, pp.98-99).
drifts between traditional and self-consciously
In their ethnographic study of an Evangelical
contemporary practices (Smith 1998, pp.279-95).
“oppositional collegiate subculture”, Magolda
Wilkins’s (2008, pp.88-149) study of a similar
and Gross (2009, pp.287-94) use the term
Evangelical university group, while avoiding
“progressive fundamentalism” to describe
thorough use of existing subcultural theories,
this interplay of resistance and compromise.
save Smith’s work, is also comparable to earlier
Their study maintains relevant concepts from
CCCS-style studies. Like the CCCS, Wilkins
earlier subcultural studies and the empirical
interprets Evangelical subculture as a problem-
grounding found among “post-subcultural”
solving activity that fails to address underlying
scholars wary of the abstract theorisations of
socio-economic inequalities. Wilkins argues
their predecessors (Bennett 2011). Thus, Magolda
that for her participants, “Christianity provides
and Gross (2009, p.266) analyse the “subcultural
a path through the pain and complexity of
style” of their Evangelical students, arguing
youth status hierarchies” (Wilkins 2008,
that a homologous “bricolage” is created by
p.90), resolving problems with relationships
repositioning facets of university life to “create
and body image while papering over ethnic
a distinct style that is pregnant with complex
and class differences. A distinct identity is
meaning and structures that challenge dominant
maintained, in a similar manner to Magolda
groups” (p.267). They do not wholly abandon
and Gross’s (2009) students, “by avoiding the
consumption, but – like resistant subcultures
activities that they perceive as central to many
theorised by the CCCS – use consumer choices
of their peers – partying, goofing off, gossiping,
to demonstrate their beliefs. This includes
complaining, sex” (Wilkins 2008, p.96). However,
rubber bracelets with Christian slogans as
drifting towards too “functionalist” a reading
alternatives to secular bling, and scheduling
of Pentevangelical youth, reducing professed
rock/pop church services on Friday nights as
religious beliefs to instrumentalised problem-
“a sacred alternative to the dominant culture’s
solving, is rather problematic. It risks assuming
profane Friday night activities” (Magolda &
beliefs are held in an insincere manner, it
Gross 2009, p.267). Interviews revealed genuine
risks denying the diversity of young people’s
belief within the group that their “Christ
subjectivities such that contemporary youth
centered values” contradict the “materialism,
become ideologically undifferentiated, and it
hedonism, and individualism” that constitute
risks repeating the methodological failings of
the dominant values of their society (Magolda &
the CCCS’s analysis of youth subcultures by
Gross 2009, p.104). However, the ethnographic
neglecting young peoples’ accounts of their
nature of their research contrasts the “internal
own lives in favour of political “decoding”
coherence” of the subculture’s symbolic life with
by scholars (Muggleton 2000, p.20-22).
the “paradoxes and contradictions” emerging in
everyday interactions (Magolda & Gross 2009,
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
Pentevangelical punk: A paradigmatic
Pentevangelical youth subculture
A basic tension is apparent in the above
theorisations of Evangelical subcultures. On
the one hand, there is the desire to resist
the dominant practices of contemporary
secular culture to strengthen marginal
religious identities and beliefs. On the other
hand, there is the need to negotiate and
translate the expression of religious beliefs
and identities in secular cultures to ensure
these religious beliefs can be understood. The
importance of negotiating and translating the
expression of religious beliefs is especially
important within youth culture, given that
young people are increasingly unlikely to
be socialised into religious worldviews, and
unlikely to be familiar with what Charles
Taylor (2007, p.727) calls humanity’s historically
important “languages of transcendence”.
Tension certainly exists within punk scenes
around the precise status of Christianity,
especially in the USA. Secular scepticism
is often directed towards the claim that
Pentevangelicalism truly is a marginalised
belief system in conflict with mainstream
values that might make it acceptable within
punk. Despite the declining importance placed
on religious beliefs among young Americans,
and the comparatively marginalised status of
Pentevangelical youth this broad trend has
created, the presence of a Religious Right which
often champions the cause of censorship has
lead to the suspicion that Christianity threatens
punk’s independence (Malott 2009). A common
formative experience for Pentevangelical punks
in the USA is to disabuse their irreligious and
anti-religious peers of the notion that they are
corrupting punk’s secular spaces, or operating
under the direction of meddling middle-aged
pastors. While the intensely personal nature
This tension between resistance and
of Pentevangelicalism makes this a relatively
compromise is particularly evident in the
simple task – rejecting all claims on anything
example of Pentevangelical punk rock. First
larger than the soul of individual believers –
emerging in the early 1980s through the Calvary
the frequency with which such disputes occur
Chapel church in Orange County, California –
illustrates the incompatibility of Pentevangelical
a product of the Pentevangelical fringe of the
subcultures with post-subcultural arguments
hippie counterculture called the Jesus Movement
that cultural forms like punk are free from
– Pentevangelical punk has become a thriving
such disagreement. Although such explicitly
subculture straddling secular punk scenes and
politicised arguments were a rare occurrence
the Christian music industry. The audience for
for research participants in Australia and
Christian music in Australia is too small to allow
Britain, given the comparative weakness of
punk anything except a marginal presence in the
organised Christian conservatism, they were still
Christian market, so Pentevangelical punk exists
obliged to argue the legitimacy of a Christian
largely within secular punk scenes. These are
interpretation or appropriation of punk.
