Author of ‘Losing Our Religion’ Christel Manning argues that Millennial and Gen Zed Nones (those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s);
“hold a wide variety of worldviews, ranging from deeply religious to highly secular, and transmit them in diverse ways. What ties them all together is a commitment to spiritual choice—a belief in the moral equivalence of religions and secular worldviews and in the individual’s right to choose—and it is that choice they seek to pass on to their children.”
In sociological speak, instead of having their identities ascribed and inherited, Gen Y’s and Zeds value elective identities; and that includes their religious and spiritual identities.
Dutch religious studies teacher and theologian Franka Brouwer, joins me to discuss this fascinating question of how X’s and Zed’s in Western Europe are responding to the deeper questions of life; why they won’t join churches, and how they are building their spiritual literacy, on their own terms.