Parley P. Pratt's memoirs impress with their vivid and eventful accounts of the author's life. Foremost however is the author's supreme devotion to the Mormon church and the Lord God. Pratt begins by reminiscing on his youth. The early 19th century was an exciting but dangerous time to be alive; the United States was a fledgling nation, and its westward expansion was fraught with a variety of dangers and hardships. Some trusted only in what they believed they knew, but Pratt placed his trust in Jesus Christ's principles from an early age and was in youth part of the Baptist movement. However, he felt he could go further in God's name, and this led him to Joseph Smith and the Mormon church. As one of the earliest members of the Latter Day Saints, Pratt enjoyed a good degree of influence at the forefront of the church's activity. He was present as the denomination grew from its roots as a small, regional group of frontier settlers to a national and international creed with its base in Utah.

This book offers a theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich study of the intersections of contemporary Christianity and youth culture, focusing on evangelical engagements with punk, hip hop, surfing, and skateboarding. Ibrahim Abraham draws on interviews and fieldwork with dozens of musicians and sports enthusiasts in the USA, UK, Australia, and South Africa, and the analysis of evangelical subcultural media including music, film, and extreme sports Bibles. Evangelical Youth Culture: Alternative Music and Extreme Sports Subcultures makes innovative use of multiple theories of youth cultures and subcultures from sociology and cultural studies, and introduces the "serious leisure perspective" to the study of religion, youth, and popular culture. Engaging with the experiences of Pentecostal punks, surfing missionaries, township rappers, and skateboarding youth pastors, this book makes an original contribution to the sociology of religion, youth studies, and the study of religion and popular culture.