Pentecostalism and Popular Culture in Britain and America from the Early Twentieth Century to the 1970s

Pentecostalism is now the second largest subgrouping of global Christianity. It’s charted tremendous growth, even in deeply post-Christian countries like Sweden. This chapter compares British and American pentecostalism and looks at how disciples related to or rejected pop culture. Believers had an interesting, hot and cold, relationship with mass entertainment, music, and mass media. They were eager to borrow much for evangelistic purposes, and quick to shun all that they thought to be sinful. British pentecostalism never grew at the pace and never achieved the astounding success of their co-religionists across the Atlantic. Some of this had directly to do with access to mass culture and a willingness or ability to adjust the faith to pop culture. This chapter ends by detailing and analysing the major differences and similarities of the faith as it developed in both regions.