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Loading... The Juvenilization of American Christianity (edition 2012)by Thomas E. Bergler (Author)
Work InformationThe Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas Bergler
![]() None No current Talk conversations about this book. ![]() ![]() Bergler has taken time to study publications of the Methodist Church, Catholic Church, Youth for Christ, and the National Baptist Convention written for youth leaders or for young people from their inception in the late 1940s to the present. He presents his research in the light of what is going on in American culture at the same time. The result is a rather interesting and informative book about a trend in American Christianity to adapt to the culture which, during the 1960s to 1970s, was somewhat youth-driven and which, from the 1980s to present, has become somewhat seeker-oriented. Bergler was probably correct in limiting his research to those groups, but it would be interesting to see a similar study done for other denominations such as Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Church of God, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, etc. As I looked through the author's footnotes, I thought he must have had an interesting time just sitting down with some of those publications and reading through them cover to cover from volume 1, issue 1 until the periodical ceased publication (or through the latest issue). I can see a lot of persons in other denominations asking themselves if this applies to their church and trying to decide what, if anything, to do about it. I do have one major criticism with the book. There are several "sentences" which begin with conjunctions which are in reality not sentences, but sentence fragments. An editor should have corrected this grammatical problem before the book was published. Otherwise, this was a very interesting read. no reviews | add a review
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 No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)277.3Religions History, geographic treatment, biography of Christianity North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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