Souls in Transition

Souls in Transition PDF Author: Christian Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199707499
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
How important is religion for young people in America today? What are the major influences on their developing spiritual lives? How do their religious beliefs and practices change as young people enter into adulthood? Christian Smith's Souls in Transition explores these questions and many others as it tells the definitive story of the religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults, ages 18 to 24, in the U.S. today. This is the much-anticipated follow-up study to the landmark book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, Souls in Transition reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as they have moved into adulthood. The book vividly describes as well the broader cultural world of today's emerging adults, how that culture shapes their religious outlooks, and what the consequences are for religious faith and practice in America more generally. Some of Smith's findings are surprising. Parents turn out to be the single most important influence on the religious outcomes in the lives of young adults. On the other hand, teenage participation in evangelization missions and youth groups does not predict a high level of religiosity just a few years later. Moreover, the common wisdom that religiosity declines sharply during the young adult years is shown to be greatly exaggerated. Painstakingly researched and filled with remarkable findings, Souls in Transition will be essential reading for youth ministers, pastors, parents, teachers and students at church-related schools, and anyone who wishes to know how religious practice is affected by the transition into adulthood in America today.

Souls in Transition

Souls in Transition PDF Author: Christian Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199707499
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Get Book Here

Book Description
How important is religion for young people in America today? What are the major influences on their developing spiritual lives? How do their religious beliefs and practices change as young people enter into adulthood? Christian Smith's Souls in Transition explores these questions and many others as it tells the definitive story of the religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults, ages 18 to 24, in the U.S. today. This is the much-anticipated follow-up study to the landmark book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Based on candid interviews with thousands of young people tracked over a five-year period, Souls in Transition reveals how the religious practices of the teenagers portrayed in Soul Searching have been strengthened, challenged, and often changed as they have moved into adulthood. The book vividly describes as well the broader cultural world of today's emerging adults, how that culture shapes their religious outlooks, and what the consequences are for religious faith and practice in America more generally. Some of Smith's findings are surprising. Parents turn out to be the single most important influence on the religious outcomes in the lives of young adults. On the other hand, teenage participation in evangelization missions and youth groups does not predict a high level of religiosity just a few years later. Moreover, the common wisdom that religiosity declines sharply during the young adult years is shown to be greatly exaggerated. Painstakingly researched and filled with remarkable findings, Souls in Transition will be essential reading for youth ministers, pastors, parents, teachers and students at church-related schools, and anyone who wishes to know how religious practice is affected by the transition into adulthood in America today.

Back-Pocket God

Back-Pocket God PDF Author: Melinda Lundquist Denton
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190064781
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
More than a decade ago, a group of researchers began to study the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. They tracked these young people over the course of a decade, revisiting them periodically to check in on the state -and future- of religion in America, and reporting on their findings in a series of books, beginning with Soul Searching (2005). Now, with Back-Pocket God, this mammoth research project comes to its conclusion. What have we learned about the changing shape of religion in America? Back-Pocket God explores continuity and change among young people from their teenage years through the latter stages of "emerging adulthood." Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory find that the story of young adult religion is one of an overall decline in commitment and affiliation, and in general, a moving away from organized religion. Yet, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Emerging adults don't seem so much opposed to religion or to religious organizations, at least in the abstract, as they are uninterested in religion, at least as they have experienced it. Religion is like an app on the ubiquitous smartphones in our back pockets: readily accessible, easy to control, and useful-but only for limited purposes. Denton and Flory show that some of the popular assumptions about young people and religion are not as clear as what many people seem to believe. The authors challenge the characterizations of religiously unaffiliated emerging adults -sometimes called "religious nones"- as undercover atheists. At the other end of the spectrum, they question the assumption that those who are not religious will return to religion once they marry and have children.

Spiritual Formation in Emerging Adulthood

Spiritual Formation in Emerging Adulthood PDF Author: David P. Setran
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441242880
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
The shift from adolescence to adulthood, a recently identified stage of life called "emerging adulthood," covers an increasing span of years in today's culture (roughly ages 18-30) due to later marriages and extended education. During this prolonged stage of exploration and self-definition, many young adults drift away from the church. Here two authors--both veteran teachers who are experienced in young adult and campus ministry--address this new and urgent field of study, offering a Christian perspective on what it means to be spiritually formed into adulthood. They provide a "practical theology" for emerging adult ministry and offer insight into the key developmental issues of this stage of life, including identity, intimacy and sexuality, morality, church involvement, spiritual formation, vocation, and mentoring. The book bridges the gap between academic and popular literature on emerging adulthood and offers concrete ways to facilitate spiritual formation among emerging adults.

Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality

Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality PDF Author: Carolyn McNamara Barry Ph.D.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199379610
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Although most American children are raised in a faith tradition, by the time they reach their early twenties their outward religious expression declines significantly, with many leaving the faith in which they were raised in favor of another faith or none at all, though many still claim that religion and spirituality are important. Reasons for this change in religious behavior include adolescents' forging their own identities, increased immersion in contexts beyond the family, and exposure to media. As emerging adults encounter events such as attending university, breaking up with a romantic partner, and traveling, they are likely to make sense out of them, a process known as meaning-making. Thus, coming into one's own takes on great prominence during the years of emerging adulthood (18-29), making it ripe for religious and spiritual development. Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality seeks to understand how the developmental process of meaning-making encompasses American emerging adults' religiousness and spirituality. This volume does not focus on disentangling religion and spirituality conceptually, but rather emphasizes their centrality in the psychology of human development. It highlights the range of experiences and perspectives of emerging adults in the U.S. grounded in social context, social position, and religious or spiritual identification. Chapters are written by an interdisciplinary group of authors and explore topics such as the benefits and detriments of religiousness and spirituality to emerging adults; contexts and socializing agents such as parents and peers, the media, religious communities, and universities; and variations of religiousness and spirituality concerning gender, sexuality, culture, and social position. Using a developmental lens and focusing on a significant period within the lifespan, this volume embodies the key aspects of a developmental perspective by highlighting specific domains of development while considering themes of continuity and discontinuity across the lifespan.

The Twentysomething Soul

The Twentysomething Soul PDF Author: Timothy Thomas Clydesdale
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190931353
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Drawing from hundreds of interviews with devout believers, resolute skeptics, and everyone in between, The Twentysomething Soul tells an optimistic story about the lives of today's young adults.

Soul Searching

Soul Searching PDF Author: Christian Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019972508X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality

Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality PDF Author: Carolyn McNamara Barry
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199959188
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Emerging Adults' Religiousness and Spirituality seeks to understand how the developmental process of meaning-making encompasses American emerging adults' religiousness and spirituality. This volume does not focus on disentangling religion and spirituality conceptually, but rather emphasizes their centrality in the psychology of human development.

A Faith of Their Own

A Faith of Their Own PDF Author: Lisa Pearce
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199792844
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Adding to the contributions made by Soul Searching and Souls in Transition--two books which revolutionized our understanding of the religious lives of young Americans--Lisa Pearce and Melinda Lundquist Denton here offer a new portrait of teenage faith. Drawing on the massive National Study of Youth and Religion's telephone surveys and in-depth interviews with more than 120 youth at two points in time, the authors chart the spiritual trajectory of American adolescents and young adults over a period of three years. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the authors find that religion is an important force in the lives of most--though their involvement with religion changes over time, just as teenagers themselves do. Pearce and Denton weave in fascinating portraits of actual youth to give depth to mere numerical rankings of religiosity, which tend to prevail in large studies. One teenager might rarely attend a service, yet count herself profoundly religious; another might be deeply involved in a church's social world, yet claim to be "not, like, deep into the faith." They provide a new set of qualitative categories--Abiders, Assenters, Adapters, Avoiders, and Atheists--quoting from interviews to illuminate the shading between them. And, with their three-year study, they offer a rich understanding of the dynamic nature of faith in young people's lives during a period of rapid change in biology, personality, and social interaction. Not only do degrees of religiosity change, but so does its nature, whether expressed in institutional practices or personal belief. By presenting a new model of religious development and change, illustrated with compelling personal accounts of real teenagers, Pearce and Denton offer parents, scholars, and religious leaders a new guide for understanding religious development in teens.

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers PDF Author: Christian Smith Dr William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198039972
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

The Oxford Handbook of Emerging Adulthood

The Oxford Handbook of Emerging Adulthood PDF Author: Jeffrey Jensen Arnett
Publisher: Oxford Library of Psychology
ISBN: 0199795576
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
Fifteen years ago, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett proposed emerging adulthood as a new life stage at ages 18-29, one distinct from both the adolescence that precedes it and the young adulthood that eventually follows. Rather than marrying and becoming parents in their early 20s, most people in developed countries now postpone these transitions until at least their late 20s, spending these years in self-focused explorations as they try out different possibilities in their education, careers, and relationships. Since Arnett proposed his theory of emerging adulthood in 2000, it has turned into a full-fledged academic field, and the ideas have been applied in practical areas as well, such as mental health and education. The Oxford Handbook of Emerging Adulthood brings together for the first time the wealth of theory and research that has developed in this new and burgeoning field. It includes chapters by many prominent scholars on a wide range of topics, such as brain development, relations with friends, relations with parents, expectations for marriage, sexual relationships, media use, substance use and abuse, and resilience. The chapters both summarize the existing research and point the way to new prospects for research in the years to come.