cultural spaces which pride themselves on their
freedom from every institution of authority:
state, market, family and, of course, church.
Punk’s secular spaces are therefore not places
where religious truth claims have any public
authority beyond whatever importance they may
hold in the lives of autonomous individuals.
There are two key reasons why the young
– and sometimes simply young at heart –
Pentevangelical punks and “hardcore kids” I
interviewed have found the music and culture
of punk compatible with Pentevangelical
beliefs and practices. It is firstly because of
punk’s constitutive commitment to exploring
marginalised ideas and identities and resisting
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
commercial culture (Thompson 2004). The
On the other hand, Pentevangelical punk does
parallels with the features of Pentevangelical
not want to lose its legitimacy and relatability
youth subcultures discussed above are apparent.
among non-Christian peers in local punk scenes.
Affinity is found between Pentevangelical
Compromises with secular cultural forms
identity and the cultural practices of punk not
come more readily to Pentevangelical punk
just because of punk’s passion for raw self-
than some other Pentevangelical subcultures,
expression and commitment to an underdog
because of the genuine commitment to the
status, but also the sheer force and physicality
constitutive values of punk and a sense of
of punk music, especially its heavy metal-
alienation from many of Pentevangelicalism’s
influenced “hardcore” subgenres born to
more common and commercial cultural forms.
counter suburban boredom in the 1980s.
There is, for example, a profound hostility to
The musical force of punk has parallels with
existing Pentevangelical subcultures framed
the embodied forms of belief and worship
and sustained through the Pentevangelical
foundational to Pentecostalism, particularly
music and books sold by Christian retailers,
what Alexander (2009, pp.110-14) refers to as
like the Australian chain Koorong, viewed as
Pentecostalism’s “toughness”, which emerges
impenetrable and irrelevant to non-Christians.
from belief in the material presence and power
of the supernatural and the corresponding
passion and seriousness required to contain and
direct that power. Brett, from the Sydney band
City In Crisis, suggested that playing hardcore
punk has parallels with religious worship of
this embodied Pentevangelical variety: “[L]ive
shows give me a real sense of the presence of
God; at a lot of places we’ve been it’s given me
a chance to feel and understand what I believe.”
Lynch (2006, p.486) argues that the formation
and strengthening of religious identity for
young people through music involves this very
process of “learning to feel about one’s self
and the world in particular ways” as much as
“learning to think about it in certain ways”.
Thus John, from the Sydney band The City HE
Loved, discussed the importance of the band’s
relationships with other Christian artists,
but hoped this would not undermine their
connections within Sydney’s secular hardcore
scene: “we co-exist and we do hold each other
accountable. If we think someone’s not living
out what they’re saying, we definitely have
something to say about it [but] it’s not like
we’re a gang or a crew and we have a secret
handshake.” His band mate Joel expressed
similar sentiments: “if there’s a subculture
of Christians, all we’re doing is presenting a
version of the music their parents won’t let
them listen to.” Maintaining relevance in punk’s
normatively secular scenes therefore requires
Experiencing this emotional compatibility
general limits on preaching while on stage, and
between Pentevangelical Christianity and punk,
a more relational approach to sharing one’s
the challenge remains for Pentevangelical
beliefs that does not assume comprehension of
punks to negotiate the broader, familiar
even basic Christian concepts. Ironically, the
subcultural tension between cultural resistance
common ignorance of and indifference towards
and cultural translation or compromise.
religion among contemporary youth in Australia
On the one hand, Pentevangelical punk is
and similar societies allows Pentevangelical
the cultural expression of shared belief and
punk bands more freedom for self-expression
experience, and a way of expressing and
than would otherwise be the case; religious
strengthening religious identity in opposition
references in lyrics often go unrecognised by
to the dominant values of secular society.
