HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Religion and Generation Z: Why Seventy Per Cent of Young People Say They Have No Religion
Editor: Brian Mountford
Publisher: Christian Alternative, 2022
ISBN-13: 978-1789049312
ISBN-10: 1789049318
Website(s): http://www.christian-alternative.com (publisher(
Language level: 1
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Adults
Rating: *** 3 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Category: Religion
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
Disclosure: Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated. No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.
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Mountford, Brian, editor. Religion and Generation Z: Why Seventy Per Cent of Young People Say They Have No Religion (Published in 2022 by Christian Alternative Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., No. 3 East St., Alresford, Hampshire, England SO24 9EE, U.K.). For the purposes of this book, “Generation Z” is the 18-25 age group. “In 2017 NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey published statistics that 53% of the people in Britain say they have ‘no religion,’ and that of those 70% of the 18-25 age-group claim to have ‘no religion’.” This book is “A collection of essays by students” which attempt to say why, and are individual responses rather than a systematic examination of the question. Atheist, Agnostic, Irish, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim views are represented. I probably ought not to say this, but to be honest, it sounded to me like a bunch of whiney Generation Zers trying to come up with excuses to justify their rejection of “traditional religion.”
To be fair, the nine student essayists seem to be honest and sincere in their complaints. But my own answer to the question as to why we now have a generation which identifies as “no religion” is that it has been effectively brainwashed by its experiences with schooling, entertainment, and the media to accept secularism, relativism, humanism, and post-modernism rather than to seek for truth. What I hear in the book is that the church, especially conservatives, isn’t scientific enough, isn’t feminist enough, isn’t pro-environmental enough, isn’t LGBTQ+ friendly enough, etc. Those of us who believe that the Bible is a divine revelation of God’s will for mankind look to it for absolute truth on these subjects, and there’s not much common ground or room for negotiation with those who base their beliefs primarily on how they feel about something.
Editor Brian Mountford has written opening and closing chapters, setting the scene and finally asking what future there is for religion. Yes, it is certainly true that, because “the church” is made up of fallible human beings, bad things have been done by evil people in the name of Christianity which all right-thinking people, including true Christians, abhor. It is also true that various traditions have arisen in “traditional religion” that are due for criticism and rejection as they are purely man-made and not in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the inspired Scriptures. The needed advice here is “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” To be honest, I cannot say that I enjoyed reading this book. It does have the benefit of letting us know what Generation Z is thinking about religion, but the only situation in which I might recommend it would be to an apologetics scholar like Alex McFarland to provide reasonable Biblical answers to the objections.
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