Virtual Faith : The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X - Hardcover

Beaudoin, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787938823 ISBN 13: 9780787938826

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 1998

Synopsis

Reveals the deep and pervasive search for meaning that haunts Generation X. This book is must reading for anyone who would understand the spirituality of young people at the turn of a new millennium.--Robert A. Ludwig, author of Reconstructing Catholicism for a New Generation

In Virtual Faith, Beaudoin explores fashion, music videos, and cyberspace concluding that his generation has fashioned a theology radically different from, but no less potent or valid than, that of their elders.

Beaudoin's investigation of popular culture uncovers four themes that underpin his generation?s theology. First, all institutions are suspect -- especially organized religion. Second, personal experience is everything, and every form of intense personal experience is potentially spiritual. Third, suffering is also spiritual. Finally, this generation sees ambiguity as a central element of faith.

This book opens a long overdue conversation about where and how we find meaning, and how we all can encourage each other in this central human searching.

Tom Beaudoin earned his Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University School of Divinity in 1996 and is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Religion and Education at Boston College.

About this title

Review:

If you've ever seen God in a tattoo or had a revelatory experience listening to R.E.M., Virtual Faith is for you. Tom Beaudoin has spent his whole life parked in front of the TV, surfing online, and jamming to the radio--that is when he hasn't been church hopping, getting graduate degrees in theology, or serving in the Israeli army. His book is the most comprehensive and accessible reading on the religious nature of irreverence among members of the so-called "Generation X." While Beaudoin skirts some of the most contentious issues raised by Gen-X pop culture (neither "Marilyn Manson" nor "homosexuality" appears in the index), his book is groundbreaking and important simply because it makes a bold move: he aims two rays of light--God's and Madonna's--straight at each other, and actually takes seriously the wild spectrum that results. --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Back Cover:

Tattoos. Body piercing. Retro. Grunge. These are some of the stereotypical images of Generation X. Look a bit harder, and the images are troubling, even heretical: crucifixes as fashion accessories, music videos with religious and sexual imagery in unashamed juxtaposition, rave masses in which prayer and ecstatic experiences aren?t quite what they used to be.

In this profoundly original book, Tom Beaudoin issues a provocative challenge: what if, instead of dismissing these expressions as heretical or blasphemous, we took them as serious expressions of a generation?s search for a religion they can believe in?
Beaudoin, himself an unapologetic member of Generation X, explores fashion, music videos, and cyberspace and concludes that his generation has fashioned a theology radically different from but no less potent or valid than that of their elders. Virtual Faith is an invitation to explore this theology with him as our guide.

Beaudoin?s investigation of popular culture uncovers four themes that underpin his generation?s theology. First, all institutions are suspect?especially organized religion. Recoiling from perceived hypocrisy, yet hungering for spiritual experience, this generation has taken religion into their own hands. Second, personal experience is everything. GenXers want to discover everything for themselves, and every form of intense personal experience?including sex?is potentially spiritual. Third, suffering is also spiritual. Images of a suffering Jesus have a personal meaning for this generation that they don?t have for their elders. Finally, this generation sees ambiguity as a central element of faith. Rather than retreating from doubt, they embrace it.

This book opens a long overdue conversation about where and how we find meaning, and how we all can encourage each other in this central human searching. Parents and religious leaders of all religious persuasions will gain an understanding of GenX theology in its own terms. And GenXers themselves will find an invitation to a more conscious examination of their own relationship to religion and spiritual experience?and a challenge to take the next step.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0787938823
• ISBN 13: 9780787938826
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 210