Some Characteristics of the Religiosity and Spirituality of Millennials

I thought that this TED talk was particularly enlightening and good in identifying some dominant characteristics of the religiosity or spirituality of millennials.

(Some salient points from an online TED talk of Prof. Paul Robertson of New Hampshire University)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmLbD3m6Z3w&t=0s&list=WL&index=15

No less religious-spiritual than other generations! With regard to 'beliefs and practices', millennials are no less religious-spiritual than other generations. The factor that sets them apart is that their beliefs and practices are removed from institutionalized-organized religion and are more individual, private and independent.

Functionalism - religion's value is the function that it performs in society. Society is an organism. Religion enables society as an organism to function properly. It’s like football in New England (the speaker’s local context). When Sunday comes, you know how to dress, what to do, where to go, who to root for or against, etc. 'Football', functionally speaking, plays a huge role in New England. Religion does a similar thing when considered from the point of view of functionalism.

Structuralism - our institutions, beliefs and practices form a structure so that when we are “in this structure” we know where we are located, what role we have to play in this incredibly complex universe. Religions create such a structure. You don't have to inquire about everything anymore. A structure "puts you in your place" and you know it. However, nowadays, when people (especially the youth) are not religious anymore (in a structural way), the meaning of life is not so clear anymore. People don't know their "place" in the universe anymore. The traditional religious view is that we are "imago dei." Is it any wonder that the instances of depression are more numerous today today than in ages past?

SBNR - among millennials, 72% say they're "spiritual but not religious".  In short, many still believe that there's something bigger than themselves. Millennials, although not religious, still believe that there's a "bigger meaning" to life. IN SHORT, WE ARE AS RELIGIOUS AS EVER!

Is There Really a Need to Supernaturalize Spirituality?

Yesterday, it just occurred to me that the quest for spirituality among many people nowadays is found primarily in very ordinary, quotidian experiences, in the so-called "simple joys of life," such as love, family bonding, compassion, enjoying a beautiful sunny day out in the park (as our extended family did yesterday), etc. In order to make these very ordinary experiences a means to deepen one's spirituality, one just has to—as the Buddhist tradition teaches— be mindfully aware of them, savor and cherish them, and then, seek to deepen and transcend oneself (my definition of 'spirituality'),  particularly through compassion. 

If that is the case, my burning question is: Why do we even have to "supernaturalize" or "box in" the very human quest for depth and transcendence into the category of "religion" with its supernatural categories? Is that even useful? Isn't doing that a cause for the great divorce between spirituality and everyday life? This group of questions certainly needs further reflection on my part.

I have this nagging feeling that, at least for some (many? most?), spirituality nowadays could very well remain at this very basic human level. And then, if there is indeed a God,  S/he would lead people very "organically" to whatever goal or end that S/he has in mind, without forcing an unnatural, dichotomized type of religion (between natural and supernatural).

I was thinking of these things while we were having a beautiful moment of family bonding at a park yesterday on a gorgeously beautiful spring day.

I am also reminded of what contemporary spirituality teacher Diana Butler Bass wrote in her book Grounded about the spiritual revolution that, she claims, is currently afoot. The only thing is, this spiritual revolution seems to be  grounded in very human, mundane, earthy things. Butler Bass writes,

It is surprisingly easy to join in [the spiritual revolution]: get off the elevator, feel your feet on the ground, take a walk or hike, plant a garden, clean up a watershed, act on behalf of the earth, find your roots, honor your family and home, love your neighbor as yourself, and live the Golden Rule as you engage the commons. Pay attention. Play. Sing new songs, recite poetry, write new prayers and liturgies, learn sacred texts, make friends with those of other faiths, celebrate the cycles of the seasons, and embrace ancient wisdom. Weep with those who mourn. Listen for the whisper of God everywhere. Work for justice. Know that your life is in communion with all life.

The spiritual revolution, finding God in the world, is an invitation to new birth, most especially for religion. There is no better place to start than in your synagogue, mosque, temple, or church.

Grounded, 284

(originally written 2018-05-07)

Young Catholics ... Going, Going ... Gone ...

I came upon this article at NCR on a study on disaffiliation of young Catholics in the US entitled  'Young Catholics, going, going, gone..."
Link: https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/study-asks-why-are-young-catholics-going-going-gone

Link to publisher's (St. Mary Press) original Study: https://www.smp.org/dynamicmedia/files/d005d252a8caebcc1193f6cb755fd234/5926_Sampler.pdf


In the article, (a personal acquaintance) Elizabeth Drescher's remarks are striking:

Elizabeth Drescher, an adjunct associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, spoke at one of the sessions the day after the report was presented. She has studied and written about "unaffiliation" and says those trying to understand it typically approach in one of two ways, which she saw during the evening discussion.

It usually comes down to, she told NCR, asking either what's wrong with the unaffiliated — "Are they superficial? Are they narcissistic? Did they have bad parenting?" — or asking, "Why don't they like us?"

The truth, she said, is neither. It's much more complicated. At a time when we live longer lives, and religious identity is not sealed upon us at birth and violently enforced by the authorities, and global culture has been reshaped forever by a digital revolution, traditional Western religious structures no longer fit the bill.

"We still have the fantasy that people will orient their spiritual identity around an institutional framework that worships in a particular place and time," said Drescher. "But that's not going to really solve the problem. I don't know that it's a problem to be solved to fix disaffiliation, but to what extent can churches and other organizations engage and adapt to the cultural currents of the present age?"

My take:
Traditional religious structures and institutions might still have a role as filling (bluntly speaking, nothing but) a "niche" in the task of shaping people's spiritualities and religiosities nowadays but the vast majority of people in western societies have moved on from traditional religion and do not find an exclusive and regular attendance of traditional institutions necessary anymore. Religious institutions will just have to accept that. PERIOD.

In order to stay relevant, people and institutions that have been in the Religion-Spirituality business up to now must reconfigure themselves to become truly open, non-exclusive entities that welcome any sort of seeker (even if s/he comes only  irregularly) and that offer a plan and proposal for deepening one's spirituality. They should not be overly attached to preserving traditional forms of worship.

That is usually too high a cost to pay for traditional institutions who will still try: to preserve the status quo, to keep up their self-conviction of having a direct line to God, to not change "sacred tradition," to "impose" and authoritatively "demand" how believers are to worship and live. Hence, they will increasingly be shunned and consigned to powerless irrelevancy, except for a few people still willing to be "controlled" in a traditional way.


/jkk