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Also Recommended
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The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
Christian Smith, Melina Lundquist Denton
£11.99
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The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties
Jeffrey Jensen Arnett
£15.00
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Almost Christian
What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church
Kenda Creasy Dean
240 pages
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15
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235x156mm
978-0-19-531484-7
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Hardback
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05 August 2010
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- The first interpretation of the National Study of Youth and Religion's implications for youth ministry
Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion—the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers—Kenda Creasy Dean's compelling new book, Almost Christian, investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice.
In Soul Searching, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"—a
hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God's love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four
important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives.
Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.Readership: Students and scholars of Sociology of Religion, as well as general audiences.
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Kenda Creasy Dean, Associate Professor, Youth, Church, and Culture, Princeton Theological Kenda Creasy Dean is Associate Professor, Youth, Church, and Culture, at Princeton Theological Seminary. She worked on the National Study of Youth and Religion and is the author of several books, including The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending in Youth Ministry and Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church.
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"...offers pragmatic and insightful responses." - Joanne Griffiths, Theology
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Acknowledgements
Section One: Worshipping at the Church of Benign Whatever-ism
1.: Becoming Christian-ish
2.: The Triumph of the "Cult of Nice"
Section Two: Claiming a Peculiar God-Story
3.: Mormon Envy: Sociological Tools for Consequential Faith
4.: Generative Faith: Faith That Bears Fruit
5.: Recovering a Missional Imagination: We Are Not Here for Ourselves
Section Three: Cultivating Consequential Faith
6.: Parents Matter Most: The Art of Translation
7.: . Going Viral for Jesus: The Art of Testimony
8.: Hanging Loose: The Art of Detachment
9.: Make No Small Plans: A Case for Hope
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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