The tragedy of pietism is -- it reduces Christianity to a set of internal "spiritual" experiences, a religion of "the heart." Historically, Christianity has been taught and practiced as a total world-view, that applied to all aspects of reality. An objective map of the real world, not just a tourist guide to one's own "inner light."
You can't trump a world view -- such as humanism, or Islam -- with a navel view. Besides, other players in the market can vend even more vivid experiences. To cite theologian Debby Boone, "How can it be wrong, when it feels so right?" As I said, in the concluding paragraph of my dissertation,
Unless religious people today also address issues of corporate structure, objective ethics, public identity, and the transmission of their values to future generations, they will suffer the fate of the losers in Atatürk's culture wars. A transcendent “navel view,” a personal mystical piety, no matter how intense, will never suffice as a substitute for a full-orbed world view. If people are unable to provide their offspring with explanations for life that are at least as big and comprehensive as all of life, their more thoughtful children will jump ship and join forces with ideologies that do seem to offer answers.
AMEN! Great comment.
Regarding those Protestant evangelical young adults not attending church, two points...
1) All the more reason to raise your children as reformed, and not evangelical.
2) The late teens and early twenties are the time when young people define themselves in opposition to their upbringing. It's almost unnatural not to "rebel" on some level. I ignored my faith during those years. College encouraged me to think of myself as "enlightened," and I glibly complied.
It wasn't until my brain developed beyond the usual liberal idiocy taught in universities and I had a family of my own that I rushed back to my faith with both arms open.
Regarding "new world religion," all superstition kills. Wherever we find it. It all comes from the same lie -- that men can do what only God can accomplish.
And yes. Our faith should encompass a world view - the entire world and how to deal with all of it in clear terms of God's sovereignty over all things.
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." -- Colossians 1:16-17"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
"All things."
Great insight, Dr. E!
The "builders of the Tower of Babel" have the temerity to imagine that they can "perfect" a shoddy world (God didn't do a very good job of making it, you see) and produce a New Eden all by themselves. With our slavish "cooperation," of course.
Thank you so much for sharing your excellent insights!