Passing on the Faith

Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians, and Muslims

James L. Heft, James L. Heft, S.M.

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780823226481, 9780823226474
• eBook ISBN: 9780823226498
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Comparative Religion

From the beginning, the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have stressed the importance of transmitting religious identity from one generation to the next. Today, that sustaining mission has never been more challenged. Will young people have a faith to guide them? How can faith traditions anchor religious attachments in this secular, skeptical culture?The fruit of a historic gathering of scholars and religious leaders across three faiths and many disciplines, this important book reports on the religious lives of young people in today's world. It's also a unique inventory of creative and thoughtful responses from churches, synagogues, and mosques working to keep religion a significant force in those lives.The essays are grouped thematically. Opening the book, Melchor Sanchez de Toca and Nancy Ammerman explore fundamental issues that have an impact on religion—from the cultural effects of global consumerism and personal technology to pluralism and individualism. In Part Two, leading investigators present three leading studies of religiosity among young people and college students in the United States, illuminating the gap between personal values and organized religion—and the emergence of new, different forms of spirituality and faith. How religious institutions deal with these challenges forms the heart of the book—in portraits of "best practices" developed to revitalize traditional institutions, from a synagogue in New York City and a Muslim youth camp in California to the famed French Catholic community of the late Brother John of Taizé. Finally, Jack Miles and Diane Winston weave the findings into a broader perspective of the future of religious belief, practice, and feeling in a changing world.Filled with real-world wisdom, Passing the Faith will be an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand what religions must, and can, do to inspire a vigorous faith in the next generation.

INDEX

Abbas, 194

abortion, students and, 95

accommodation, cultural, 74, 270

acculturation, 219, 232

achievement, 10, 78, 81

activism, 204–5

activities, religious, 139, 267, 269

adaptation, liberal path of, 42

Adi, 193,

adolescence. See youth

advertising, 66

Africa, Christianity in, 56

faith in, 27

religious movements in, 29

unbelief in, 26

African Americans, 114, 221, 225–26, 236, 239

converts to Islam, 188

protestant, 38

Muslim youth, 231

agnosticism about religion, 7, 28, 30

Ahmadi Muslims, 214

Al-Arqam b. Abi al-Arqam, 201

alcohol consumption, 93–94, 192, 197

Muslim abstinence and, 200, 202, 233

students and, 10

Al-Harith b. Fihr, 193

Alims, 192

All Area Dulles Muslim Society (ADAMS) (Washington, D.C.), 112

Al-Muttalib, 193

Al-Qazwini, Sayed Hassan, 111–12

Amanullah, Shahed, 216

ambivalence, Muslims in U.S. and, 201

America: assimilation into, 219

bilingual, 45

Constitution, 256

consumerist, 19

converts to Islam, 206, 210

culture, 247–63

current social problems in, 197

definition of, 202

faith in, 23–51, 273

immigrants and, 18

individualistic, 66, 105

Jacksonian, 257

Jews, 134, 199, 260

Muslims, 113, 196, 199, 204–5, 210–11, 232

national studies, 55–122

pluralistic, 6

Protestantism, 257, 260

secularization in, 56

separation from, 8

society, 80–81

study of, 25

unbelief in, 26

values, 202

vs. Americanized, 188

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 198

American Baptist Church (Boston), 38

American Buddhists, 199

American Christianity, 166, 199. See also Christianity

American Dream, The, 9, 56, 68, 206, 211

American-born Muslims, role-playing and, 207

AMILA, 204–5, 209, 211, 215–17

speaker’s bureau, 210

Web site, 216

Amira Quraishi, 204...

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Content
• Preface
• Introduction: Youth and the Continuity of Religious Traditions
• SECTION ONE: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEWS
• SECTION TWO: THREE RECENT NATIONAL STUDIES
• SECTION THREE: PASSING ON THE FAITH TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF JEWS
• SECTION FOUR: PASSING ON THE FAITH TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRISTIANS
• SECTION FIVE: PASSING ON THE FAITH TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF MUSLIMS
• SECTION SIX: TWO EVALUATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
• Notes
• Contributors
• Index