Aurelie Brulavoine: “Pentecostals and American Culture”

            Since the colonial period, religion has been tremendously important in American Society and its impact on American culture is a fascinating topic.  For my semester project in Intellectual and Cultural History of the U.S., I decided to focus on ‘Pentecostals and American Culture’.  Interestingly, the study of Pentecostalism—which I had never heard about before—led me to examine how religion also responds to culture.

            Since its emergence at the turn of the nineteenth century, tensions with culture have been an inherent feature of Pentecostalism.  Indeed, the movement primarily defined itself in opposition to culture.  Through the years, and especially for the first generation, its doctrines appealed to people on the fringes of society who chose to reject the world.

            Yet, their approach has been modified, and they engaged in a process of accommodation.  This revealed through institutionalization, their gradual acceptance of the draft, and also the emergence of their own popular icons such as Aimee Semple McPherson.  Their accommodation shows their need of bonds for their community as well as their desire to have an influence on the world with the use of modern means of communication.

            The last three decades have witnessed the rise of the so-called ‘Christian subculture’.  Pentecostals have participated in it more or less actively from one group to another.  Nonetheless, tensions with culture are not completely assuaged, and will probably not be in the face of the peculiarity of their beliefs.