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Upon This Rock: American Evangelical Spirituality And Jesus Music, 1969-1976, Kathryn Kinney

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the music of the Jesus movement and its role in shaping American evangelical spirituality. I begin by analyzing the emergence of Jesus music in the contexts of the economic systems of evangelicalism and mass media. Next, I examine how anti-rock critics and Jesus music artists differed in their beliefs about the theological functions of music. The second half of the dissertation analyzes how through Jesus music and pop worship Jesus movement participants developed and distributed a new evangelical spirituality based on ‘feeling’ or experience. This aesthetic embrace of experiential, musical spirituality allows for people with varying levels …