Kenda Dean’s Presentation to the Princeton Old Guard on 5/21/08

Slide 1. Most Common Findings
  • Teenagers aren’t hostile toward religion.
  • Teenagers’ faith mirrors their parents’ faith.
  • Teenagers are “incredibly inarticulate” about religion
  • A significant minority claim that religion is important to them and makes a difference in their lives.
  • Most teenagers adhere to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as their unacknowledged religious creed.    
Slide 2. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism 
  • A God exists who created and orders the world, and watches over life on earth. 
  • God wants us to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as most world religions teach.
  • The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 
  • God doesn’t need to be involved in my life unless I need God to solve a problem. 
  • Good people go to heaven when they die.
 Slide 3. THE ENDURING COMMITMENTS OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD
  • INTIMACY
“Who do I belong to?”
  • VOCATION
“What difference can I make?”
  • FAITH/IDEOLOGY
“What story makes sense of the world, and of me?”
 Slide 4. CHANGING ADOLESCENCE
 CHANGE #1
Adolescence takes longer.
YEAR
ONSET PUBERTY
FUNCTIONAL MATURITY
HOW LONG
1850
15-16
17-18
2 years
1960
13
18-19
5 years
1990
10.5
25-30
15 years+
1999
9.7 (8.1)
26
???
Slide 5
Slide 6. CHANGING ADOLESCENCE
-CHANGE #1
Adolescence takes longer.
-CHANGE #2
Institutional abandonment.
-CHANGE #3
The Web 2.0 mentality. 
​
Slide 7.
Slide 8. THE ENDURING COMMITMENTS OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD
-INTIMACY
“Who do I belong to?”
-VOCATION
“What difference can I make?”
-FAITH/IDEOLOGY
"What story makes sense of the world, and of me?”

Slide 9. 
Think of an institution (family, school, civic organization, media, religious community) that you represent.
How might you come alongside young people ages 21-35?How might young people become participants in the culture of this institution, rather than recipients of it?