ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the large post-World War II boomer generation within the United States (birth years: 1946–1964), that is remembered as having come of age in the 1960s, a time of major social, cultural, and political change within the country. They were influential in transforming American life, and particularly its religious, spiritual, and ethical qualities, early on as well as more recently as they enter into retirement. A developmental perspective is advanced on the generation’s religious and spiritual views as its members have aged. Three phases in its members’ lifecycles are examined: (1) in their early youthful years they were political activists and “experimenters,” many of them dropping out of churches and other religious communities to explore New Age spiritualties; (2) then later in mid-life when settling into careers, marrying and forming families they were in flux, some and particularly evangelical Christians returned to traditional religious belief and practice while still others, often in a deeply reflexive manner were selectively combining traditional and new spiritual beliefs and practices into an enriched whole; and (3) then in retirement great numbers of them are now settling into fairly active religious and spiritual lives, a pattern clearly reinforced by the widespread adoption of spiritual practices into the liturgies and activities of the many churches over the past several decades.
