In this erudite, passionate, beautifully written, and often moving book, Kenda Creasy Dean presents a compelling depiction of the practice of Christianity (and of religion in general) among contemporary American youth. Following on the 2005 ground-breaking work of Christian Smith and Melinda Denton, Soul-Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Dean explains that results of the National Study of Youth and Religion indicate that about 60 per cent of American youth have a religious orientation which may be described as ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’ (MTD), that is, ‘God exists, created, orders and watches life on earth, wants people to be good, nice and fair to others, and sends good people to heaven when they die; God is not involved in my life except when needed to solve a problem; and the key goals of life are to be happy and to feel good about oneself.’
Dean is concerned about the presence of this religious orientation among so many American and, particularly, Christian youth (she indicates that three of four American teenagers claim to be Christians; p. 10). First, she notes that human development research indicates that youth with traditional, orthodox commitment to religion manifest better functioning in adolescence and are more likely to show positive development into early adulthood. Second, Dean worries that MTD is insufficient for leading to a ‘high devoted faith’ (p. 135), which, for Christian youth, means having ‘a profound and personal sense of God's love and forgiveness’ (p. 7). In turn, MTD is a ‘loveless version’ (p. 7) of Christianity, where there is ‘little understanding of historically orthodox Christian doctrine’ (p. 28).
Dean is implicitly a developmentalist and she puts much of the onus for the high percentage of MTD youth on the socialisation practices of parents and the church. She explains that ‘the religious and spiritual choices of American teenagers echo, with astonishing clarity, the religious and spiritual choices of the adults who love them . . . lackadaisical faith is not young people's issue, but ours’ (p. 4).
Why is it important that parents and the church do more to promote consequential faith among youth? Dean raises the possibility that what is being observed among MTD youth – whose numbers are ‘supplanting Christianity as the dominant religion in the United States’ (p. 14) – is not just the lazy or thoughtless practice of Christianity but, perhaps, something more profound and inexorable – the evolution of faith among the youth of America. Thus, Dean implies that there is more afoot than a church which is demanding (and teaching) less of a commitment to faith and to traditional orthodoxy. In raising and exploring the bases and nature of the emergence of MTD among America's youth, Dean illuminates issues of profound importance for Christianity and, even more, for the role of religion in civil society.
Dean asks ‘What explanations can we give for Moralistic Therapeutic Deism's hold on American teenagers?’ (p. 34). In addition to the processes of human development and socialisation to which Dean points, she suggests that cultural evolution may be at play here. In fact, Dean hypothesises that ‘teenagers are barometers of a larger theological shift taking place in American culture’ (p. 134) and, as such, MTD-orientated youth may be harbingers of a future where the world's great religions must inculcate in their youth a commitment to a simpler and, critically, less particular religiosity, one where all youth must find a common community which rejects ideas of theological hegemony which promise only unending jihad and the incessant fear of terrorist actions affecting millions. It may be that MTD youth will be better able to adapt to a ‘flat world’ where integration of religious views is more of a key to the survival of humanity than is adherence to a particular religious orthodoxy.
Dean seems to admit of such a possibility. She points out that ‘Some have defended Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as a reasonable Christian outlook. Few have denied either the fact or the power of its existence, with young people or with the adults that love them’ (p. 185). Indeed, she sympathises with Christians who default to MTD ‘because they deem it better than religious bigotry that can make the gospel seem like anything but good news’ (p. 189). Moreover, she recognises that MTD ‘serves an adaptive purpose in American society, which means it is probably here to stay’ (p. 189). In fact, she observes that youth and parents are correct if they believe that MTD ‘will outfit them better for success in American society than Christianity will’ (p. 191).
What then may devoted Christians make of the prevalence of MTD youth? Does MTD represent an evolutionary emergent version of Christianity? Does MTD represent a religiosity which suffices across the life span or, in turn, will the subsequent, adult development of contemporary youth involve a deeper, and perhaps more traditional, understanding of and commitment to Christian faith? Is there an adaptive advantage for the coexistence of MTD youth and highly devoted Christian youth?
Scholarly progress rests in asking good questions and, as such, in formulating such issues Dean's book is a watershed event in the links between theology and developmental science. Dean lights a path for future conceptual and empirical collaboration among theologians, scientists studying the development of youth, parents and youth-serving practitioners, and youth themselves.
Dean quotes the answer which Alexander Papaderos gave to Robert Fulghum when asked about the meaning of life (p. 84): ‘I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world.’ Dean's important and stimulating book brings light into the still dark areas linking religious beliefs and the study of youth development. For such illumination, readers are in her debt.
