One of most important and exhaustive studies of the spiritual lives of contemporary American youth was published in 2005. The result of a research project funded by the Lilly Endowment, the findings are reported and explained in the book,
Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Authored by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, this resource should be required reading for every youth minister, as well as for Christian parents of teenagers. The essential conclusion of this major study: American youth largely get their notions of God and religion from parents and adults, and the effect does not much look like vital and classical Christianity. The dominant framework that youth employ to think about God is “personally feeling good” and “being happy.” In one of the most incisive and culturally perceptive critiques I have read in a long time, Smith and Denton develop a name for the new “triune” god of much contemporary youth culture: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” Go get the book or more easily read a summary essay by Christian Smith available here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7699752/Moralistic-Therapudic-Deism-by-Christian-Smith
Now Christian Smith has just published his latest study of contemporary spirituality, this time focusing on emerging and young adults. The title of the new book is Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Smith - sociologist at the University of Notre Dame and director of its Center for the Study of Religion and Society – explains that much of the spirituality of young adults works against serious faith commitments. When it comes to Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, most seek a spiritual life that is unencumbered of “institutional” authority or any perceived threat to individual freedom and personal autonomy. There is a much greater emphasis on individual “feelings” than on corporate “thinking” when it comes to questions about God. Therefore, in the absence of any rational framework to make sense of God or develop categories for a moral order in creation, many young and emerging adults adopt a theological outlook that sounds a lot like “karma: what goes around comes around.”
More positively, Smith notes that today’s emerging adults are self-consciously spiritually hungry and have been brought up comfortable in expressing these longings. Still, the church has its work cut out for it in connecting deeply with this generation in articulate, challenging yet winsome ways. Smith argues it will take more creativity and initiative by established churches than he currently observes on today’s cultural landscape.