By Angela E. Pometto
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 9/23/04)

"Generation Y: Understanding Today’s Culture," by Fr. Dave Pivonka, T.O.R. Franciscan University Press (Steubenville, Ohio, 2004). 106 min.

Content advisory: Cultural crisis.

"Generation Y: Understanding Today’s Culture" explains the newest generation, details why understanding them is important and how best to minister to them. Franciscan Father Dave Pivonka’s two-disc is a must-hear for parents and youth ministers, but also for teens in their daily battle against the culture.

"Unless we are willing to stand up and engage the culture … we are heading for a crisis," Father Pivonka said. He described the culture as a train that is taking off and is heading for a crash. All of humanity is on that train and when it wrecks, it is not going to be pretty.

Mark 16 says, "Go unto the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." Father Pivonka challenges those listening to improve this in their lives.

"We as Catholic Christians do a good job of letting people come to us … but not a good job of going out," he said. "Jesus didn’t say stay in and let the world come to you. He said go out into all the world."

The Franciscan Friar continues to describe three major world views: pre-modern (beginning of time-1500s), modern (1600s-1960) and postmodern (1960s-present).

"For the pre-modern world, God is at the center. For the modern world, man is the center, and for the postmodern world, nothing is in the center."

In generations, this means the Baby Boomers (1945-1963) all grew up in the modern world, but still hung on to traditional values. Generation X (1963-1983) grew up in a postmodern world, but their parents didn’t. In Generation Y (1984-present) "we now have a generation of young people whose parents were raised in a postmodern world," Father Pivonka said. "They’ve never known anything but postmodernism."

In the talk, Father Pivonka lists 10 features of the postmodern world. Among them is tolerance.

"Tolerance is the god of this generation," he said, and it’s not defined the way it used to be. For "new" tolerance every individual’s perception of truth is equal. It used to be love the sinner, hate the sin. "Not only do I have to accept the person, but also how the person thinks and behaves."

In the postmodern world, each individual decides for his/herself what is true. So when someone rejects this truth, it is overall a personal rejection.

"You are discouraging me because I’m the one who made the truth," Father Pivonka explains. In the long run, postmoderns are "tolerant of everything except Christianity. You don’t have to be tolerant of that."

From this point, Father Pivonka delves more deeply into what this understanding means in terms of working with teens. His advice is not only insightful, well-supported and informed, but also practical. Any Christian who wants to be in this world, but not of this world, would benefit from listening to this CD.

"Generation Y" is available through the Franciscan University Press. For more information call 1-888-333-0381 or go to press.francsican.edu.