Molly Worthen: “There’s a problem with the hyper-individualization of Millennial religion. The advantage of an institution is that it forces you into conversation with people you might not agree with. It forces you to grapple with a tradition that includes hard ideas. It forces you to have, for at least part of your life, a respect for authority that inculcates the sense that you have something to learn, that you’re not reinventing the wheel, but that millennia have come before you. The structure of institutions, for all their evils, facilitates that. And we may be losing that.” Quoted by Conor Friedersdorf here: The Case Against Mix-and-Match Spirituality. (more…)

Tags: Allan R. Bevere | Biblical languages | brain research | Carl Trueman | celibacy | Charles Halton | Conor Friedersdorf | Don Thorsen | Eugene Cho | God's Love | homosexuality | James M. Leonard | James V. Brownson | John Calvin | John Wesley | LGBTQ | Matthew Vines | Michael Brown | Mike McHargue | Molly Worthen | nature of God | Prayer | Randal Rauser | Ron Belgau | Scot McKnight | SideA | SideB | Thomas C. Upham | Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart