Helping the Next Generation Keep the Faith – Why Study the Catholic Heritage Series

Recent sociological research done by Christian Smith indicates that a high percentage of teens from all US Christian denominations are quickly abandoning Christianity altogether. In a decades long study, Dr. Smith discovered that the religious faith of most US Christian teens is that of therapeutic, moralistic Deism.

First, for many US teens, religion is first and foremost therapeutic. The primary purpose of religion, they believe, is to benefit human beings on an emotional and psychological level. Religion is supposed to help people feel good about their place and purpose in life. In this regard, they would wholeheartedly agree with Karl Marx who once stated that religion is the opiate of the people in that it provides people with a comfort that transcends the comforts provided by other sources, and that on a massive scale. Secondly, the primary concern of religion is moralistic, that is, it is almost exclusively focused upon human behavior and the treatment of other human beings. Third, it is deistic insofar as the religion of US teens is decoupled from the distinct, historical Christian claims about God’s nature (i.e., one God in three persons, the hypostatic union of Christ etc.) and other historic claims about God’s intervention in human history in the person of Jesus Christ.

In this episode, we talk about the practical value of studying the Catholic heritage, namely, the ability to impart the Catholic heritage to the next generation of Catholic Christians. When Catholic youth attend university, in most cases they will inevitably be presented an entire array of options (therapeutic, moralistic Deism among them) in answering the Life Questions, many of which do not lead back to the Catholic Church. For this reason, it is of utmost importance for Catholic parents and guardians to be very well versed in the history of Catholic theology, culture and philosophy. If parents and guardians are able to impart an understanding of the Catholic heritage, based on its authoritative sources (i.e., papal statements, decrees of the councils, writings of the doctors and saints), their Catholic student’s experience of the various ideas presented in the university will be entirely different. Instead of leaving the university with a suspect or even hostile view of the faith of their childhood, they will be able to put all sorts of ideas and claims into historical perspective from a distinctly Catholic worldview. Equipped with a clear understanding of the Catholic heritage, Catholic students will be able to evaluate more critically the ideas presented to them by their professors and fellow students and engage more meaningfully in dialogue with students of other religions or students who profess no religion at all.

Join us this week as we talk about the practical importance of learning one’s Catholic heritage for the specific purpose of imparting that faith to the next generation of Catholic Christians.

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