I received another book to review from Oxford University Press called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church. I am hoping this translates reasonably well to the Canadian context. I am eager to read this as it is based on the recent and large National Study of Youth and Religion.
One of the questions the book seeks to answer is why are teenagers (and to this I would add young adults) are so positive about Christianity and yet at the same time so apathetic about the genuine practice of the faith?
Researchers found that teens have embraced what author Kenda Creasy Dean calls “Moralisatic Therapeutic Deism”, described as “a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs which yields a default spirituality that bears little resemblance to the historic teachings of Christianity.”
The book points the finger of blame squarely at the Church, or in this case churches who have become little more than echoes of culture focusing primarily on achieving numbers of youth through entertaining with a thin veneer of faith slapped on top. A faith without substance focused on entertainment disguised with words like “fellowship”.
The title comes from the work of two 18th century giants of faith, George Whitefield and John Wesley. The book opens with quotes from each author, Whitefield wrote:
“An Almost Christian is one that is fond of the form, but never experiences the power of Godliness is his heart.”
The quote from John Wesley states:
“The Church is full of almost Christians who have not gone all the way with Christ.”
I find it amazing that little has changed in two centuries (and likely gotten worse). We fail to teach doctrine and solid theology to youth out of a fear that they will be bored and leave us with small numbers. This mindset comes from a larger mindset that measures the power of God at work in terms of attendance rather than impact on lives and subsequent impact those lives have on others.
Harnessing Chaos 
Kenda Dean echoes Neil Postman: “achieving numbers of youth through entertaining with a thin veneer of faith slapped on top. A faith without substance focused on entertainment disguised with words like “fellowship”. Both Postman and Dean are saying that education is required to conform to the desire for entertainment in the learner.
After I read Postman this summer, I decided to listen to a recording of Confucius’ Analects to see what he had to say about education and how it compared with the view of Plato and Aristotle. Here is a sample of Confucius’ view:
“In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Nowadays, men learn with a view to the approbation of others.”
Improvement for Confucius is linked to the decrees of heaven which is the goal of the true gentleman and the key to bringing about a healthy society:
The Master said, “At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right” (Book 2, Chapter 4).
At the very early age of 15, Confucius’ ideal gentlemen sets his heart on learning the decrees of heaven so that at seventy he would be free to pursue whatever his heart desired.
I found a direct correspondence between the view of Confucius and that of Socrates who taught that we can retain the impression of the gods on our heart only when we cultivate virtue. He compared the heart to a block of wax that must be just the right texture to accept and retain the stamp weilded by the gods.
Aristotle, similarly, taught that the ideal society is based on developing goodness among the citizens for their own sake rather than for the honour or gain that can come from conforming to a standard of conduct.
In sum, little has changed in 2,500 years. The vast majority of folk tend to serve their own pleasures while the wise learn so that they might conform their character to lasting norms.
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Another thought regarding the title ‘Almost Christian’ before I am gone for a week’s holiday: When my wife and I attended a Canadian Reformed Church a number of year’s ago, I was surprised at their criticism of Evangelicalism as Arminian and in particular the view that one could be a Christian instantly through a step of faith. For Calvin, ‘faith is knowledge’ which is the knowledge that the death of Christ applies to me for my salvation. This is a result of the secret testimony of the Spirit of God in the human heart that one gradually becomes aware of through the means of the word and the sacrament. The idea of a brief examination of ‘The Four Spiritual Laws’ and a prayer of faith is ludicrous from the Reformed perspective.
In the wider philosophic arena, knowledge is a matter of doing what is being learned: “We learn to do things by doing the things we are learning to do” (Aristotle). As it applies to the matter of obtaining happiness as the chief end of man, knowledge of the good requires the cultivation of goodness in the soul. There is no separation of justification and sanctification. And there is a harsh critique of propitiating the gods with sacrifice and no cultivation of justice in the soul and in society. I am thinking of Plato’s analogy of the puppet where the strings are the various human emotions through which the gods wreak havoc in human affairs but the one golden cord of justice enables the human puppet to rise above the confusion among the gods so that he can determine his own destiny.
If you think about the critique of Israelite society from the prophets, an easy salvation obtained through the propitiation of Yahweh, is no salvation at all (i.e. Isaiah 1:10ff). The ‘almost Christian’ idea might count in horseshoes but not in the realm of the salvation as it is viewed by the prophets. There is much in common among the ancients and the prophets against Christian views of justification by faith.
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