Given to Matthew Hayes - 05/11/2023

The message is five stars, the delivery is three. ( )

Kenda Creasy Dean, an Associate Professor at Princeton, examines the results of a massive study done from 2003-2005 called the national Study of Youth and Religion, as well as the assertion by others of the rise in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism in place of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths, although very much primarily focused on traditional Christian groups along with Mormons--a feel good type experience. That it wasn't riveting is evidenced by the fact that I first started this book in 2014 and only went back and actually read the entire thing because it was part of a book reading game, and yet it's a topic I'm actually interested in.

This book has a fairly narrow target audience; those interested in the religious faith of American teens. It was interesting that Dean didn't even understand that at least one of the churches she discussed at length isn't even trinitarian, and she stated from the outset that that was her bias. While there were some interesting parts, and a few places that were very interesting, overall I can't say that it was stellar. ( )