Telegraph: Young people have 'faded memory of Christianity' says Church book
Religion is largely irrelevant to most young people, who rely instead on a “secular trinity” of themselves, their family and their friends to give meaning to their lives, a new book claims.
The study published by the Church of England concludes that people born after 1982 – known as "Generation Y" – have only a “faded cultural memory” of Christianity.
For many young people, religious observance extends no further than praying in their bedrooms during moments of crisis, on a “need to believe basis”.
The findings are contained a new book, The Faith of Generation Y, whose authors include the Bishop of Coventry, the Rt Rev Christopher Cocksworth.
Sylvia Collins-Mayo, principal lecturer in sociology at Kingston University, said most of the 300 young people questioned for the study were not looking for answers to “ultimate questions”.
“For the majority, religion and spirituality was irrelevant for day-to-day living,” she said. “On the rare occasions when a religious perspective was required, for example coping with family illnesses or bereavements, they often ‘made do’ with a very faded, inherited cultural memory of Christianity in the absence of anything else.”
The authors described this approach as “bedroom spirituality”. Some teenagers prayed for the health of loved ones or for success in relationships and exams, while others made “confessions” in an attempt to express their anxieties.
But most young people today define themselves by a “secular trinity of family, friends and the reflexive self”, giving them an “immanent faith” based on relationships in this world, the study found. …
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