Abstract:
Discussions within the Pentecostal movement have at times been strongly opposed to Christians participating in hip-hop (Lewis, 2009; 2010) and yet for many Christians hip-hop is very central to their personal and social identities (Smith & Jackson, 2007; Kyllonen, 2009). As a Christian hip-hop dancer myself, I have sought to reconcile my own understandings of how hip-hop and Christianity interrelate as physical and spiritual practices. This has involved engaging in lengthy discussions with other Christian hip-hop dancers, to gain a clearer understanding of their understandings of the relationships between these two very important facets of their lives. This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research project that engaged semi-structured interviews to capture the voices of seven hip-hop dancers in Auckland and Manila. Presenting reflections on their own experience, they considered the question how they identify relationships between their faith and their dance practice? The responses of the research participants suggested that four particular themes were worthy of further analysis within the study: experiencing God through hip-hop, expressing God through hip-hop, Evangelizing through hip-hop and fostering Christian community through hip-hop. This thesis begins to fill a gap currently within academic discourse on hip-hop and Christianity. While it may be argued that hip-hop and the Pentecostal movement are both rapidly growing as a global phenomena, and that there is within that growth a large community of Christians engaged in hip-hop, there has been relatively little investigation of this presented in academic literature. To address this, the thesis concludes with recommendations for potentially valuable further research in the area of hip-hop and Christianity. This thesis also presents reflections on how I, as a Christian, have been able to navigate the expectations of qualitative and post-positivist research without compromising my faith, which may be of benefit to others.
