Review of Is it a lost cause? - Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children
Youth culture is a mighty powerful force, nourished by advances in communications technology and global industries. As Marva J. Dawn, Lutheran theologian and teacher, points out in her book Is it a lost cause? - Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children there is a demonic aspect to youth culture that calls for an urgent response from Christians. Her book is a passionate and compassionate plea for Christians to pass on their faith unashamedly to the next generation. Rather than giving in to the culture of instant gratification and over-information, she urges Christian families to stand firm, to reach back into the Scriptures and the best of our Christian heritage to give our young people a sure footing.
Dawn is an idiosyncratic writer (in the best sense of that term) who writes in a personal and appealing way. Her Lutheran background gives her work a refreshingly different “spin” on the issues, and her strong commitment to the truth and authority of the Scriptures is a terrific model. As a person who works with young people, I was stirred by her writing not to give in to the worst excesses of contemporary youth culture – boredom, greed, a flippant attitude to sexuality, and a sense of despair. She encourages Christians not to make corporate worship shallow and trivial in order merely to attract large numbers.
There is plenty of wisdom here, gained through tough personal experience and prolonged Bible study. Perhaps Dawn is more negative towards television and modern entertainment technology than I would be. However, her warnings and encouragements contain a good deal of worthwhile insight.
3 comments:
Marva Dawn is probably a lot better than the taste given here implies, but I must say she would have to be, because I generally really hate this sort of thing. It seems way harsh to pit the christian message as a critique of youth culture - I mean to say, instant gratification, greed, boredom, a flippant attitude to sexuality & a sense of despair? Compared to when! The 1960's? The 1920's? The 1890's? Has a younger generation ever not gone to the dogs, in the view of the older generation? I think our witness and our love for our children has to cruise straight past our neophobia and our fear of their growing independence. I'm probably doing her a grave injustice, but based on the description here the book seems to mash up the christian message with parental stereotyping, paranoia and fear in a most unhelpful way.
Ouch!
Fair kop? Well, perhaps, but there are particular elements of contemporary yoof culture that are pernicious, especially because they are consumer driven like never before.
Hi Michael. I just dropped by for the first time in a while and was delighted when I skimmed down and found this post. Hurray! Someone else who has read this book. I've tried spruiking it without much success but I found very helpful.
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