Angels in Clubland

generation E and the future of christian identity

Paul Thomson P/T MTh. Theology and Ethics of Communication Supervisor and Course Director: Dr. Jolyon Mitchell Date: 1.5. 2001 FACULTY OF DIVINITY: NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH

Preface
The first night I entered a club called Fever in Aberdeen, I fell into a crowd of heaving sweaty, arm flailing bodies, dancing wildly to the throbbing beat. Within minutes, I began to let go, and found myself immersed in the sheer energy, joy and friendliness of everyone. Then the shock; not a visual image, but a sudden awareness, or impression of a figure in the light and smoke, just above the sea of arms in the air around me, smiling down on these wild kids, with their whistles and baggy tops. In the odd sense of stillness that followed, a sentence began to form in my mind which simply said, in a quiet voice: build me an altar here in the heart of the culture. Whatever this experience meant, it turned my world of evangelical theology, ecclesiology, worship and praxis upside down and inside out; the walls between church and culture had collapsed forever, leaving me with the ashes of what I had known of Christendom, wandering with them in search of the promised land. I returned and announced to my colleages and fellow church leaders, rather sheepishly, that I felt had to go and somehow live amongst them and learn together with them about Christ. How I was supposed to do this was a complete mystery, apart from clubbing as often as possible and getting to know people. After cancelling all my future engagements and breaking off involvement with the christian worship band circuit, I sold my guitar and bought a Roland Alpha Juno synthesiser, an Atari computer, sequencing software and an Akai sampler, sought out the others who would come along, and began to write and produce dance music. With a growing number of friends, we built a small recording studio in the city centre docklands area, began to meet together in flats and cafes and began a series of community-based, club worship nights in Aberdeen. Although I was brought up in housing estates and had experienced life in a care home, I was not prepared for the horror stories of pain, abuse and neglect emerging from among the first of the E generation, coming of age, out of the black hole of the Aberdeen of 80s Britain.

Abstract
Angels in Clubland: Generation E and the Future of Christian Identity
In a post-traditional global era, the symbolic practices and language of christianity have been adopted by generation E; a vast array of new cultural movements, networks and global scenes of clubbing and raving in the west, which live for the most part, outside the radius of institutional church. By investigating the practices of these cultures within the local scene of Edinburgh, in the context of the gap; between the institution and its surrounding cultural-religious matrix, it asks: what is it that they are hearing, experiencing and critiquing in these practices, and what implications does this raise for the future of christian identity among these new emerging generations, in a Scotland struggling to find its vocation set under the horizon of new economic age?

Contents
Introduction: From the Screen to the Scene 1 Theological Background to Research: The Altar to the Unknown God Fast Forward Chapter One: Identity in a Scene Age Identity in a Liquid Economy Eat the Kids: Identity in a Global Market Economy Symbolic Practice within the Marketplace Symbolic Practice as Sacrament within Popular Culture Symbolic Practice as Resistance within a Global Economy Chapter Two: Exodus Research Background: Scene One Clubbing as Church? Clubbing as Sacrament? Rite of Passage Altered States Organic (Non-Chemical) (a) Oceanic (b) Empathy (c) Eschatology Synthetic (a) Ecstasy Shame and Play Clubbing as Exorcism? Jez, the Community Worker Frank: Local Graffiti Artist, Rapper, Poet, Community worker Edinburgh: The Grassmarket Theatre Project Chapter 3: Galilee Research Background: Scene Two Church as Clubbing? The Monastery of Sound Sacrament as Clubbing? Urban Soul 1 Exorcism as Clubbing? Pub 1 Pub 2 Conclusion: Angels in Clubland YHWH in Clubland Galilee Re-Visited Creation Identity: The Mono Way Creation identity: The Trinity Way Resistance Identity: The Worship System Resistance Identity: The love System New Angels, New Wineskins Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Bibliography 1 4 7 9 9 12 13 14 16 18 18 19 22 22 24 24 24 25 25 26 26 26 28 30 31 32 34 34 35 35 37 37 39 39 40 42 42 44 44 46 48 50 52 59 60 63 64 66