FROM THE EDITORS February 4, 2008 Issue

WHERE DO GENERATIONS MEET?

There's Been A Lot Of Talk lately about the way young adults are shaping—or not shaping—the furture of religion in America. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow has written about it in After the Baby Boomers (Princeton University Press, 2007), and religion writer Becky Tirabassi shared her observations in the December 2007 issue of Christianity Today under the title "Young, Restless, and Ready for Revival."

Tirabassi focused on college-age Christians who she was delighted to find were seeking spirituality in unexpevted numbers. "They are longing for, begging for, older Christians to be solid spiritual mentors and parents to them, to pray powerfully for and with them," she wrote. They want to be guided by those who are consistent in their walks with God, and who live "full-of-the-Holy-Spirit" lives right in front of them.

Wuthnow's examination of data about those between the ages of 21 and 45 includes responses from many young adults busy establishing themselves in careers, getting married, and starting families. And although he, like Tirabassi, finds that young people are surprisingly interested in spirituality and are sympathetic to essential Christian doctrine, he also notes a marked decline—in the space of a generation—in the number of young adults who have some kind of affiliation with a church or religious community.

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