I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with young people on a fairly regular basis. That’s one of the benefits of being a college professor. It’s much easier to keep up with the cultural discourse when you are surrounded by people in their late teens and early twenties. My students are aware of my expertise and often seek to engage in discussions with me about religion, politics, and society. I’m all ears, of course. One thing I hear on a pretty consistent basis from them is that people are rejecting traditional forms of religion and are replacing them with alternative spiritualities.
This idea seems to have seeped into the discourse—that many Americans have replaced Sunday morning worship with yoga sessions, astrology, or consulting a psychic on a regular basis. A recent book by Tara Isabella Burton called Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World makes this point exactly.
