This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Article of Faith? An empirical study of the tract Journey Into Life in the development of British Evangelical Identity between 1963 and 1989. Noble, Christopher John Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. 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Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 1 Article of Faith? An empirical study of the tract Journey Into Life in the development of British Evangelical Identity between 1963 and 1989 Christopher John Lancelot Noble A Thesis Submitted for PhD. Examination Department of Theology and Religious Studies Kings College London 2 Abstract This empirical research into the iconic evangelical artefact and object of faith in the form of the tract Journey Into Life offers a new angle of perception in the study of late twentieth-century evangelicalism in the United Kingdom between 1963 and 1989. As part of the ethnographic turn in contemporary ecclesiology, this research employs a material culture research methodology that provides a distinctive new gaze upon the formation of British evangelical identity. This study engages in depth with the everyday theology and practice of evangelism by focussing on the signifying practice of tract usage amongst evangelical Christians. A significant theological disclosure was identified as taking place within the details of practice and belief that surrounded the gifting of the tract Journey Into Life, a small booklet that dominated the Christian book market for over three decades. This research subjected the iconic road sign tract and signature artefact of the British evangelical movement to critical analysis in a threefold strategy that employed the tools of material culture gift exchange theory, the discipline of contemporary practical theology, and the techniques of qualitative social research. The findings of this study offer a unique and fresh insight into the lived and embodied faith of evangelicals, demonstrating the way in which the exchange of this humble evangelical article of faith played a previously unrecognised but significant role in the construction and development of an influential evangelical identity in the United Kingdom. The research concluded with its findings being offered for innovative engagement with contemporary evangelical communication through the development of digital media for evangelism in the rapidly changing social context of Britain today. 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10 CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 11 Introducing Journey Into Life 11 Lifting the Evangelical Label 12 Evangelical Resistance and Resilience 15 Objects of Power 16 Purpose of this Research 17 Description of The Tract Journey Into Life 18 Falsifying Common Answers 19 Problematising the Journey 20 The Christian Answer 24 Christ Knocking at the Door 25 The Prayer of Commitment 27 Final Suggestions 28 Reflexivity 29 Researcher Bias 29 Growing-Up Evangelical 31 My Journey Into Life Narrative 32 CHAPTER TWO - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 33 Research Design 33 Epistemology 34 Research Ethics 35 Case Study Method 36 Advantages and Disadvantages 36 Case Study Sampling Criteria 38 Material Culture Theory 39 Artefact and Object 39 Gift Exchange Theory 41 Theological Reflection 42 Theology as a way of seeing 42 Theological Observation 42 Practical Theology and Ordinary Theological Reflection 43 Theological Voices 44 Social Location and Theological Reflection 45 Theological Discourse Analysis 46 Theological Mapping 47 4 Qualitative Research Interviews 47 A Narrative Method 48 A Critical Approach to Interviews 49 Creative Interviews 50 Semi-Structured Interviews 51 The Pilot Interview 52 Pre-Interview and Post-Interview Reflection 52 The Dynamics of Informed Consent 53 Interviewee Control 53 Post-Interview Notes and Transcription 54 Geographical Limits 55 Data Analysis Methods 56 Coding and Categorical Analysis 57 Hermeneutical Tensions 57 A Biographical Interpretative Method 58 Data Reduction Strategy 58 Summary of Research Methodology 59 CHAPTER THREE - RESEARCH INTERVIEW DATA 61 Twelve Narratives of Encounter 61 Narrative One – Wells: ‘The whole gospel was sequenced’. 