'Experiencing' Alpha: Finding and Embodying the Spirit and Being Transformed--Empowerment and Control in a ('Charismatic') Christian Worldview

Abstract

This article analyses the Alpha Course, the 15-session evangelising programme designed by Holy Trinity Brompton. It argues that it is a popular form of evangelism influenced by the 'charismatic' movement, which aims to initiate participants into a particular religious 'experience'. It further argues that the course aims to stimulate participants to locate themselves, psychologically and socially, within a 'charismatic' worldview. The article aims to examine, phenomenologically, the Alpha 'experience', through an ethnographic analysis of the course and in particular its Holy Spirit weekend. The article relates Alpha to the wider beliefs and practices of the 'charismatic' movement and religious experience and assesses what it means for contemporary Christianity. It seeks to show that the initial 'experience' gained on the Alpha Course is continued within 'charismatic' experience in church meetings and services and looks at the personal empowerment and social control that may be at work.

?Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land?: A ?Bio-Ethnography? of Christianity and Genetic Engineering in Scotland

“…The body is not just a machine or a set of building blocks; it is a site of movement. The latter show greater willingness to explore new avenues of belief and expression, concentrating more on religious experience and the Holy Spirit (being more 'charismatic'; see Watling 2005). Spirit and creation are in every cell and gene.…”

“…(Female,50s,housewife,leader of prayer group) In this way informants stress that the church is a 'healing community' able to restore humanity's ('right') relationship to God and creation (the original 'married' creation as detailed in Genesis), through changing hearts and minds (and therefore practice), away from selfishness, individualism and materialism, and towards selflessness, community, and spirituality (see Watling 2005). We need more than intellect or knowledge...Science and medicine have done a lot of great things but they overstep and this might do a lot of damage.…”

“…We are caretakers of creation and we are misusing it. In this way also individuals and the church may be said to have a 'prophetic' role-the calling to be salt and light-pointing to a different (in their terms 'better', more 'healthy') way of looking at issues and acting on them than the (scientific, medical, bioethical) secular world (acting as 'critical communities' in Moser's [1995] terms) (see Hearn 1997;Mitchell 2000;Watling 2005). (Female,50s,housewife,leader of prayer group) In this way informants stress that the church is a 'healing community' able to restore humanity's ('right') relationship to God and creation (the original 'married' creation as detailed in Genesis), through changing hearts and minds (and therefore practice), away from selfishness, individualism and materialism, and towards selflessness, community, and spirituality (see Watling 2005).…”

Alpha and evangelical conversion

“…The underlying aim is to encourage participants to learn of the 'charismatic' worldview in the Alpha Course, have it 'confirmed' by accepting and experiencing the Holy Spirit, and then to live as a committed Christian rejecting previous 'secular' (in 'charismatic' terms, it can include non-'charismatic' Christianity) existence and to enter into a new ('charismatic') Christian existence. This process involves a personal transformation and a re-orientation of the self, from secular to sacred, accepting a 'charismatic' worldview which sees communication with God through the 'embodiment' of the Holy Spirit who guides their thoughts and actions (Watling 2005).…”