Mark A C Jennings
Biographic Data
| ID | 4273903 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark A C Jennings |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark A C |
| FAMILY NAME | Jennings |
| SIGNATURE | JENNINGS M A C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Murdoch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0773-8713 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
My Whole Life Was the Two Suburbs That Surrounded the Church
Over the course of interviews with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and other (LGBTQ+) participants (or former participants) in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches, a question emerged: why do LGBTQ+ people remain in churches which do not affirm their sexuality and/or gender identity (or, in the case of those who leave, why did they stay as long as they did)? Understanding these churches as 'Greedy Ins…
Happy
Adiaphora
In April 2019, athlete Isileli ‘Israel’ Folau was sacked for posting anti-LGBTQ+ social media messages. The ‘Israel Folau case’ was contentious in Australia and internationally. Although Folau claimed to be expressing genuinely held Christian beliefs, he has previously articulated heterodox anti-Trinitarian ideas. Throughout Christian history, orthodox beliefs concerning the Trinity have been central. Conversely, same-sex desire has been variousl…
Impossible Subjects
This paper is the product of in-depth interviews with 20 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ) people who identify, or formerly identified, as members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches. Interviewees typically found themselves confronted with a number of choices (not necessarily mutually exclusive): remain closeted, come out but commit to remaining celibate, undergo "SOCE" (Sexual Orientation Conversio…
An extraordinary degree of exaltation
Pentecostalism has ‘bucked the trend’ predicted by Émile Durkheim and others that religion would decline and disappear in a secular modern age. In searching for the clues as to why this happened, this paper outlines Durkheim’s thought on the phenomenon that sparks religious life – effervescence – and his belief that in the secular future societies would make use of this phenomenon to create instances of ‘secular sacralisation’. Following these id…
Imagining Jesus doing a Whole Lotta Shakin
This paper commences with a brief outline of the history of the symbiotic relationship between popular music and Pentecostalism in the USA. While early rockers learned many of the techniques of ecstasy from Pentecostal worship, in recent times Pentecostal/charismatic songwriters and worship leaders have completed the circle, re-appropriating popular music forms for use in church. This is particularly the case in Australia, where Hillsong and Plan…
Breaking Free to the Limit
This article explores different phenomenological approaches to understanding one of the central elements of Pentecostal spirituality: the ecstatic experience of the divine (often referred to as the ‘encounter’ of the divine). The article begins with a description, based upon participant observation, of a typical church service at ‘Breakfree’ Pentecostal church in suburban Perth, Western Australia. I then outline two phenomenological categories—on…
‘I’ve Got a Spirit Coming through Me’
The thesis that Pentecostal music and popular music share a similar emphasis on ecstatic trance experience is provocative, but until now there has been little in the way of a theoretical framework for comparing these phenomena. This paper begins with an explication of Mircea Eliade’s categories of hierophany and shamanism, both of which are useful descriptors of religious ecstatic phenomena. Eliade’s paradigms are then used to illuminate data gle…
Introducing Paul
As It Is Written
Paul, Grace and Freedom
Realms of re-enchantment
The phenomenon of live music performance spaces is both enigmatic and enticing. While few would disagree that there appears to be a different set of priorities and protocols operative in these spaces, there has been little investigation of how socio-cultural theory might be useful in exploring the nature and significance of these spaces. This paper seeks to remedy that, drawing on detailed data compiled from participant observation over three yea…
Won't you break free?’ An ethnography of music and the divine-human encounter at an Australian Pentecostal Church
This paper is based on ethnography of the ‘worship time’ at ‘Breakfree’ Church, a Pentecostal congregation in suburban Perth. I begin by exploring the ritualistic ways in which music is used to catalyse an ecstatic experience. Making use of the metaphor of ‘break free’, borrowed from a popular worship song, I demonstrate that music is used in deliberate ways to assist people in leaving behind the profane and encountering the sacred. Drawing on th…
Imagining Jesus doing a Whole Lotta Shakin
This paper commences with a brief outline of the history of the symbiotic relationship between popular music and Pentecostalism in the USA. While early rockers learned many of the techniques of ecstasy from Pentecostal worship, in recent times Pentecostal/charismatic songwriters and worship leaders have completed the circle, re-appropriating popular music forms for use in church. This is particularly the case in Australia, where Hillsong and Plan…
Won't you break free?’ An ethnography of music and the divine-human encounter at an Australian Pentecostal Church
This paper is based on ethnography of the ‘worship time’ at ‘Breakfree’ Church, a Pentecostal congregation in suburban Perth. I begin by exploring the ritualistic ways in which music is used to catalyse an ecstatic experience. Making use of the metaphor of ‘break free’, borrowed from a popular worship song, I demonstrate that music is used in deliberate ways to assist people in leaving behind the profane and encountering the sacred. Drawing on th…
