Virtual faith

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Proclaiming itself as the first book to focus directly on the religious experience of Generation X, Beaudoin's book is a provocative interpretation of the spiritual side of the popular culture that, he argues, has so deeply informed today's 18- to 34-year-olds. Beaudoin, a lay preacher currently working on a doctorate in religion and education at Boston College, argues that, despite popular conception, Gen-X is strikingly religious. The author gushes a book-length apologia for his generation's unabashed "irreverent spiritual quest," which includes the "meaning-making system" of their popular culture, their condemnation of authority and the institutional church and their simulated "virtual faith." This is a faith located not in traditional religious institutions but in the simulated material environment of video games and MTV videos. Beaudoin is an energetic writer, but his thinking is often sloppy and, in some cases, absurdas when he contends that Gen-Xers have undergone Christlike suffering simply by being born into the turbulent era of the 1970s and '80s, into divorced families, into a fearful, fragmented society overhung by the nuclear cloud. Given his lack of perspective, it's easy for him to explain his generation's turn to shocking, unorthodox means to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He decodes the messages of "Xer theology" from unlikely sources: the sensual and spiritual imagery in music videos, the marking of pain and "gift of religious experience" in body piercings, identification with society's outcasts through ripped jeans. Beaudoin would have us believe that the irreverent, arrogant-unto-death thief on the cross embodies true spirituality, while the repentant thief is weak, hypocritical and outside Jesus'paradise. (June)

Library Journal

This guide, much in the flavor of a coffeehouse conversation, aims to understand the spiritual hunger of those young adults between 25 and 35. A Generation Xer and lay preacher in Boston working on a doctorate in religion and education, Beaudoin considers his generation's stance toward religion by offering a theological interpretation of popular culture. In the first chapter, he explains how religion and popular culture have been ever-present and interwined in his own life. He then moves into the interpretation of pop culture, anchoring each chapter around a theme, e.g., anti-institutionalism, and then discusses the implications for contemporary religious practice. After exploring the style and meaning of religious practice in Generation X, Beaudoin closes with an attempt to integrate Generation X, pop culture, and religion together in a kind of summary. His easy style expands the scope of its readership, and the careful discussion also lends itself to further deliberation and research in this area. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.Leroy Hommerding, Citrus Cty. Lib. Sys., FL