WHI-1029 | An Interview with Christian Smith
Dec.26, 2010 by
in
2010 Show Archive, White Horse Inn
Michael Horton recently had the opportunity to talk with Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching and Souls in Transition. Dr. Smith coined the phrase “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” to describe the faith of most religious teens, and the religion he fears of their parents as well. In this interview, Mike talks to Dr. Smith about his various writing projects, his view of youth ministry, and his suggestions for the way forward.
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Doug Powell
December 26th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Christian Smith has hit the nail smack on the head!
Christian ministry has become therapeutic, focusing almost
exclusively on the personal experiences and ‘spiritual growth’ of
the believer. Look how the epistles of Paul begin. They almost all
start by addressing the entire church to which they were sent. His
teachings dealt primarily with life in community. He encouraged
mentoring and mutual ministry. Modern preachers speak almost
entirely about one’s ‘personal relationship with Jesus Christ’ and
deal with attitudes rather than actions. Ministry in the apostolic
era focused on spreading the kingdom of God both in terms of the
geographic reach of the gospel and the dominion of Christ in the
lives of the believers. Ministry in the modern church focuses on
size, fabulous facilities and participation in programs. As for
Biblical illiteracy, George Barna did a study that showed whereas
many Christians subscribe to Biblical truths, they also believe in
a competing set of doctrines based on popular notions of religion
and faith. And we all know that there are many passages of
scripture that never find their way to a pulpit because they are
politically incorrect and could result in the loss of a church’s
tax exemption. My own experiences of abandonment by the church and
Christian family and friends during a ten year period when I went
through multiple crises led me to take another long hard look at
the church. The result was a book entitled ‘The Causal Christian’
which is available for free at ‘causalchristian.net.’ I end with a
quote from that book: “The Bible is not just a guideline. It is the
authoritative Word of God. Disobeying it has consequences. Obeying
it has rewards. Yet we fudge. We compromise. We rationalize. We
trade away our spiritual integrity for some temporal pleasure or
man’s approval or self-gratification, or self-preservation. And as
we do, we gradually erode our ability to distinguish right from
wrong, to see our own failings, and to turn back in repentance to
God.”
December 27th, 2010 at 8:19 am
I’d love to see the WHI interact with Christian Smith’s book “Divided by Faith”. Any chance of that?
Confessional Christians need to speak to the issues that Smith addresses in this book as well…
December 27th, 2010 at 9:10 am
[...] White Horse Inn has been turning out some great stuff lately, but this (link) might be the best of the [...]
December 28th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
gib, have not listened to the podcast yet but blog suggests “various writing projects” in the discussion with Smith… perhaps not just Soul Searching / Souls in Transition. If you had something specific in mind from “Divided by Faith?”, plz elaborate in your comment.
September 13th, 2011 at 10:30 am
[...] Program Note: Michael Horton recently interviewed Christian Smith about his book Lost in Transition, along with another recent book which unpacks his reasons for leaving Evangelicalism in favor of Roman Catholicism. That interview will air in October. In the meantime, however, you can listen to the following conversation between Horton and Smith recorded last year on the campus of Notre Dame: WHI-1029 An Interview with Christian Smith [...]