Impossible Subjects
This paper is the product of in-depth interviews with 20 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ) people who identify, or formerly identified, as members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches. Interviewees typically found themselves confronted with a number of choices (not necessarily mutually exclusive): remain closeted, come out but commit to remaining celibate, undergo "SOCE" (Sexual Orientation Conversio…
Breaking Free to the Limit
This article explores different phenomenological approaches to understanding one of the central elements of Pentecostal spirituality: the ecstatic experience of the divine (often referred to as the ‘encounter’ of the divine). The article begins with a description, based upon participant observation, of a typical church service at ‘Breakfree’ Pentecostal church in suburban Perth, Western Australia. I then outline two phenomenological categories—on…
Won't you break free?’ An ethnography of music and the divine-human encounter at an Australian Pentecostal Church
This paper is based on ethnography of the ‘worship time’ at ‘Breakfree’ Church, a Pentecostal congregation in suburban Perth. I begin by exploring the ritualistic ways in which music is used to catalyse an ecstatic experience. Making use of the metaphor of ‘break free’, borrowed from a popular worship song, I demonstrate that music is used in deliberate ways to assist people in leaving behind the profane and encountering the sacred. Drawing on th…
‘I’ve Got a Spirit Coming through Me’
The thesis that Pentecostal music and popular music share a similar emphasis on ecstatic trance experience is provocative, but until now there has been little in the way of a theoretical framework for comparing these phenomena. This paper begins with an explication of Mircea Eliade’s categories of hierophany and shamanism, both of which are useful descriptors of religious ecstatic phenomena. Eliade’s paradigms are then used to illuminate data gle…
Introducing Paul
As It Is Written
Paul, Grace and Freedom
Realms of re-enchantment
The phenomenon of live music performance spaces is both enigmatic and enticing. While few would disagree that there appears to be a different set of priorities and protocols operative in these spaces, there has been little investigation of how socio-cultural theory might be useful in exploring the nature and significance of these spaces. This paper seeks to remedy that, drawing on detailed data compiled from participant observation over three yea…
Imagining Jesus doing a Whole Lotta Shakin
This paper commences with a brief outline of the history of the symbiotic relationship between popular music and Pentecostalism in the USA. While early rockers learned many of the techniques of ecstasy from Pentecostal worship, in recent times Pentecostal/charismatic songwriters and worship leaders have completed the circle, re-appropriating popular music forms for use in church. This is particularly the case in Australia, where Hillsong and Plan…
Breaking Free to the Limit
This article explores different phenomenological approaches to understanding one of the central elements of Pentecostal spirituality: the ecstatic experience of the divine (often referred to as the ‘encounter’ of the divine). The article begins with a description, based upon participant observation, of a typical church service at ‘Breakfree’ Pentecostal church in suburban Perth, Western Australia. I then outline two phenomenological categories—on…
An extraordinary degree of exaltation
Pentecostalism has ‘bucked the trend’ predicted by Émile Durkheim and others that religion would decline and disappear in a secular modern age. In searching for the clues as to why this happened, this paper outlines Durkheim’s thought on the phenomenon that sparks religious life – effervescence – and his belief that in the secular future societies would make use of this phenomenon to create instances of ‘secular sacralisation’. Following these id…
Impossible Subjects
This paper is the product of in-depth interviews with 20 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ) people who identify, or formerly identified, as members of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches. Interviewees typically found themselves confronted with a number of choices (not necessarily mutually exclusive): remain closeted, come out but commit to remaining celibate, undergo "SOCE" (Sexual Orientation Conversio…
Happy
Adiaphora
In April 2019, athlete Isileli ‘Israel’ Folau was sacked for posting anti-LGBTQ+ social media messages. The ‘Israel Folau case’ was contentious in Australia and internationally. Although Folau claimed to be expressing genuinely held Christian beliefs, he has previously articulated heterodox anti-Trinitarian ideas. Throughout Christian history, orthodox beliefs concerning the Trinity have been central. Conversely, same-sex desire has been variousl…
My Whole Life Was the Two Suburbs That Surrounded the Church
Over the course of interviews with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and other (LGBTQ+) participants (or former participants) in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian (PCC) churches, a question emerged: why do LGBTQ+ people remain in churches which do not affirm their sexuality and/or gender identity (or, in the case of those who leave, why did they stay as long as they did)? Understanding these churches as 'Greedy Ins…
Sociology (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies (7 works) · Theology (7 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works) · Charisma (5 works) · Religious studies (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (4 works)