Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post-Boomer Generation

by Richard Flory, Donald E. Miller

Overview

Despite the masses still lining up to enter mega-churches with warehouse-like architecture, casually dressed clergy, and pop Christian music, the "Post-Boomer" generation-those ranging in age from twenty to forty-is having second thoughts. In this perceptive look at the evolving face of Christianity in contemporary culture, sociologists Richard Flory and Donald E. Miller argue that we are on the verge of another potential revolution in how Christians worship and associate with one another.

Just as the formative experiences of Baby Boomers were colored by such things as the war in Vietnam, the 1960s, and a dramatic increase in their opportunities for individual expression, so Post-Boomers have grown up in less structured households with working (often divorced) parents. These childhood experiences leave them craving authentic spiritual experience, rather than entertainment, and also cause them to question institutions. Flory and Miller develop a typology that captures four current approaches to the Christian faith and argue that this generation represents a new religious orientation of "expressive communalism," in which they seek spiritual experience and fulfillment in community and through various expressive forms of spirituality, both private and public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813542737
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Richard Flory is associate professor of sociology at Biola University in La Mirada, California.

Donald E. Miller is Firestone Professor of Religion and executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Innovators
Chapter 3: Appropriators
Chapter 4: Resisters
Chapter 5: Reclaimers
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

"Finding Faith offers an insightful and unique contribution to helping us understand how the Post-Boomer generation is shaking things up in American religious culture. Flory and Miller should be soundly commended for such a creative book."

author of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenage - Christian Smith

"Finding Faith turns the conventional wisdom about Post-Boomers on its head. Flory and Miller reveal that Post-Boomers are an eclectic-and not entirely individualistic-lot, one for whom meaningful spiritual experiences and connections to a broader religious community are vitally important."

author of The Promise Keepers: Servants, Soldiers, and Godly Men - John P. Bartkowski

"Flory and Miller offer valuable insight into the religious landscape in which the Post-Boomers are wokring out their religious and spiritual journeys."

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

"Finding Faith turns the conventional wisdom about Post-Boomers on its head. Flory and Miller reveal that Post-Boomers are an eclectic-and not entirely individualistic-lot, one for whom meaningful spiritual experiences and connections to a broader religious community are vitally important."

From the Publisher