ATS2371 Chap.11 Globalisation, Pentecostalism and Religion on the Move
Globalisation, Pentecostalism and Religion on the Move
Week 11 follows religious ideas as they travel. Globalisation here means the mobility of people, ideas and technologies together with time-space compression, the shrinking of the effort needed to communicate and to move, and the result is a transfer of practices and deities across the world. Against that the week sets a prediction that failed.
The secularisation thesis held that religious observance would recede as societies modernised, and it did not. Pentecostalism has grown, and the megachurch is its most visible Australian and Pacific form.
Connell reads Hillsong's appeal against changing socio-economic conditions and the promises these churches make, while Eves shows conversion in New Britain producing new masculine identities with consequences for gender-based violence.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Globalisation as mobility plus time-space compression, and what that does to religious transmission
- 02
The secularisation thesis and its failure as a prediction, which is the week's organising puzzle
- 03
Pentecostal growth and the megachurch as an institutional form in Australia and the Pacific
- 04
Connell on Hillsong: appeal read against socio-economic change, uncertainty and promises of self and economic fulfilment
- 05
Eves in New Britain: conversion producing socially acceptable masculine identities and practices
- 06
The implications for gender-based violence, and why the week refuses a purely celebratory reading
Explain growth without falling back on belief alone
- 1Refuse the circular answer first: saying people join because they believe explains nothing, since it cannot account for the neighbouring decline.
- 1Situate the setting: describe the socio-economic conditions of the area and the specific uncertainties they generate.
- 1Read the offer: identify the promises of personal and economic fulfilment the church makes and match them to those uncertainties.
- 1Read the form: note what the institution supplies that the older ones do not, in music, scale, participation and the pace of its services.
- 1Name the check: the account must predict who does not join as well as who does, or it has simply redescribed the growth it set out to explain.
Key terms
- Time-space compression
- The shrinking of the time and effort needed to communicate and travel between places, which is one of the mechanisms by which religious ideas and practices now move.
- Secularisation thesis
- The prediction that religious belief and observance would decline as societies modernised, which the week treats as a case of a theory the evidence did not support.
- Pentecostalism
- The Christian movement whose growth the week examines, notable for participatory worship, an emphasis on personal transformation, and rapid expansion in Australia and the Pacific.
- Megachurch
- A congregation large enough to change the institutional form of worship, which Connell examines through the Sydney suburban case.
- Conversion
- The shift into a new religious affiliation, treated by Eves not only as a change of belief but as the adoption of a new and socially acceptable identity.
Globalisation, Pentecostalism and Religion on the Move FAQ
What are the readings for Week 11?
Connell's 2005 article in Australian Geographer on Hillsong as a megachurch in the Sydney suburbs, and Richard Eves on Pentecostalism in New Britain in Papua New Guinea, both listed on the unit's own week page.
What is the secularisation thesis and why does it matter here?
It held that religion and religious observance would wane as societies modernised. The week's material shows that this has not happened, and the resulting puzzle is what the two readings are set to explain, which is why growth rather than decline is the subject.
What does the New Britain material add to Hillsong?
A second setting and an uncomfortable finding. Eves examines how converting is taken to open up ways of being a man, and of acting as one, that the community will accept, and traces the implications for gender-based violence, which stops the week from treating growth as straightforwardly benign.
Is there an essay question on this week?
Yes. One of the fourteen asks how globalisation has affected local religious practices, and directs you to consider the the worldwide traffic in ideas, in people, in technology and in money in a particular setting.
Assessment move
Answer the globalisation essay question by choosing one setting and staying in it. The question already names the four flows to consider, so a plan with one row per flow and a piece of evidence in each is most of the structure mark before you have written a sentence.
Working through Globalisation, Pentecostalism and Religion on the Move in ATS2371? Sia is AskSia’s AI Arts and Humanities tutor — ask any ATS2371 Globalisation, Pentecostalism and Religion on the Move question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how ATS2371 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
