GenXers are assumed to be a thoroughly secular and apathetic group, but actually they attend church in roughly the same numbers as Baby Boomers. This book is the first to examine the myriad ways GenXers reinvent religion, from church services in dance clubs to sacred tattooing, Christian hardcores who worship in the mosh pit, and Gothic spirituality. This book is of interest to ministers and youth group leaders, social analysts, members of the media - anyone who wants to understand Generation X, as well as sociologists and other scholars working in the fields of religion and popular culture.

Table of Contents

Preface Contributors Introduction Understanding Generation X: Values, Politics, and Religious Commitments Donald E. Millar and Arpi Misha Miller Part I. Spirituality Embodied 1. Marked for Jesus: Sacred Tattooing Among Evangelical Gen Xers Lori Jensen, Richard W. Flory, Donald E. Miller 2. Spirituality Bites: Xers and the Gothic Cult/ure Julia Winden Fey Part II. GenX Multicultures 3. Sunday Night Fever (An) Urban Mosaic in Shangri-La LaDawn Prieto 4. Slipping into Darkness: Popular Culture and the Creation of a Latino Evangelical Youth Culture Arlen Sanchez Walsh 5. Creating Campus Communities: Korean-American Ministries at UCLA Sharon Kim 6. The Traditional as Alternative: The Gen-X Appeal of the International Church of Christ Gregory C. Stanczak Part III. Community and Congregation 7. When Two Worlds Collide: Generation X Culture and Conservative Evangelicalism Lori Jensen 8. Saturday Night in Pasadena: Wholeness, Healing and Holiness at Harvest Rock Church Douglas Hayward 9. Spirit Made Flesh: The Tangible Spirituality of 'LL Prime Time' Kimberley Leaman Algallar and Richard W. Flory 10. 'Friday Night Live: It's Not Your Parents' Shabbat' J. Liora Gubkin 11. Losing Life to Save It: An 'Insider' Ethnography of the Church of the Redeemer Community in South Central Los Angeles Timothy Sato Conclusion. Toward a Theory of Generation X Religion Richard W. Flory