Dear Friends
CRA President, Br Peter Carroll FMS.
The National Catholic Reporter recently published a review of a new book entitled “Back- Pocket God: Religion and Spirituality in the lives of emerging adults”. As the title suggests, it presents the findings of a survey of younger people and is the last part of a twenty-year study called the National Study of Youth and Religion.
The group under investigation are often called ‘millennials’, but the authors reject that term in favour of “emerging adults”. This phase, for those aged between 18 and 29, is marked by “curiosity, uncertainty, increasing independence, a marginal sense of adulthood and possibility”. They are ‘emerging’ because the usual markers of adulthood, such as marriage, child-rearing and stable employment have been delayed due to economic and sociological shifts in recent decades, and they are caught between adolescence and the traditional understanding of adulthood.
The findings are interesting. Some might even say alarming. They certainly lead to questions about the future of Churches and the place of religion in society. Here’s a selection:
- The general ‘cultural spirituality’ of emerging adults can be defined by ‘individualism, a mostly-universal heaven, a moral sense that’s found predominantly through instinct and a ‘live and let live mentality’.
- 74 per cent of those surveyed believe in God as a being that is personal but distant from everyday life (this is down from 84 per cent at the start of the study period).
- The overall picture of involvement in religion is one of decline.
- There’s no major antipathy or hostility to organised religion, but simply a lack of engagement, attention and interest.
- Only 17 per cent related strongly to the self-description of ‘spiritual, but not religious’.
- In general, respondents didn’t see religion as serving any use in their lives, they don’t need it. This is from where the title of the book comes: emerging adults live with a ‘back-pocket God’ – one that’s always there if required, but is never a main part of life.
This study is from the United States, which is commonly acknowledged as a nation where religion is taken more seriously, and religious practice is more common than in other Western countries. One could predict that the Australian figures for a similar study would present a bleaker picture of belief and practice. Our 2016 census told of a nation that’s been secularised at a rapid rate, where 30.1 per cent categorised themselves as having "no religion". This was more pronounced amongst younger people, with 39 per cent of those aged 18–34 choosing that option (it was 12 per cent in 1976).
The reviewer of the book, Rebecca Collins Jordan, herself an ‘emerging adult’, provides some interesting reflections. She suggests that the results illustrate a “pastoral void” within Christian Churches. Could it be, she posits, that rather than young people having left the Church, the Church has left them – by not responding to their needs, or even being aware of them. “Religious messaging has simply failed to meet them” she states.
“What need of meaning do emerging adults have that is not met, perhaps not even voiced or expressed in communities of faith? The future of communities of prayer and faith depends on answering this question without judgement and with patience and attention”.
Despite the general trend, the study indicates that there are still young people who value religion and see reasons to belong. She is an example. They are relatively small in number but they are enthusiastic and committed, available and willing. “How much of Church history” she asks, “has been a story of small groups of reform, vision and dedication”? I believe we know the answer to that. The origins of Religious Orders and reform movements within the Church are the clearest example – leaving aside Jesus and the Twelve.
We need to make space for young people who are seriously searching for meaning in faith. If the Churches have a future, it will rest with them. This doesn’t mean we should embark on a ‘marketing drive’. What we need to do is engage with them; talk to them; listen to them; respect their voice. They will undoubtedly challenge our thoughts and maybe our assumptions. Pope Francis is acutely aware of this. He’s already stated that we’re not so much living in an era of change, as a change of era. He also warned us not to be asking questions that are no longer relevant.
And we should also remember his 2015 words to Bishops: “Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, interrogatives — but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened. It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ”.
Br Peter Carroll FMS
President, Catholic Religious Australia