young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is,” translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.” The goal in life of young people was happiness achieved primarily through the family.
In a previous age, when guilt fell out of the cultural landscape, Christians who had developed a pretty good gospel of guilt alleviation responded by going in for guilt arousal, with disastrous effects in the late 20th century. We then started to 'get it' and concentrated more on the meaning of life and offering something in the search for meaning and a 'home' in an alienating world. We need to beware of a repeat by going in for 'meaninglessness arousal'. In fact, it seems to me, that Bonhoeffer's call for a religionless Christianity which speaks to people in their strength rather than their weakness, has never been more relevant.
So what do we do? I think we really do need to learn to live out a life-affirming spirituality which connects Christ to simple pleasures and configures a better, wiser, more serene, 'happier' life. And that without the plastic smile syndrome. In times where happiness is pursued and yet there seems to be more debt, suicide, depression etc. we need to show a way of living that really can be 'blessed/happy' even in pain and frustration.
I think too that it may be necessary to look carefully at the research for whether, dealing with people whose experience of life is limited (and more so than in previous generations, given the [over]protectiveness of contemporary parenting), we may be dealing with a stated-to-the interviewers picture of things that is actually a triumph of hope and ignorance over [subjectively future] reality. And I'm aware, as I state that, that this may be somewhat counter to what I think that I was saying about the Bonhoeffer 'prophecy'. It may be that we will need both approaches; the life-affirming and the safety-net, for different stages of life experience.
What we should do first, in any case, and culturally, is listen to the personal stories with the Spirit of Christ ...
Filed in: religion, spirituality, UK, youthChurch seeks spirituality of youth . . . and doesn't like what it finds - Britain - Times Online:
2 comments:
Andii, is it possible that both this and previous research is based in truth? Could it be that today's youth are "conflicted" -- content to live in the moment of today, but also spiritually restless and searching?
I think you may be right, Chris. And some of it is, I suspect, what in cultural studies terms might be thought of as 'ideology', in Marxist terms 'false consciousness': society's discourse is about fulfilment, happiness, living for the moment etc, and somehow this discourse elides the more awkward aspects of life. The real test is to observe whether their life as lived matches up to this ideological discourse. A kind of deconstruction. However, I would want to add that such deconstruction should only be one of the things done, and gently. It needs to be supplemented by ways of thinking and acting that affirm the best of what is already in place and to discern, name and call attention to that of God in the positive.
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