Kristine Grumme
Liberty University MFA Thesis
Abstract
Generation Z emerging adults are the most digitally connected generation in history, yet they experience unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and spiritual disengagement. This thesis explores the paradox of digital immersion: while online life promises connection, it has diminished opportunities for restorative encounters with God’s creation. The result is not only disconnection from nature but also from God’s natural revelation within it.
Through an interdisciplinary literature review spanning theology, psychology, ecology, and design, this research examines how digital overuse contributes to declines in mental, physical, and spiritual health. The study considers historical and contemporary understandings of natural revelation, ecopsychological findings on the restorative benefits of nature, and the role of visual practices in spiritual formation. Together, these perspectives highlight how engagement with creation can foster identity, belonging, and renewal, while also affirming humanity’s role as stewards and beneficiaries of God’s creation.
The design outcome of this research is the ReRooted Vision Kit, a visual communication project that integrates Scripture, photography, and reflective practices. Created for Christian emerging adults, the kit offers a tangible pathway to rediscover meaning, identity, and spiritual grounding through encounters with nature and Scripture. By reframing design as a theological practice, this project demonstrates how visual communication can move beyond aesthetics to serve as a bridge for spiritual renewal in a distracted age.
Research
This research brings together multiple disciplines to better understand how digital overuse affects mental, physical, and spiritual health, while also exploring theology, ecopsychology, and visual culture as sources of insight and healing.
At the center of this study is the Christian understanding of Natural Revelation: the belief that creation reveals truths about God through its beauty, order, complexity, and wonder. Scripture and nature together point beyond themselves, inviting attention, reverence, and renewed relationship with the Creator.
The research asks several guiding questions: how digital overuse disconnects Gen Z from nature, what restorative role nature can play in human flourishing, and how visual communication might become a bridge back to awe, identity, and spiritual attentiveness.
Why It Matters
This work addresses an urgent need within Christian higher education and the Church more broadly. Many young adults are spiritually hungry while also feeling anxious, fragmented, and uncertain about identity and purpose. Reconnecting with creation offers more than a lifestyle adjustment; it opens space for healing, reflection, and renewed awareness of God’s presence.
This project also argues that design can do more than decorate or persuade. It can guide attention, create space for contemplation, and function as a theological practice that helps restore spiritual vision.
The Process
The visual development of ReRooted grew out of research, reflection, and design testing. The process began by defining the problem and gathering insights from theology, psychology, ecology, and design. From there, the project moved into visual exploration, building a system that could translate those findings into a tactile and meaningful experience.
The Solution
The outcome of this research is the ReRooted Vision Kit, a visual communication project that integrates Scripture, photography, and reflective practices. Designed for Christian emerging adults, the kit offers a tangible pathway toward renewed hope, identity, and spiritual grounding through encounters with nature and Scripture.
The Vision Kit reframes design as a bridge for spiritual renewal. It is not simply a collection of visuals, but a guided experience intended to create moments of awe, reflection, and connection. In that way, the project moves beyond aesthetics and becomes a practical response to the deeper spiritual and cultural problem identified in the research.
Closing
The ReRooted Vision Kit provides a creative solution to a growing cultural and spiritual problem. It proposes that visual communication design, rooted in Scripture and creation, can help reawaken wonder, restore attention, and invite a new generation to reconnect with God and the world He made.