The Worship Mall: Contemporary Responses to Contemporary Culture

by Bryan Spinks

Alcuin / SPCK (2010)

ISBN 0-281-06025-2

Religion is in competition with the leisure and entertainment industries.  The postmodern generation, Gen Y, is open to spirituality, but young adults have not been born into faith communities that embrace them fully and command their allegiance over a lifetime.  Studies suggest that, for the young, belief in God is an optional matter, a consumer choice, and different trends in contemporary worship and worship styles are offered by different churches to suit personal taste.

What is in these trends that might appeal to Gen Y?  Are they worship, or something other than worship?  Is current Roman Catholic rethinking of Vatican II really postmodern, or is it something else?  Why is there great interest in Celtic spirituality and Celtic worship?  What about blended services and alt. worship?  Are megachurches survivors from modernity masquerading in postmodern disguise?  Bryan D. Spinks invites you to walk through The Worship Mall and see what is on offer in the postmodern culture.

Bryan D. Spinks is Goddard Professor of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology, Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School.

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