I’m a Quaker from
South Jersey with a love of
outreach and ministry.
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Term of the Day: Therepeutic Individualism
From the excellent religious journalism site The Revealer is Scott Korb's review of the new book by the National Survey of Youth and Religion (I talked about the survey a month ago). It's an great review, made better by the friendly disagreement in the commentary. But what struck me was his use of the terms "therapeutic individualism" and "moralistic therapeutic deism."
The authors first identify the social contexts in which adolescents live and believe, starting with a discussion of therapeutic individualism, a set of assumptions and commitments that "powerfully defines everyday moral and relational codes and boundaries in the United States." Personal experience is what shapes our notions of truth, and truth is found nowhere else but in happiness and positive self-esteem. In religious terms, according to teenagers, God cares that each teenager is happy and that each teenager has high self-esteem. Morality has nothing to do with authority, mutual obligations, or sacrifice.
But we're not talking about the teenagers here, are we? The review hints that this is the condition of the adults too, only we're better at couching it in more convincingly religious-sounding language. Did I say I attended two days of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting sessions this weekend? More to come.
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Hello...
So glad I found your pages. Almost embarrassed to say that I am a native of Richmond Indiana...Earlham College,Dr. Elton Trueblood, Rich Mullins, and, as a young ministerial student groping for truth..The Quaker Hill Bookstore.
Your writing has been a time of "refreshing" for me..
Be Blessed,
Mike
Oh my. I finally followed the link to the review. It is very interesting to me that they found the same watering down of religious content across religious traditions. This is my favorite part:
"The authors really seem to care about these kids, who, in being treated by most adults like rebellious aliens, have been entirely misserved. The instrumentalist parasite of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is killing off the 'historically key ideas in America’s main religious tradition, Christianity': 'repentance, love of neighbor, social justice, unmerited grace, self-discipline, humility, the cost of discipleship, dying to self, the sovereignty of God, personal holiness, the struggles of sanctification, glorifying God in suffering, hunger for righteousness.' And this is lamentable."
This does describe a lot of what is happening, doesn't it?