American Christianity has become thoroughly “juvenilized,” as worshipers at almost any contemporary evangelical church can attest. Praise bands, short motivational sermons, and an emphasis on emotion have replaced rigorous Bible study and costly discipleship, with churches doing whatever they can to appeal to young people and their spiritually immature parents.

These trends are not products of the late twentieth century, Thomas Bergler argues, but instead can be traced back to changes in American religion that took place between the 1930s and 1950s, when both protestants and Catholics made a greater effort to appeal to teens. The Juvenilization of American Christianity analyzes the different ways in which four major religious traditions—evangelical protestantism, mainline protestantism, Catholicism, and African American protestantism—attempted to reach out to young people in their churches. Church traditions that found a way to reach young people experienced high growth rates, while those that did not declined. But some of this growth, Bergler argues, came at the expense of substantive spiritual formation. Young people who were socialized to think of Christianity primarily as a fun activity grew into adults who expected worship to be entertaining and churches to serve their own needs.

Nowhere was this phenomenon more evident than in evangelical protestantism. Evangelicals emerged from World War II determined to appeal to young people through fun-filled activities in groups such as Youth for Christ. Evangelicals continued to condemn dancing, drinking, and movies in the 1950s, but they created an alternative culture of Bible clubs, entertaining speakers, and lively music that acted as a substitute for the popular culture that they shunned. The synthesis of purposeful living and in-group socialization proved to be a winning combination, and evangelicals experienced remarkable success in retaining the loyalty of their young people. But evangelicals' youth-oriented message came at a price: The young people who had grown up attending vibrant Youth for Christ events continued to expect entertaining worship when they became adults, and churches became increasingly shallow and “juvenilized” as a result. White evangelicals also largely ignored the social issues of the era—particularly when they had to do with civil rights for African Americans—choosing instead to appeal to young people with an individualistic message of personal piety and spiritual fun.

By contrast, the Methodists, whom Bergler uses as his case study for liberal or mainline Protestantism, offered their youth a message that focused almost entirely on social concerns. Beginning in the 1930s, Methodists taught their young people that the essence of being a Christian was to become politically engaged on behalf of social justice causes, especially civil rights. But this message failed to resonate with most white suburban youth, who were more interested in popular culture than in committing themselves to political activism. Furthermore, many of those who did become engaged in leftist political organizations saw no need to maintain their involvement in the church, which was perhaps not surprising, given liberal Methodist church leaders' habit of complaining about the irrelevance of the church in the modern world. Methodists and other liberal protestants tried to appeal to young people with a politically conscious message, but they failed to cultivate their interest in institutional Christianity, and as a result, many of their youth left the church when they became adults.

Catholic children of the 1950s grew up in a “Catholic ghetto,” where they learned from church youth programs to oppose communism, abstain from premarital sexual activity, and retain their Catholic identity by eventually marrying a Catholic and remaining faithful in their religious observance. Yet this system of indoctrination left Catholics unprepared to deal with the challenges of the 1960s. The lessons that they had learned in parochial schools and the programs of the Catholic Youth Organization seemed antiquated and irrelevant in a post-Vatican II world. Mass attendance among young people sharply declined after the mid-1960s, and millions of young Catholics rejected the conservative approach to sexuality that they had been taught. As Bergler says, “Everyone wanted to get out of the Catholic ghetto” (119).

African American churches of the mid-twentieth century did not offer the wide array of youth programs that white denominations provided, but their youth nevertheless absorbed the lessons of a socially conscious Christianity far more effectively than most white teenagers did. The combination of societal racism and parental pressure gave young African Americans a seriousness and determination that most whites lacked. The theological lessons and commitment to the church that they acquired in their teen years during the 1950s prepared them for a commitment to the civil rights movement in the following decade. Yet the tremendous stresses of civil rights activism brought some African American youth to a crisis of faith and led many to leave the church, which they felt had not addressed their real needs. Eventually, some returned, but for at least a short time in the late 1960s and 1970s, it appeared that the African American church had not succeeded in retaining its young people.

Bergler thus concludes that white evangelical youth programs, despite their lack of theological depth, were more effective than the youth programs of other denominational traditions in retaining the loyalty of their youth and keeping them committed to the faith. Yet because Bergler is an evangelical Christian who serves as an associate professor of ministry and missions at a Christian college, he is not content to conclude with a merely historical analysis or a pragmatic justification of the status quo. Instead, his book ends with an exhortation for evangelicals to rethink the traditional model of youth ministry, with its long-term debilitating spiritual consequences, and to devote more attention to cultivating spiritual maturity in both young people and adults.

Bergler's combination of intriguing historical analysis and perceptive cultural insights will be useful not only for scholars in the academy, but also for church leaders. Indeed, anyone who is seeking a better understanding of contemporary youth-oriented Christian culture would benefit from Bergler's work.