ePub Dutch Immigrant Memoirs and Related Writings by From Brand: Eerdmans Pub Co in History

Description

Pop worship music. Falling in love with Jesus. Mission trips. Wearing jeans and T-shirts to church. Spiritual searching and church hopping. Faith-based political activism. Seeker-sensitive outreach. These now-commonplace elements of American church life all began as innovative ways to reach young people; yet they have gradually become accepted as important parts of a spiritual ideal for all ages. What on earth has happened? In The Juvenilization of American Christianity Thomas Bergler traces the way in which; over seventy-five years; youth ministries have breathed new vitality into four major American church traditions -- African American; Evangelical; Mainline Protestant; and Roman Catholic. Bergler shows too how this "juvenilization" of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity; consumerism; and self-centeredness; popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. Bergler’s critique further offers constructive suggestions for taming juvenilization.