61 Narrative Two – Kerr: ‘It enabled me to make that decision’. 62 Narrative Three – Chester: ‘But it’s still the Gospel, isn’t it?’ 64 Narrative Four – Hurst: ‘It has a really strong sense of authority’. 65 Narrative Five – Wood: ‘My epiphany came through this’. 68 Narrative Six – May: ‘The basis of my Christian belief’. 70 Narrative Seven – Ford: ‘Keep this on the table’. 71 Narrative Eight – King: ‘I recognise it immediately’. 72 Narrative Nine – Clements: ‘It still remains an important part of me’. 73 Narrative Ten – Dench: ‘a catalyst in my faith decision’. 74 Narrative Eleven– Herne: ‘simple and easy to understand’. 75 Narrative Twelve – Brown: ‘It’s all utter bollocks’. 76 Five Emergent Themes 78 Theme One: Given it 78 Theme Two: Reading it 79 Theme Three: Praying it 79 Theme Four: Holding onto it 79 Theme Five: Handing it on 80 Summary 80 CHAPTER FOUR – JOURNEY INTO LIFE ABOARD THE EVANGELICAL ARGO 81 The Gift 81 Evangelical ‘Kula’ 82 Evangelical ‘Argonauts’ 83 The Evangelical ‘Argo’ 84 Communication Crisis 85 Paradoxical and Pervasive Simplicity 86 The Evangelical Camp 87 5 The Obligation to Partake 87 The Young Persons Fellowship 90 Relational Exchange in the Young Person’s Fellowship 90 Ceremonies of Transfer in Popular Music 91 The University Christian Union 92 The Evangelical Church 93 Frontline Evangelism 93 Journey Into Life as a gift from the Church 95 Implications of the Disruptive Gifting Narrative 97 The Great Motivation of the Evangelical ‘Argo’ 99 Powerful Motivational Beliefs 99 Voices of Myth and Theology 100 CHAPTER FIVE - WRAPPING AND UNWRAPPING JOURNEY INTO LIFE 102 Reading the Artefact 102 Reading the Wrapper 103 The Decision to Pick Up and Read 103 The Wrapping for The Journey 104 A Pictorial Guide to the Christian Life 105 Communication in its Own Right 106 Unwrapping the Gift 107 Divisive Questions 108 Working-Class Ecclesiology and Culture 109 Subversive Simplicity and Certainty 110 The Tabloid Tract 111 Visual Culture with Pictures and Captions in Print 112 Making Sense of the Cloud 113 Permeating Pictures 114 Conceptualising Faith Through Words 115 Doctrine Articulated on the Page for the First Time 116 Unwrapped but Unwanted 117 Reactionary Reader Response 118 The Inappropriate Gift 119 The Indelible Gift 120 The Gift of Time 121 CHAPTER SIX - THE SPIRIT OF THE GIFT OF JOURNEY INTO LIFE 123 Spiritual Gifts 123 Opening the Door to Jesus 124 Jesus at the Door 124 Jesus Comes In 125 Praying the Prayer 127 Struggle, Resistance and Procrastination 127 Thoughtful Decisions for Christ 129 Alone in a Quiet Place 131 6 Saying the Prayer 131 The Prayer with Immediate Results 132 The Prayer with Thoughtful Responses 133 Receiving the Spirit of The Gift 135 Varieties of Religious Experience 135 Cognitive Convictions 137 A Gift in Time 139 Acute Spiritual Experiences 140 CHAPTER SEVEN - SOUVENIR, RELIC AND ICON OF EVANGELICAL FAITH 143 Keeping Faith 143 Journey Into Life as an Evangelical Souvenir 144 A Place Once Visited 144 Imaginative Reconstructions of the Past 145 The Souvenir in Constructing and Organizing Memory 146 The Souvenir in Homiletic Structures and Segments 147 Shaping the Evangelical Memory 148 Journey Into Life as an Evangelical Relic 149 Holding onto the Relics of Evangelical Faith 149 Evangelical Protestant Relics 150 Portable Relics of Evangelical Faith 151 Reliquiae or Relinquere 152 Postmodern Tensions 154 Ecclesiastical Tensions 154 Academic Tensions 156 Journey Into Life as an Evangelical Icon 157 Iconic Practices of Belief 157 Iconography Aboard the Evangelical Argo 158 Iconic Practices of Belief Aboard the Evangelical Argo 159 Iconoclasm Aboard the Argo 160 The Noetic Vacuum 161 Visual Strategies and the Hegemony of The Word 162 Evangelical Icon 162 CHAPTER EIGHT - HANDING ON THE GIFT OF JOURNEY INTO LIFE 164 Handing it on 164 Levels of Obligation 164 The Obligation to Give 164 Spontaneous Dynamic Sharing of Journey into Life 165 Consistently Sharing the Journey Into Life 168 Diverse Practices of Sharing the Journey Into Life 169 Degrees of Liminality 170 Evangelical Liminality 170 A Liminal Space 170 The Erosion of The Evangelical Idea 172 Diversity of Expression 173 7 Employed in the Business of Faith 174