How did the counter-culture infiltrate the once rigid and impervious walls of organized religion. Certainly there is strength in numbers, and the Baby Boomers had an overwhelming majority. It also helped that the biggest of all organized churches, the Roman Catholic Church, opened the floodgates with Vatican II. Catholic parishioners had been used to a centuries old Latin Masss; then one day, they were greeted to something completely different. The incense and Latin hymns were gone. In their place were puppet shows, cheesy felt banners, and lots of guitar strumming. The church I attended actually went to playing music by Cat Stevens. Ride on the peace train, baby.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not passing judgement. There's a lot to be said for injecting a breath of fresh air into a religion that has grown stale. And nowhere is that fresh air more evident today than in old religious and spiritual books of the period. Decades have passed, the Boomers have grown older and more conservative, and the churches have gradually drifted towards the middle. All that remains as evidence of this period are the books.
Browse through the religious/spiritual works published during the seventies and what's instantly striking are the day-glo psychedelic covers. Sort of a mix of Peter Max, Haight-Ashbury rock poster art, and "Op Art" as it is called. Goodbye magisterial leather bound religious work, hello dust jacket that could serve as an album cover for The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
Some day someone with an appreciation for these small works of art is going to start a blog or make a coffee table book about them. There's literally thousands of them. Admittedly, most are awful, but many are quite good, and serve as wonderful glimpses into the spiritual life of the 1970's.
