Faith and Families was written to raise the curtain concealing ways in which faith is passed on from one generation to the next – a topic of great interest to parents, grandparents, religious leaders, educators and scholars working in the area of religion and family. In order to understand the pathways of how faith is or is not transmitted, Bengtson and his research team used an intricate, mixed-method design to combine data from both the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG; 3,500 participants over 35 years) and from more recent in-depth interviews (156 persons chosen from LSOG). In this book, he presents the results with breadth, depth and lively accessibility. He weaves case studies from the interviews into the text to illustrate themes and directions in religious transmission, and organises the results around easy-to-follow chapters. The author gives us glimpses of a rich and complicated process that have been largely hidden from sight, and challenges us to re-examine our previous assumptions about how faith is passed on across generations.
Many of us have assumed that cultural and historic changes are primarily responsible for the decline in the numbers of young adults participating in organised religion today. Bengtson does begin with an exploration of the interface of generational values and historic/cultural trends over time, but he uses this as his jumping-off spot to explore family effects, convinced that history and culture alone do not explain why an adult chooses to remain or to abandon the religious tradition of his or her parents. Within each group, such as GenXers and Early Boomers, he describes what is more likely about their faith experiences, but he also respects intra-group differences and breaks down his results into cohort themes (see figure 2.1, p. 52). He concludes that our ways of thinking about religion itself need to be more nuanced, to include, for example, various understandings of the word ‘spirituality’ and to acknowledge that previous ways of formulating religion are no longer adequate, particularly for the Millennials. But his chief concern is the degree of momentum across generations, and he structures the remainder of the book into themes of family emotional bonds, family structures, including divorce and religiously mixed marriages, and individual patterns he sees in those families whose religious continuity is interrupted, such as the rebels who turn away, the zealots who push against their families dogmatically and the prodigals who eventually return. He suggests why some groups, such as Mormons, Evangelists and Jews, have higher rates of religious continuity, and concludes with a helpful list of practical suggestions for religious leaders based on a summary of his findings.
The chapter on emotional bonds within families is particularly interesting. Not surprisingly, the data suggest that parents with more warmth and close ties to their children are more likely to be successful in passing on religion. However, a definite gender difference was also revealed, namely that a father's emotional accessibility and religious participation are most crucial. He also found that in families with one nurturing parent and one who is largely critical and judging, there was less generational continuity.
A chapter that should delight gerontologists, to say nothing of grandparents, is the one focused on the importance of grandparents to faith transmission. Here again the author carefully avoids over-generalising and explores a variety of grandparenting styles, such as those who fill in the gaps when parents do not participate in religion, grandparents who reinforce the parents' teachings and those who subvert parental teaching. Echoing the dynamics of gender impact in families, the relationship with a child's grandfather appears to be far more important for the passing on of faith than that of the grandmother.
The scholarly care that Bengtson used in writing this book is obvious throughout, but ironically it can also be distracting. For example, in repeatedly acknowledging the small sample size of the Mormon participants, he cautions us not to over-rely on findings from this group. On the other hand, he cannot resist bringing in Mormon case studies and frequently suggesting trends in the Mormon group. In a perfect research world, he might have either eliminated this group from the discussion, or increased the number of Mormon participants.
I appreciated Bengtson's respect for the non-religious, including those who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Throughout this book, he carefully described their ethical values and the transmission of those values across generations. However, the highest praise I can give this book is by noting the number of questions it raises, both theoretical and practical. For example, Bengtson proposes that strong boundaries function to keep children and grandchildren in faith groups, such as Mormons, Evangelical Protestants and Jews. On the other hand, he suggests that providing space for young adults to question their faith practices makes it more likely that prodigals will return to the fold. How, then, can we achieve close-knit families and strong, healthy, spiritual communities without becoming dogmatic and rigid? Gender findings, namely the importance of fathers and grandfathers, also fascinated me, and I wondered what complex social and familial dynamics have led to the overwhelming importance of the male role in faith transmission. Do fathers and grandfathers realise how important they are in this process? Finally, this researcher suggests that marriages outside one's faith group work against the transmission of faith across generations. This trend is unlikely to decrease. Are there ways, then, that religious leaders, during pre-marital counselling, can speak of this without driving away still more young adults by appearing judgemental and rejecting? Bengtson and his team have raised the curtain higher than ever before, but there remains much to discover about this mysterious process of passing on the faith.
