God with a Million Faces

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What he has found in his most recent research is a calmer, more group-oriented, but still spiritually restless generation. Many boomers (like Anne-Marie) have assembled private faiths from spiritual bits and pieces, while others have turned to new forms of evangelical Christianity that deliberately appeal to the 'seeker mentality.' In the mainstream faiths, Roof detects a search for more depth. 'People are rediscovering their own traditions, finding there were feminists in the Middle Ages, for instance, or powerful female figures in the Old Testament.' As for those who returned to organized religion to give their children a source of moral training, many are dropping out again as the nest empties. 'It's still very much a generation whose roots in religion are rather fragile,' he says, 'and therefore they're still open to exploring. I think that's going to continue throughout their lives.'

This approach to faith has deep roots. 'Religion historically -- and particularly in the American democratic setting -- has been one of new combinations, pastiche, the mixing of official themes and folk themes,' he says. He notes that strains of transcendentalism, self-help, and positive thinking continue to fuse with evangelical Christianity in curious ways, as in the pop theology of the TV program Touched by an Angel. 'A lot of the appeal is that this is where many people actually live,' Roof notes. 'Religion is not just handed down from institutions. Sure, institutions have some power of perpetuation, but individuals take what they hear, reinterpret, recombine, reassemble, and come out in their own lived expressions with styles that are very much tailored to themselves.' And that's especially true of people today. What they create has a meaning and coherence that works well for them, he concludes, even if the results may seem less than logically consistent.

At Boston University, John Berthrong sees this same creative capacity for fusing different beliefs in his students. Even when their multiple faiths create contradictions, 'they don't worry about it,' he says. 'It doesn't bother people. You can be a Christian fundamentalist on one level, and a computer programmer working in Houston on space technology, and you'd think somehow that would conflict a bit.' But it seldom does, he observes. What Berthrong calls the notion of the organic unity of our minds 'doesn't always work quite the way we think it does, especially in religion.'

Where is all this religious experimentation headed? Berthrong, the theologian, predicts that existing churches could be in trouble if people cease to identify with a single tradition. Roof, the social scientist, sees a similar pattern of individualized worship developing in Generation X, which suggests the trend is destined to continue into the next century. Others say we're witnessing the birth of a new consciousness and perhaps a widespread belief system that mirrors it. While this may be a common millennial refrain, not everyone thinks it's realistic, or even desirable. 'I somehow don't like the idea that eventually the whole world would have the same religion,' says Li, the philosopher. 'Somehow I feel the diversity is good.'

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