Review of Andrew Root's "Formation of Faith in a Secular Age" Vol.1 Part 5

END OF PART 1

Reflection

OK, Root has told us how we got here, here being a situation in which Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is the default version of “Christianity” among American teenagers and others. Here are some of the benchmarks.

Pre-1960’s Age of Conformity/1960’s On-Age of Authenticity

No going back to conformity, we have to find a way through authenticity to divine action

Unfortunately, youthfulness got identified with authenticity. How?                                            

Flow of our culture answers this.

500 years ago – enchanted world

-self porous, open to transcendent realities (both good and evil), fear of judgment or demonic attack/concern with objective realities

Enlightenment  (17^th-18^th  centuries - on)  

-self is buffered, closed off to transcendent (world disenchanted), everything becomes subjective-perception, enemy to whatever hinders my own pursuits are not transcendent but other people and ideas, scientific rationalism rules. All that is left is personal authenticity. Inauthenticity is the great evil.

Pre-60’s pursuit of authenticity confined to small groups of the avant garde. The Youth movement of the ‘60’s took it viral. The tools of sex, drugs, rock and roll used to search for authenticity were often mistaken for the movement itself. Church usually damned the movement for its tools.

Buffered selves are still frustrated because of society’s formative role over us. We must unpack and upset them.

The age of authenticity is home to the church’s faith formation.

Nub of problem: loss of nutrients of believability of transcendence.