Making Space for God: Born Again Identity, Youthful Belonging, and Difference in London's Global Churches
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Fearon, Thomas. 2024. Making Space for God: Born Again Identity, Youthful Belonging, and Difference in London's Global Churches. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (Making Space for God: Born Again Identity, Youthful Belonging, and Difference in London's Global Churches)
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Abstract or Description
Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity is thriving in the UK, especially in London. This research focuses on Pentecostal-Charismatic churches catering to young people in the capital and focuses on what they reveal about globalisation, histories of migration and African diasporic experiences. Taking born-again faith and its lived experience seriously, the research explores how young Christians invite God to work in their lives and how they do so by engaging with global forms of Christianity in local contexts. It traces how young people cultivate knowledge, ethical orientations, and practical religious dispositions that allow them to experience their relationship with God as embodied and transformative. The thesis works with the notion of “making space for God” to think about how young people use their faith to contest religious and diasporic heritage, articulate future aspirations, and worship the Holy Spirit sensually on their own terms, making spaces for God in the process. As the children of mostly Black African parents, the young people use faith to challenge reified markers of identity such as ‘race’, ethnicity, and culture. In doing so they redefine these categories. Their faith allows them to articulate difference at the intersection of religion and diaspora, transforming themselves and finding new forms of belonging in the process.
The thesis contributes to the literature on the Anthropology of Christianity, particularly in global contexts, where the interplay between continuity and discontinuity shapes religious horizons and identities. Further, it contributes to conversations concerning African diasporas in the UK by exploring how youth can become important social shifters in complicating existing narratives concerning the relationship between Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity and diaspora in the UK.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
Christianity, youth, diaspora, identity, belonging, globalisation, religion |
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| Date: |
31 March 2024 |
| Item ID: |
36048 |
| Date Deposited: |
19 Apr 2024 15:43 |
| Last Modified: |
19 Apr 2024 15:47 |
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URI: |
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