Over my 27 years of teaching at Central Connecticut State University, the worldviews of the students changed significantly. Two changes stand out in my mind.
Change Number One
I offered courses on topics on magic, witchcraft, vampires, and related topics. These were intended to get students thinking about worldview, what they believe, and why.
When I first offered the courses, the universal reaction was that beliefs about magic and the invisible world were pure superstition. But the last few times I offered them, I found a much less skepticism about the subject. One student told me that someone had cursed them. He had to go to a woman in his apartment complex to get it lifted. Another asked me about whether her murdered aunt could be trapped as a ghost with her murderer, who also died at the scene.
Change number one: Belief in magic and the supernatural was growing. The old rationalist, materialistic mindset was breaking down.
Change Number Two
I also taught History of Christianity. The first assignment was to read the Gospels of Luke and John and come prepared to talk about anything that struck them. I would inevitably bring up miracles and the resurrection if they didn’t. I would then offer an apologetic for the resurrection to show them Christian belief was not irrational.
When I first started teaching the class, students understood that if the resurrection happened, it had implications for them. I had one student, an atheist, complain to another that I made Christianity seem too reasonable. In my last few years of teaching, however, this changed. Students might agree with my defense of the resurrection, but they did not see its relevance for their lives.
Change number two: The latest crop of students did not seem to think that truth makes any claims on their lives. This is a major shift in how they view truth and reality.
A New Apologetics
These two changes spell trouble for traditional approaches to apologetics. Reasoned argument may not work with Gen-Z as well as it did for earlier generations. This suggests that to be effective in reaching Zoomers, we will need a different approach to apologetics. Reason remains important, but we will also need to engage their imagination. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, “Reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” Part of this is showing that we have a better story and a better hope than the alternatives, but it goes beyond that. I strongly suspect that beauty will also be an important component of this new apologetics.
People such as Annie Crawford, Holly Ordway, and my friend Kemper Crabb are already working in these areas. I will be studying their material and hopefully making my own contribution to the discussion in the coming months.
My husband and I were students at Michigan State University in the mid-1970’s, when the movie “The Exorcist” came out. We definitely noticed a new openness among our non-conservative classmates to belief in supernatural events. I had spent my high school years defending miracles in the Bible – following “The Exorcist” that was no longer as important. Unfortunately, this change led to interest in ALL things supernatural, including the occult, neo-paganism, New Age ideas, etc.
My experience with zoomers (my ten grandchildren) is that their feelings determine what they believe. They tend to believe what they feel…and thus there is no objective truth. There is only my truth and your truth.
I don’t know about anyone else, bur my feelings are the Devil’s playground. Objective truth lies in Jesus Christ and the word of God.
Excellent observations Glenn. These changes are visible in our local community cultures as well. It’s the “even if that’s true, what does it have to do with me?”. It’s as if this is just ancient history and happened back then, with no concern or regard for ‘why’. As a therapist for the past 23 years, I have observed such a trend of teaching people to rise up, with a positive self esteem, personal autonomy, and living in the ‘present’, that “Self” has become God and the preservation of living for the self, in the now, leads this cultural moment. Not seeing an abundance of truthful love, however, there is an abundance of tolerance, that has turned into absolute acceptance.