Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church

Author/Contributor(s):	Creasy Dean, Kenda
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Date:	07/15/2010
Binding:	Hardcover
Condition:	NEW

The National Study of Youth and Religion asserts that, instead of consequential faith, most American teenagers practice "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" - a superficial, low-commitment, self-serving spirituality that seems to characterize many American churches. Dean believes that churches must recover a "missional mindset"-the conviction that "we are not here for ourselves"-and that consequential faith begins by helping teenagers, parents, and congregations reclaim de-centering practices like translation, testimony, and spiritual "detachment" (what the mystics called the ability to focus on God and others instead of ourselves). Drawing on a major national study, this volume argues that the Church has failed to instill genuine religious passion in American teenagers.