Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 169:674 (Apr 2012)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss

BSac 169:674 (April-June 2012) p. 248

Book Reviews

By The Faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. By Kendra Creasy Dean. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Dean, professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, has written a disturbing yet thought-provoking book on the current religious state of America’s teenagers. The background research for this book was the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). One of the largest studies ever of the religious views of teenagers, the original research was conducted from 2002 to 2005 and consisted of extensive interviews with 3,300 American teenagers (thirteen to seventeen years old) and follow-up interviews with 267 teenagers. The study also continues with a longitudinal study of 2,500 of these teenagers. The overall summary of the findings (and the basic theme of the book) is that “American young people are, theoretically, fine with religious faith—but it does not concern them very much, and it is not durable enough to survive long after they graduate from high school” (p. 3). The most condemning part for the parents and grandparents of this generation is that Dean rightly sees the lukewarm nature of the children’s faith as a “barometer of the religious inclinations of the culture that surrounds them, giving parents, pastors, teachers, campus ministers, youth pastors, and anyone else who works closely with teenagers fifty-yard-line seats from which to watch America’s religious future take shape” (p. 9).

Dean summarizes the NSYR findings under five general headings. First, most American teenagers have a positive view of religion but otherwise do not give it much thought. So while teenagers are not hostile toward religion, neither do they care much about it. Dean believes that most teenagers equate Christian identity with “niceness” but do not think religion has any influence on one’s decisions, choice of friends, or behaviors. Second, most American teenagers (for good or for bad) mirror their parents’ religious faith. Dean strongly states, “The religiosity of American teenagers must be read primarily as a reflection of their parents’ religious devotion (or lack thereof) and, by extension, that of their congregations. . . . Lackadaisical faith is not young people’s issue, but ours. . . . The solution lies not in beefing up congregational youth programs or making worship more ‘cool’ and attractive, but in modeling the kind of mature, passionate faith we say we want young people to have” (pp. 3-4).

Third, most American teenagers lack a theological language with which to express their faith or interpre...