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

"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."-Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers "Finding Faith testifies to the remarkably creative ways in which Post-Boomers dynamically integrate their search for spiritual meaning with commitment to others amidst the flux of our globalized society."-Michele Dillon, author of In the Course of a Lifetime: Tracing Religious Belief, Practice, and Change 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 and exposure to multiple cultures and worldviews. These childhood experiences leave them questioning institutions and craving authentic spiritual experience, rather than entertainment. 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. Richard Flory is a research associate in the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern 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.