Brett McCracken’s book about the collision of “church” and “cool” caused quite an uproar at Christ and Pop Culture in 2010. It seems that his description of “hipster Christians” hit a little close to home for many of our writers and readers, who speculated that he was basically an old guy complaining about “these kids today.” McCracken, a 2005 grad of Wheaton College, doesn’t really fit that description, and that fact gives his criticism a bit more weight.

In Hipster Christianity he sets out to describe the modern nature of hip (rebellion for rebellion’s sake), give some (imprecise) boundaries to the category “Christian hipster,” explain what the hipster church looks like, and discuss what this brand of faith might mean for the church. It’s the second of these goals that caught the most ill-will on these virtual pages. The most common complaint was that his description of Christian hipsters is too broad to be useful, that it simply describes 20-something Christians. I found that it described a particular type of 20-something—yes, generational difference plays an important role, but it’s not everything.

If you recognize yourself in his description, don’t feel insulted by the term “hipster” (McCracken calls himself one, after all), and you’ll be able to see some valuable cultural and ecclesiological insight into the nature of affluent, college-educated, largely white, urban and suburban Christians…more easily referred to as “Christian hipsters.”

Originally posted at Christ and Pop Culture