Out on Waters: The Religious Life and Learning of Young Catholics Beyond the Church (Horizons in Religious Education) - Softcover

Nagle, James Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1725255790 ISBN 13: 9781725255791

Publisher: Pickwick Publications, 2020

Synopsis

For a denomination like Roman Catholicism that is canonically difficult to leave, many American Catholics are migrating beyond the institution’s immediate influence. The new religious patterns associated with this experience represent a somewhat cohesive movement influencing not just Catholicism, but the whole of North American religion. Careful examination of the lives of disaffiliating young adults reveals that their religious lives are complicated. For example, the assumption that leaving conventional religious communities necessarily results in a non-religious identity is simplistic and even, perhaps, misleading. Many maintain a religious worldview and practice.

This book explores one “place” where the religiously-affiliated and religiously-disaffiliating regularly meet—Catholic secondary schools—and something interesting is happening. Through a series of ethnographic portraits of Catholic religious educators and their disaffiliating former students, the book explores the experience of disaffiliation and makes its complexity more comprehensible in order to advance the discourse of fields interested in this significant movement in religious history and practice.

About this title

About the Author

James Michael Nagle teaches theology at Xavier High School in New York City. He studies contemporary movements of religion and spirituality, and their implications for wider culture.

James also works with church and other non-profit groups to develop content and curriculum for young adult audiences.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1725255790
• ISBN 13: 9781725255791
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150