GENERATION TO GENERATION; CONVERSATIONS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CULTURE
John H. Westerhoff III and Gwen Kennedy Neville, United Church Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1974, $5.95.
For any church, the basic task of religious education is the transmission of its faith and life style from one generation to another. In Generation to Generation John Westerhoff and Gwen Neville discuss, in a series of essays, the union of culture and religious education, and the implications for the transmission of a spiritual heritage.
In its attempts to induct its youth into full church life, the church has placed most of its religious education efforts into formal schooling, failing to recognize the impact of the larger socialization process. Profound possibilities for a new approach to religious education emerge when we broaden our understanding from the traditional classroom-centered concept to include the wider expanse of "religious socialization"—the total process by which an individual is inducted into a particular community of faith, educated to its values and ideals, and led to internalize these values and ideals as his own.
Westerhoff and Neville urge the church to consciously mold the socialization process by developing within the church the same mechanisms for transmitting its values and life style that are common to all cultures; for example, cyclical ritual celebrations that grow out of and express the faith of the congregation.
The practical application of the insights of anthropology to the church make this book especially worthwhile to pastors, religious educators, and all those who are concerned to develop a truly Christian culture within our churches and to successfully pass our faith from one generation to the next.
Ed Dower
WHY TEEN-AGERS REJECT RELIGION AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Roger L. Dudley, Review and Herald Publishing Assn., Washington, D.C. 20012, 1977, 160 pages, $4.50.
Adventist young people are slipping out the back door of the church in alarming numbers. Why does a child from a Christian home turn his back on the religion of his parents, and forsake a relationship with Jesus Christ as soon as he comes of age? What part do parents and teachers play in the tragedy? Can they do anything constructive to change this trend of religious alienation?
Dr. Dudley has done a scientific and detailed study of the thinking and attitudes of Adventist youth of academy age. His findings are startling, but not devastating, rather offering a broad area of hope in which correction and healing of religious alienation are highly possible. Nor is the reader left to grope blindly for means whereby he may begin the process. From his study, based on twenty years' experience as a successful youth worker, the author presents definite, logical steps that can, and must, be taken by the concerned adult.
In reading this book, one finds himself better able to view the issues from the perspective of the inexperienced youth. Such things as dress and hair length, which seem unimportant to the youth as far as his eternal destiny is concerned, become less significant also to the adult reader. What does loom as of momentous consequence is a correct perception of the real religion of Jesus Christ. For the young, the religion of Jesus is visualized in how they perceive the "important others" in their own existence—their parents, teachers, youth leaders, and ministers.
Without a doubt this book is one of the year's most important volumes. It should be read, carefully, and its principles applied, by every person concerned with the high attrition rate among the youth of our church.
Bobbie Jane Van Dolson
