Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion

by Wade Clark Roof

Overview

In large chain bookstores the "religion" section is gone and in its place is an expanding number of topics including angels, Sufism, journey, recovery, meditation, magic, inspiration, Judaica, astrology, gurus, Bible, prophesy, evangelicalism, Mary, Buddhism, Catholicism, and esoterica. As Wade Clark Roof notes, such changes over the last two decades reflect a shift away from religion as traditionally understood to more diverse and creative approaches. But what does this splintering of the religious perspective say about Americans? Have we become more interested in spiritual concerns or have we become lost among trends? Do we value personal spirituality over traditional religion and no longer see ourselves united in a larger community of faith? Roof first credited this religious diversity to the baby boomers in his bestselling A Generation of Seekers (1993). He returns to interview many of these people, now in mid-life, to reveal a generation with a unique set of spiritual values—a generation that has altered our historic interpretations of religious beliefs, practices, and symbols, and perhaps even our understanding of the sacred itself.


The quest culture created by the baby boomers has generated a "marketplace" of new spiritual beliefs and practices and of revisited traditions. As Roof shows, some Americans are exploring faiths and spiritual disciplines for the first time; others are rediscovering their lost traditions; others are drawn to small groups and alternative communities; and still others create their own mix of values and metaphysical beliefs. Spiritual Marketplace charts the emergence of five subcultures: dogmatists, born-again Christians, mainstream believers, metaphysical believers and seekers, and secularists. Drawing on surveys and in-depth interviews for over a decade, Roof reports on the religious and spiritual styles, family patterns, and moral vision and values for each of these subcultures. The result is an innovative, engaging approach to understanding how religious life is being reshaped as we move into the next century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691089966
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2001
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wade Clark Roof, a well-known commentator on religious trends in the United States, is the J. F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of eight books, including A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Lives of the Baby Boom Generation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

INTRODUCTION On Maps and Terrains 3

CHAPTER 1 Varieties of Spiritual Quest 16

CHAPTER 2 The Making of a Quest Culture 46

CHAPTER 3 Spiritual Marketplace 77

CHAPTER 4 On Being Fluid and Grounded III

CHAPTER 5 A Quest for What? 145

CHAPTER 6 Redrawing the Boundaries 180

CHAPTER 7 Realigning Family and Religion 217

CHAPTER 8 Moral Vision and Values 254

CONCLUSION "Whirl Is King, Having Driven Out Zeus" 294

APPENDIX Methodology 315

Notes 325

Index 361

What People are Saying About This

This is an engaging book that will easily be read by undergraduates and folks in the pews as well as by academics. One of its key arguments is that American religion can best be characterized by searching, rather than by stable identities or by preferences or affiliations with particular denominations or traditions. Spiritual Marketplace explores the social sources of this searching and how it affects Americans' understandings of personal identity, their commitments to religious institutions, and their moral orientations. The book succeeds admirably in accomplishing its ambitious aims.

Marty

This will be the book to consult for both a synthesis of what has been observed in the areas of American religion and spirituality and for some fresh observations about where American searchers are moving. Wade Clark Roof writes so clearly, is so jargon-free, and is so ready to share his insights with the public that I would think everyone from college-textbook users through mass ommunicators to humanistic and social scientific observers of the American scene would find it intelligible and useful.
— Martin E. Marty, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Public Religion Project, University of Chicago

From the Publisher

"This will be the book to consult for both a synthesis of what has been observed in the areas of American religion and spirituality and for some fresh observations about where American searchers are moving. Wade Clark Roof writes so clearly, is so jargon-free, and is so ready to share his insights with the public that I would think everyone from college-textbook users through mass ommunicators to humanistic and social scientific observers of the American scene would find it intelligible and useful."——Martin E. Marty, Professor Emeritus and Director of the Public Religion Project, University of Chicago

"This is an engaging book that will easily be read by undergraduates and folks in the pews as well as by academics. One of its key arguments is that American religion can best be characterized by searching, rather than by stable identities or by preferences or affiliations with particular denominations or traditions. Spiritual Marketplace explores the social sources of this searching and how it affects Americans' understandings of personal identity, their commitments to religious institutions, and their moral orientations. The book succeeds admirably in accomplishing its ambitious aims."—Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University

Robert Wuthnow

This is an engaging book that will easily be read by undergraduates and folks in the pews as well as by academics. One of its key arguments is that American religion can best be characterized by searching, rather than by stable identities or by preferences or affiliations with particular denominations or traditions. Spiritual Marketplace explores the social sources of this searching and how it affects Americans' understandings of personal identity, their commitments to religious institutions, and their moral orientations. The book succeeds admirably in accomplishing its ambitious aims.

