Colleen Carroll is a researcher on trends of youth’s attitudes toward religion. She was awarded a fifty thousand dollar journalism fellowship to spend a year trying to collect valid data on the religious interests of young adults in America today. Her new book, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy, has surprised sociologists of religion in America because of her sustainable thesis: young adults are choosing to come back to the historic Christian beliefs.

    They want to embrace the teachings of the Bible rather than the postmodern stories that result in the belief that there are no moral standards. They are tired the there is no “true” truth claims, that dismiss the the significance of the Bible. They also believe that Jesus said the words that the New Testament gospels record, thereby throwing out the speculations of the so-called “Jesus Seminar” — the group that has undermined the Bible by claiming that it only contains a very few “valid” words that Jesus actually spoke.

    Colleen Carroll crossed America interviewing thousands of Gen-X believers, youth born between 1964 and 1980. She asked, “Why are young adults who have grown up in a society saturated with relativism, which declares that ethical and religious truths vary, touting the truth claims of Christianity with such confidence?”

These youth believe in absolute truth.

    Peter Kreft says her research documents that “it’s a massive turning of the tide.” These youth believe in absolute truth. They believe Jesus is God come in the flesh and they intend to follow His teachings and commit themselves to worship and study the Bible as the unique, final, authoritative words of God.

    If Carroll’s book is on target and is accompanied by other research, then the spiritual future of our youth is not as dismal as many have thought. Her book gives repeated examples that a new devotion to Jesus Christ is at the center of this “search for the holy” that is going on. Her chapter, “Sharing the Gospel with flexibility and fidelity,” proclaims the truth that Jesus transforms lives. Therefore, witnessing about Him to non-believers is seen as a priority among many Gen-Xers.

    According to Carroll, a “new day” has come to many communities across America. Her book undergirds the belief that Christ’s call is being answered by more people than we’ve seen in recent times.

    It’s time to build on the passion for Christ that many Gen-Xers deeply believe in. Investigate this new book: The New Faithful, Loyola Press, 2002. (ISBN 0-8294-1645-5) Better yet, investigate four older “books” that tell Jesus’ story — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then pass on that good news to someone else!