Flory, R. W. and D. E. Miller, eds. 2000. Gen X Religion. New York: Routledge.
This book offers a colorful picture of the religious engagements of “Generation X” at the turn of the millennium. The book is notable for the wide array of unusual devotional practices it unearths—sacred tattooing, Gothic clubs, megachurches, rockabilly bands, surf shops, and so forth. Each chapter is essentially an extended ethnography of the beliefs and practices of a particular religious subgroup. The contributors describe Generation X as less likely to believe that “the truth” exists, more likely to produce than to consume religion, more focused on images and experiences than words, and engaged in a quest for community and authenticity. While the book as a whole is not specifically about college students, Sharon Kim’s chapter on Korean campus ministries is an insightful portrait of collegiate evangelical life in the late 1990s.
