Varieties of personal theology : charting the beliefs and values of American young adults /

Gortner (Virginia Theological Seminary) interviewed 82 "emerging' adults" (ages 18-25) in 1999-2000, a study that paralleled several others, each of which focused on the social development of teenagers. The objective of the 82 interviews was to determine individuals' "personal theologies," viz., the values they lived by, what they saw as their purpose in life, their worldviews, their religious beliefs, and the like. These interviews resulted in 108 possible personal theologies: a worldview (negative, ambivalent, or positive), a life purpose (withdrawn, role defined, or engaged), and a theodicy (determinist, humanist, or "randomist"). Underlying these were two sets of ultimate values: hedonistic versus spiritual, and affiliative versus self-focused. Thus, one person might have an ambivalent worldview, an engaged life purpose, and a humanist theodicy, and hold spiritual and affiliative values. A number of these particular theologies would not describe any respondent (61 theologies, to be exact); most were probably logically inconsistent. Among the conclusions were that economic status had a direct effect on personal theologies; family had little effect; and few generational differences in theologies were evident. Though the book contains some interesting ideas, in this reviewer's judgment it is of limited value, primarily because of the obviously small sample size. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students through professionals/practitioners. D. Harper University of Rochester