THE NEW FAITHFUL: WHY YOUNG ADULTS ARE EMBRACING CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY

National Catholic Reporter ^ | February 28, 2003 | Reviewed by THOMAS P. RAUSCH

[Destro]

The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy by Colleen Carroll List Price: $19.95 / Amazon Price: $13.97

From Library Journal With the help of a Phillips Journalism Fellowship, St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist Carroll traveled the country to interview young adults to ascertain how religion fits into their lives. Most of her interviewees were Catholics or evangelical Protestants, along with some Orthodox Christians. Carroll found a turn to the Right in the religious lives of her peers, born between 1965 and 1983; not everyone in this age group is religiously oriented, but those who are have more often than not turned to traditional beliefs and morality. Among Catholic priests, for example, the youngest are as traditional as the oldest, with the baby boomers falling in between. It is not unusual for married couples in this age group to embrace natural family planning as opposed to artificial birth control and for singles to reject premarital sex. These young adults are seeking authoritative guidelines and meaningful commitments. Carroll's journalistic skills are evident in this very readable volume about a tendency toward traditionalism that she predicts will spread. Highly recommended. John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Read also: Author Frank Schaeffer to speak on his Orthodox faith

Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion by Frank Schaeffer

[LiteKeeper]

bump

[Loyalist]

Pingus ad orcae schismaticae et bumpus ad summum.

[Destro]

bump around please

[St.Chuck]

There are many young Catholics today who share a concern for the ecclesial identity, moral clarity, evangelization and transformation of culture that Carroll describes, but who also recognize the need for the renewal of ecclesial structures and for the exercise of authority in a more inclusive way.

Yeah, whatever. It sounds like Fr. Rausch isn't comfortable with young people rejecting his program.

[sinkspur]

The National Catholic Reporter sucks.

At least, that's what I'm told around here when I post from it.

[american colleen]

Pretty good rebuttal to Fr. Rausch's essay in NCReporter found here at "Catholic Analysis"

Follow Up to Colleen Carroll's The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy

This website favorably reviewed Colleen Carroll's recent book The New Faithful which documents the rise in orthodoxy in the younger generations (see post for Jan. 3, 2003). As predicted in that review, Catholic "progressives" have begun to take notice and to try to question the thesis of her book. One recent review in a dissident publication tries, in a muddled manner, to question her evidence without much success. In the end, the reviewer appears to confirm the thesis that we do indeed have a much more orthodox younger generation of Catholics when he admits that "a new generation is coming into positions of leadership with an agenda quite different from the reconstructionist, liberal agenda of the Vatican II generation" (National Catholic Reporter, 2/28/03 ). I say "appears to confirm" because the reluctance of the writer is so evident, and the writing style lacks clarity at several points in the review. Yet, it appears that we can conclude two things: 1.) Carroll's book is being noticed by "progressives"; and 2.) when all is said and done at least one such "progressive" publication has ended up, however reluctantly, confirming her thesis. Such confirmation from a publication opposing orthodoxy lends further credibility to this important book.

Don't forget about the new "Ever Ancient, Ever New" Association of Students at Catholic Colleges, which, aside of being excellent, has a great rebuttal to Fr. Rausch's review of "The New Faithful" ..."The review displays typical signs of a deeply compromised “theologian”—someone whose intellectual project has proven bankrupt in the eyes of so many of today’s students" --- it's worth reading the whole thing!

I believe we are living in blessed times... although some days it sure is hard to believe that!

[american colleen]

The National Catholic Reporter sucks.

Well, let's just say it's kinda dodgy.

[St.Chuck]

Thank you Colleen! That is an outstanding article!

[Loyalist]

Fr. Rausch sounds like another baby boomer who can't understand why we don't appreciate the great and glorious works of their noble generation, for which they've reaped the rewards and stuck us with the bill.

[american colleen]

Pride. That's the one thing I've noticed from these guys.

George Weigel wrote a great column last week or the week before about the 58 priests who signed the letter asking Cardinal Law to step down. It was published in our Arch of Boston newspaper, the Pilot. You cannot believe the priests who wrote in this week and last rebutting Weigel's column - the priests who wrote and were of the "pack of 58" are so prideful it is sad and a few of the letters are downright startling. Keep in mind that these 58 have not been teaching the faith and are the overt progressives in the diocese and they never liked Law anyway.

I have been going back and forth via e-mail with a top VOTF member here in Boston. It just slays me that these people honestly feel like it is their Church to mold in the way that they see fit and right. And I look around at the devistation they have wrought... not even counting what they've done to the Mass or the architecture, but in the kids... very few are churchgoers (even kids educated in the Catholic schools) and very few know their faith - thanx to the CCD classes and hardly anyone lives their life here as a prelude to heaven.

People just don't dedicate their lives to a question mark and that is what these people have taught over the last 35 or so years.

[Scupoli]

Bump.

[Salvation]

These both look like excellent books.

[Salvation]

These both look like excellent books.

[nickcarraway]

this may be “due to the fact that the ‘new faithful’ have found a more welcoming embrace from the right arm of the church than from the left.”

Is this an admission of guilt on the part of the NCReporter? Even in this article, this sentence applies to them.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Simple - why settle for a watered down fraud?

[TradicalRC]

The way is indeed narrow. At 39, I am the youngest member on the Liturgy commission at my church. I stand on the cusp between two generations. While I can understand the younger generation's quest for authenticity, I cannot understand the older generation's fascination with novelty. They seem happiest when denigrating tradition and seem oblivious to the fact that this undermines their own authority. For now, however, they are running the show and I have resigned myself to being marginalized. I hope and pray for a restoration of the sacred and the beautiful. The good and the true.

[Destro]

The issue is this, Martin Luther was right but his correction was not to return to Orthodoxy but to innovate.

From the Protestant branches you had an explosion of Christian re-interpretations (all claiming to be the reveal truth long suppressed somehow-more or less). I think protestantisim has mutated so much it is no longer recognizable as a Christian theology but a Christian sociology.

Which then turns to Orthodoxy and Catholics have to confront a tradition in the Greek rite that is as Apostolic and Catholic.

[TradicalRC]

I suppose it depends an exactly which premises of Luther's you are refering to. Most church reforms recognize a creeping secularism and move to restore the sacred and the traditional. Most of the present day churches have embraced the secular and the sacred seems to be diminishing. What makes the current version of creeping secularism more insidious is that it has its roots in atheism and immanentism born of "the age of enlightenment". We all know that Lucifer means light-bringer and that he can disguise himself as an angel of light. It is disheartening to see so many Christians as self-annointed "enlightened" progressives. As for the Greek tradition; the Roman Catholic Church recognizes the fact that they believe in transubstantiation and therefore fall in line with much else within the Christian tradition.

[Destro]

Luther sent letters to the Patriarch in Constantinople with his innovations. The Patriarch was stuned at what he read and considered the doctrine heretical.