Page 65 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

54 Media and religion in transition

is definitive of religious or spiritual action for some people – and in other
contexts is a sensibility that defines religion or spirituality for people
within more conventional religious bodies, congregations, or traditions. As
Roof sees it,

Three aspects of the situation today particularly stand out. One is the
sheer numbers of people involved. . . . Surveys show that large sectors
of the American population today are interested in deepening their
spirituality. Many who seem to have lost a traditional religious
grounding are striving for new and fresh moorings; many with a reli-
gious grounding are looking to enrich their lives further. Second,
dominant amid all this ferment is an emphasis on self-understanding
and self-reflexivity, a product of late modernity with its pluralism,
relativism, and ontological uncertainties. Thus my use of the terms
quest, seeking and searching arise out of this particular historical and
cultural context. Third, and somewhat paradoxically, the spiritual
learnings are leading many Americans beyond the self-centered, thera-
peutic culture in which they grew up. Self-fulfillment as a cultural
theme in the 1960s and 1970s set in motion a powerful quest, but
now for a generation older and more mature that quest has moved
beyond the solutions that were promised in consumption, materialism,
and self-absorption. Popular spirituality may appear shallow, indeed
flaky; yet its creative currents, under the right conditions, can activate our
deepest energies and commitments. Even in its most self-absorbed forms,
today’s spiritual ferment reflects a deep hunger for a self-transformation
that is both genuine and personally satisfying. 35

And significantly to our discussions here, Roof observes that the genera-
tion of which seeking is typical, the Baby Boom generation, is defined in
important ways by its relationship to media. It is the first television genera-
tion, he notes, and has as well grown up with the mass-marketing and
demographic targeting of modern advertising. Its spiritual sensibilities are
in important ways, then, both rooted in and represented by mass media.
“All these trends – a more focused spirituality, experience with pluralism,
selective mixing of traditions, and new styles of commitment – are deeply
entrenched in the popular culture today.” 36 In his more recent Spiritual
Marketplace, Roof explored the media connection to religious seeking in
more detail, and observed,

Of great importance in shaping this more expressive self through
symbols and discourses is the mass media. Never before has human
life been so caught up in mediated image and symbol. And never
before have the people themselves been so aware that ours is such a
world of image and symbol. The role of cultural industries and