A Faith of Their Own
Stability and Change in the Religiosity of America's Adolescents
Lisa Pearce and Melinda Lundquist Denton
Reviews and Awards
"A Faith of Their Own is a terrific and succinct introduction to the NSYR. Its analysis is clear, its exposition is clean, and its interpretative typology merits wide adoption." --Sociology of Religion
"A Faith of Their Own moves the conversation on adolescent spirituality significantly forward by examining, not a static snapshot of teenagers' religious lives, but the ways in which these lives change during adolescence; the authors' conclusions will surprise and challenge you. Pearce and Denton write with the confidence of people who know, and love, their subjects, making A Faith of Their Own a dynamic, accessible, and often unexpected map of adolescents' spiritual terrain. If you know and love a teenager, you're going to need this book." --Kenda Creasy Dean, author of Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church
"This nuanced, comprehensive book will become the standard reference for anyone seeking a sensitive and rigorous analysis of the religious lives of American adolescents. Dispensing with the hand-wringing that accompanies many accounts, the authors take a multidimensional approach to religiosity, emphasize stability and normal development processes, and explore the effects of religious consistency on well-being as teenagers transition into young adulthood--a smart take on American religiosity and American youth." -- Penny Edgell, author of Religion and Family in a Changing Society
"Pearce and Denton bring the content, conduct and centrality of religion to life for youth today. They successfully integrate rich person-centered accounts of the meaning and practice of religion among teens using in-depth conversations with youth themselves, combined with variable-centered analyses of a national survey study of youth and religion. A Faith of Their Own thus makes an important contribution to the use of mixed methods, in addition to its path-breaking findings regarding the religious life of American youth." --Thomas S. Weisner, Professor of Anthropology, Departments of Psychiatry & Anthropology, UCLA
"The book is filled to the brim with fascinating new data as well as helpful categories for both reframing scholarly understanding and evaluating adolescent religiosity." --Publishers Weekly
"...the book will prove rewarding to all--whether parents, youth leaders, students or academics--who have an interest in teen religious behavior." --Library Journal
"...AFOTO is simultaneously sophisticated yet simple for readers to grasp."--Jenny Trinitapoli, Pennsylvania State University