ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how American young adults are active theologians forging diverse ways of seeing and being in the world shaped by their experiences and in turn continuing to shape their choices in life. The term personal theology is intended to convey the interdisciplinary sweep of this project. Postmodern and postcolonial perspectives have added further focus on local or indigenous identity that stands in contrast to, or in dialogical or dialectic tension with, assumptions about identity imposed by the dominant cultural, political and economic forces. The book concludes with a grounded theory of personal theology that opens an avenue for further research and maps over a hundred possible variations in personal theology based on the emerging general patterns of three worldviews, three theodicies, three types of life purpose, and two pairs of contrasting sets of ultimate values.
