THE NEW FAITHFUL: WHY YOUNG ADULTS ARE EMBRACING CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY

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

[Destro]

Books

Young and faithful to recent orthodoxy

THE NEW FAITHFUL: WHY YOUNG ADULTS ARE EMBRACING CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY

by Colleen Carroll Loyola Press, 320 pages, $19.95

Reviewed by THOMAS P. RAUSCH

Colleen Carroll, an award-winning journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch now doing a doctorate in philosophy at St. Louis University, has written a book with the provocative title, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy. In it she argues that a growing number of young Americans, both Catholic and Protestant (with a parallel movement among young Jews), are forsaking the liberalism and religious relativism of their parents’ generation and turning to a more traditional Christianity, which she calls simply “orthodoxy.”

Supported by a Phillips Journalism Fellowship, Carroll spent a year interviewing these young adults, mostly bright, articulate students or young professionals, in colleges, campus ministries, and conference centers across the country. Her book recounts their stories.

These are young people who want answers. They are basing their identity on the traditional beliefs of their faith communities, adhering to the “traditional morality and religious devotions” of those communities. Rejecting the self-description of many of their peers as “spiritual but not religious,” they are searching for churches that combine deep faith with genuine community and welcome guidance from traditional sources of authority, including Pope John Paul II, whom they admire for his uncompromising teaching.

Many are converts, or have had the experience of rediscovering their faith as young adults, or are “reverts” returning to Catholicism as “evangelical Catholics” after becoming involved in other churches. They see themselves as taking a stand against the relativism of the dominant secular culture, and are willing to make the sacrifices demanded by their faith commitments.

With one out of four the children of divorced parents, Carroll suggests that they are part of a new sexual revolution that prizes chastity. They reject sex before marriage and abortion and oppose homosexual activity while insisting that homosexuals have the right to be treated as equals.

While Carroll’s book has been welcomed in evangelical circles and praised by Catholic church authorities, it has generally not been well received by progressive Catholics. I do have some questions about how representative of young Catholics her book is. National studies by sociologists do not seem to support her argument.

Sociologist William D’Antonio of The Cath-olic University of America in Washington, for example, indicates that young Catholics re-main committed to the church’s sacramental system and to its concern for social justice, though most look to their own conscience in the area of sexuality rather than to the magisterium. Carroll’s subjects are mostly an elite -- university students and well-educated young professionals. What she is de-scribing is a subgroup.

Nevertheless, commentators like Sr. Katarina Schuth, Fr. Robert Schreiter, William Port-ier, and Jesuit Fr. John Kavanaugh have noted a different attitude among many young Catholics today, particularly among those preparing for leadership roles or taking a more active role in the church’s life. Other theologians have confirmed to me that their graduate students are familiar with “conservative” authors, Catholic apologists like Scott Hahn, Mark Shea and Patrick Madrid, whose works their professors wouldn’t dream of reading.

My main difficulty with Carroll’s book is the narrow way in which she construes orthodoxy. While she cites G.K. Chesterton’s equation of orthodoxy with the Apostles’ Creed “and the general historic conduct of those who heed such a creed” early in her book, she herself tends to identify orthodoxy with the most conservative expressions of contemporary Catholicism, with religious communities such as the Legionaries of Christ, Regnum Christi and Opus Dei, with traditional expressions of piety such as kneeling at the consecration, eucharistic adoration and Latin Masses, and with homeschooling.

She assumes that neoconservative Cath-olic institutions like the Franciscan University of Steubenville and Thomas Aquinas College in California are “explicitly orthodox,” while other Catholic colleges and universities are not. While many Catholic students today are more traditional, including in their devotional interests, Kavanaugh wisely remarks that 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.”

Carroll’s narrow construal of orthodoxy is regrettable, as it risks freezing the tradition in a moment of time, namely the recent past, rather than recognizing that the great tradition is a living tradition that often reshapes its practice, theological language and life as it continues to reflect on the mystery from which it lives. Though she warns in her final chapter about the danger of these young adults being co-opted by conservative factions, her identification of orthodoxy with a narrow traditionalism will probably lead many readers to dismiss the importance of what she has noted, 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.

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.

Jesuit Fr. Thomas P. Rausch is T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

National Catholic Reporter, February 28, 2003

[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.