The juvenilization of American Christianity
By: Thomas E. Bergler
Publisher: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Grand Rapids, Mich
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
ISBN-13: 9780802866844
Subjects: Christianity and culture; Christianity
Description: 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. --from publisher description
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.         ) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: we're all adolescents now; title: Youth, Christianity, and the crisis of civilization; title: Misreading the signs of the times: from political youth to trivial teenagers; title: Social prophets or silent generation?: the failed juvenilization of liberal Protestantism; title: The Black church and the juvenilization of Christian political activism; title: Why everyone wanted to get out of the Catholic ghetto; title: How to have fun, be popular, and save the world at the same time; title: Youth, Christianity, and the 1960s apocalypse; title: The triumph and taming of juvenilization.