Synopses & Reviews
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...
Review
"His book is the most comprehensive and accessible reading on the religious nature of irreverence among members of the so-called "Generation X." This book is ground breaking 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." —Amazon.com
"Has Tom Beaudoin caught a new wave of spirituality at its birthing? Maybe he has. In any case, he enables the reader to peer into a reality that is both religious and secular, both outrageous and touching, both post modern and, in its own odd way, very traditional. If he is wrong, he is fascinatingly and brilliantly wrong, and no reader will regret taking this trip through the various layers of our contemporary divine comedy with him as their Virgil."
"Tom Beaudoin takes us on a romping, eye-opening voyage through GenX culture--its music, its fashion, its imagery, its spiritual quest. There is nothing quite like this book in print: so honest a portrayal of GenX, and so passionate a plea for a creative engagement between this generation and religious institutions." —Wade Clark Roof, Author of A Generation of Seekers
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 the Author
TOM BEAUDOIN Raised on television and video games, Tom Beaudoin began to notice in the mid-80s that the popular culture so familiar to him was infused with religious iconography and meaning. He 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. A former altar boy and presently a bass player in a Boston area rock band, he survived Woodstock '94.