Editorial Reviews

"What does it mean [to be] spiritual? That's what Roof has set out to ask and to answer: to track, capture, and name the current varieties of religious or spiritual experience in America. What he's come up with is a kind of metaphysical seed-catalog, a bewildering array of groups and sub-groups, beliefs and opinions, views and world-views, much of it mixed and matched."—-Mark Buchanan, Books & Culture

From the Publisher

"This is a terrific book . . . Roof clearly demonstrates the old saw that people create their gods, not vice versa."

Phi Beta Kappa The Key Reporter

"Roof writes in a jargon-free, accessible style, often lucidly summarizing (and challenging) the arguments of other sociologists and cultural observers."

Choice

A significant contribution to understanding trends in the lived religion of many Americans in their question for meaning.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion - Jackson W. Carroll

This is a seminal study for the sociology of religion. It should be considered indispensable to anyone trying to take the spiritual pulse of America.

S.J., Spiritus - John A. Coleman

What does it mean [to be] spiritual? That's what Roof has set out to ask and to answer: to track, capture, and name the current varieties of religious or spiritual experience in America. What he's come up with is a kind of metaphysical seed-catalog, a bewildering array of groups and sub-groups, beliefs and opinions, views and world-views, much of it mixed and matched.

Books & Culture - Mark Buchanan

A significant contribution to understanding trends in the lived religion of many Americans in their question for meaning.
— Jackson W. Carroll

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

What does it mean [to be] spiritual? That's what Roof has set out to ask and to answer: to track, capture, and name the current varieties of religious or spiritual experience in America. What he's come up with is a kind of metaphysical seed-catalog, a bewildering array of groups and sub-groups, beliefs and opinions, views and world-views, much of it mixed and matched.
— Mark Buchanan

Books & Culture

This is a seminal study for the sociology of religion. It should be considered indispensable to anyone trying to take the spiritual pulse of America.
— John A. Coleman

Spiritus

This is a terrific book . . . Roof clearly demonstrates the old saw that people create their gods, not vice versa.

The Key Reporter (Phi Beta Kappa)

Full of interesting findings and provocative interpretations.

Sociology of Religion

Baffingly diverse and in a state of historic flux, American religion today defies easy generalization. Wade Clark Roof has tackled the challenge admirably, doing a yeoman's job at compiling vast amounts of often surprising information. . . .

Los Angeles Times

Trying to make sense of the American religious scene on the eve of the new millennium is a courageous enterprise. Bafflingly diverse and in a state of historic flux, American religion today defies easy generalization. Wade Clark Roof, a religion professor at UC Santa Barbara, has tackled the challenge admirably, doing a yeoman's job at compiling vast amounts of often surprising information in his latest book, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. The book is a follow-up to his widely acclaimed 1993 survey on the spiritual journey of the baby boomers, whom Roof memorably described as "the questers." Roof's new book integrates follow-up data on five religious subgroups--mainstream, born-agains, metaphysical seekers, dogmatists and secularists--with a wealth of secondary source material. He also presents close-up looks at five seekers. The close-up portraits help make the book more reader-friendly.
— Los Angeles Times

Teresa Watanabe

In this follow-up to A Generation of Seekers, Roof adds new depth to his ongoing study of America's restless quest at century's end. What does it say about the novel today that one of the most revealing portaits of the culture's inner life happens to be the work of a sociologist?
—Utne Reader

Jonathan F. Creedon

Another dose of Baby Boomer religion from Roof (Dept. of Religious Studies/UC-Santa Barbara), once again arguing that boomers are, as the title of one of his earlier books puts it, A Generation of Seekers.

Kirkus Reviews

"Baffingly diverse and in a state of historic flux, American religion today defies easy generalization. Wade Clark Roof has tackled the challenge admirably, doing a yeoman's job at compiling vast amounts of often surprising information."

|Los Angeles Times