On the publications front: I recently co-authored an article titled “Religion, Pop Culture, and Virtual Faith” with Sylvia Collins-Mayo, who teaches sociology at Kingston University (UK). That has now been published as a chapter in the new book Religion and Youth, edited by Sylvia Collins-Mayo and Pink Dandelion (Ashgate, 2010). The chapter briskly sets my argument about the “spirituality” of Generation X, from my 1998 book Virtual Faith, in the context of sociological research about generations in Western/secularizing cultures. I learned much from Sylvia Collins-Mayo (co-author of The Faith of Generation Y) about contemporary social-science framing of generational research and youth in the process of putting this chapter together. I am also grateful that Religion and Youth includes a chapter (“Generation X Religion: A Critical Evaluation”) from a critic of my work, Gordon Lynch (of the University of London, Birkbeck).

Religion and Youth is weighted toward the United Kingdom but also includes research on some other (Australian, United States, Brazilian) contexts, and takes as its major sections: generations, reports on belief and practice, cases of religious practice, religious identity of youth, handing on religion, and research/method questions in youth and religion. In this book there are many examples of rigorous sociology of religion that can challenge theologians in my own North American context to rework what we think counts as religious practices, or practices of interest to contemporary religions. I consider this intersection between social science and theology to be very important for Rock and Theology and for anyone thinking carefully about secular/popular practices and religion today.

Tom Beaudoin

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, United States

The interesting story about Yuri Shevchuk, about which I posted recently, is now available online here.

And speaking of…