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
irreligious audiences unless a song’s meaning
from the class-based antagonisms theorised
is explained or a band’s beliefs inquired about.
by the CCCS, but it still presents questions
This is not to say that Pentevangelical punk is
coy about its religious beliefs. Pentevangelical
punk functions primarily as a way of
strengthening the religious identity of a small
minority of young Christians in Australia and
around the world. For example, Pentevangelical
punks have desecularised one of punk’s
indigenous systems of moral regulation, the
Straight Edge movement, which rejects alcohol,
drugs and casual sex (Haenfler 2006). Instead
of a humanist ethic of self-improvement, in
Pentevangelical hands, Straight Edge becomes
a process for strengthening and performing
religious belief. As Jaime-Lee, the vocalist
for Brisbane metalcore band Ekklesia, said:
“when I get up on stage and the kids see that
I’m [Straight] Edge, they know straight away
what I don’t do; they know I live a life not
involving drugs, casual sex or alcohol”. Straight
Edge is also a way for Jaime-Lee to resist
compromises with what Pentevangelical punks
– and the Evangelical students Wilkins (2008)
and Magolda and Gross (2009) studied – view
as the dominant values of secular society, a
spiritually disengaged hedonism: “I don’t wanna
of identity and subjectivity that sit uneasily
within post-subcultural representations that
assume an absence of substantive ideological
disagreement in subcultural spaces like
punk. This representative phenomenon
of Pentevangelical punk points to the fact
that there are profoundly different youth
subjectivities in circulation and to the
importance of youth subcultural forms as ways
to embody and perform profound differences.
Subcultural forms can account for how young
people embody belief in contemporary Australia.
In the simultaneous movements of cultural
refusal and cultural alternative that frame
Pentevangelical subculture, to be a Christian
in the way Pentevangelicalism understands it,
necessarily involves resisting the dominant
values of the cultural “mainstream”. When we
chatted in a Midlands pub, Ian and Dave from
the British hardcore band Conduit told me that
to be a young Pentevangelical Christian is to
live “out of step with the world” (quoting the
secular Straight Edge band Minor Threat). It is
subcultures like punk that provide an adaptable
template that enables Pentevangelists to do so.
be like that,” she said, “I want to live a life of
This article has also argued that, both in spite
purity and sobriety for God”. Compromising
of the fact that it conceives of its beliefs and
or negotiating with secular youth culture by
practices as existing in profound contradiction
partially translating Pentevangelicalism into the
with the dominant values of contemporary
subcultural language of Straight Edge allows
secular societies, and precisely because of this
Jamie-Lee’s beliefs to be comprehensible to
sincere conviction that its beliefs and practices
her irreligious peers, while at the same time
constitute a radically different way of being in
strengthening her commitment to a religiously
the world, Pentevangelical youth subcultures
grounded, conspicuously different way of living.
are adept at negotiated compromises with the
cultural practices of contemporary societies
Conclusion
The form of subcultural resistance that
Pentevangelical punk is seen, in the previous
section, to perform is representative of
subcultural resistance in Pentevangelical
youth subcultures generally. It is different
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013
such as Australia. Indeed, the notion that
Pentevangelicalism is becoming the most
visible example of Christianity in Australia’s
popular consciousness, if true, rests in no
small part upon its ability to be conversant
with the cultural currents of a nevertheless
secularising society, while maintaining its own
identity such that it remains conspicuously
different, especially among contemporary
youth. Being representative of Pentevangelical
youth subcultures, Pentevangelical punk
suggests that this particular embodiment of
religious belief will remain a vital concern to a
minority of Australian youth in late modernity,
while constituting an object lesson in living
out a profoundly different social subjectivity
within increasingly irreligious cohorts.
Notes
1. Interviews were conducted with 46
individuals involved in Christian punk
in Australia, Britain and the USA in 2010,
recruited through purposive and snowball
sampling. Fieldwork was approved by
the University of Bristol as Study 1054.
Participants were offered pseudonyms,
but like proximate studies of musicians
who adopt public profiles and do not
want to be disassociated from their
creative endeavours, all declined.
2. While studies of Pentecostalism and
Evangelicalism are numerous, Anderson’s
(1979) analysis of the origin of American
Pentecostalism is unsurpassed even if
the movement has grown beyond its
impoverished roots. Alexander’s (2009) critical
insider analysis of contemporary global
Pentecostalism is an accessible introduction.
3. The Spirit of Generation Y study investigated
the spirituality of young Australians. It
was conducted between 2003 and 2006
by researchers from the Australian
Catholic University, Monash University
and the Christian Research Association.
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Author
Ibrahim Abraham completed his PhD in
sociology at the University of Bristol in 2012.
He is currently a Project Researcher in Social
and Cultural Anthropology at the University
of Helsinki, studying music and religion in the
lives of South Africa’s ‘Born Free’ generation.
Youth Studies Australia . VOLUME 32 NUMBER 3 2013