Having essentially denied the existence of God and pretty much anything but the self, the only place to seek authenticity was within. Because this is a self-justifying course, which if anything only really works if it is affirmed by the culture, it is inevitable that it would end up subject to fashion. Fashion is always in search of novelty and the group who are best at novelty are the young. Which is perhaps why the cult of youthfulness has become endemic.

Thus 'Jesus (bound as an idea), then, was not all that different in form from other ideas, like diet pills, political parties, and all sorts of other products.’

This is a big risk for our youth I think, and why we need to be wary of phenomena such as the ‘quiet revival’. Is could be another example of what the author has been describing,  'faith formation and church participation are about cultural participation that can support her individual cultural pursuits for happiness and success.’

Not sure that 'Moralistic Therapeutic Deism' is going to have much purchase in UK culture as a concept. Yes, I get the therapy angle - faith can be packaged in a therapeutic /self-help guise for the youth (and any age). But 'moralism'? I see today's youth as more 'idealistic' than moralistic. And, "it is a deism that wants not a personal experience of another reality or being but new, exciting experiences that enhance her journey to authenticity." No, I disagree with this - I think that more and more young people ARE looking for personal experiences of the divine, as far as these chime with their sense of 'me'.

I don't fully understand where American fundamentalism shades off into evangelicalism - but that goes beyond the scope of this article...

Nonetheless, it presents very interesting and compelling examples for the shift in the american culture that took place after the war, its influences on evangelicalism, and the response and adaptation of the church. I especially agree with the idea that modern western values exalt individualism, emotionalism and self-authenticity over trascendence, objectivity and truth, and this can be a huge issue if it starts influencing how we think, believe and do Christianity.

On the other hand, I think that every culture and age we have gone through as humanity, has faced these types of changes, and so we should be aware that societal change is just part of our reality, whereas God and His Word does not change. So it's fundamental that we engage the ever-changing culture with the unchangeable truths of Christianity without compromising, but with wisdom, as the apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23:

"For though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law. To those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it."

I'm interested in the conversation/critique of youthfulness as a means of attaining or expressing authenticity. As Root says, a desire for authenticity isn't inherently the problem. I would argue that a desire for authenticity is a very Christian idea - humans have a knowledge that there is more to us than we know on the surface (spirituality, being made in God's image, a yearning for rightness with God/the perfection we were created for), but we so easily attempt to access that 'truer self' via self-help books or other worldly means. I think of the phrases 'live your best life' and 'be your truest self.' A Christian answer to this desire for authenticity seems to be that the 'truest self' is the person God created you to be and the 'best life' is life in relationship with Him. So I agree with Root's diagnosis of the problem - that it is a removal of the divine from the search for authenticity. I have noticed, at least in the States, a shift in the Evangelical culture from a desire for a 'cool church' which offers lots of resources and flashy lights to a desire for a 'more authentic church' which is possibly smaller and focuses more on diversity, community, and solid Bible teaching.

The fact that it is said that “we become God” or share the divine being is concerning me. That justification is made through legal pardon while ontologically we share the energy of God.

I do not understand how we can live in a "transcendence-less" world that simultaneously produces "echoes of transcendence" that feel "realer than real".

It is said that all experience is just psychological and a haunting feeling that life is more profound than we assume. How can we practically navigate this "negation" to find divine action without falling back into simple "religious commitment". It is challenging as argument.