What Young Catholics Are Looking For: Even Though They Don’t Know It -- The Compassion Renaissance (Neuroscience-informed Compassion Cultivation)

 

Richard K. Stephens

Title: What Young Catholics Are Looking For: Even Though They Don’t Know It -- The Compassion Renaissance (Neuroscience-informed Compassion Cultivation)

January 6, 2022

2217 words

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“We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.” -- Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)

1) A Plea

Despite what is likely to come across as a bold and confident tone in this essay, it should be understood that the assertions and recommendations it presents are the product of a great deal of suffering, self-examination, painful repentance for an abundance of sin, as well as marginalization, rejection and isolation. Thus, the core conviction is the essay is one that is born of “poverty of spirit.” Though firmly expressed, it is a plea, expressed loudly, much like Bartimaeus, over the din, yet is nevertheless a plea for mercy from a beggar.

2) The Compassion Renaissance & Christian Disinterest

The secular world is in the early stages of a Compassion Renaissance, that got its impetus in 1987, with a collection of Western scientists who were invited to collaborate with Eastern masters of mind disciplines to research the mind’s capacities to achieve compassion. The research that forms the foundation of the neuroscience that the Compassion Renaissance -- neuroplasticity -- can be dated back to 1960. Since that time thousands of scientists from across the world have contributed to the new “Compassion Science.”

Perhaps the most significant product of research at top universities in the US and Europe has been its discovery of the neurological pathway of compassion, the discovery that compassion is a learned skill, and the subsequent development of mind training methods that help ordinary people to take advantage of neuroplasticity and learn the art of compassion. A historical outline of the Compassion Renaissance [1] is available here.

To date only a tiny fraction of the Christian population has taken notice. The prime exception is a group at Claremont School of Theology in California, who have developed a Christian “Compassion Practice” that parallels the secular methods, but is consistent with Christian theology. This method is informed by the long Christian tradition of contemplative prayer practices of the Desert Fathers, the Medieval saints, the Contemplatives of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the ongoing revival spurred by Thomas Merton in the mid-20th century.

[The Christian “Compassion Practice”] draws on historical roots and follows the circle of compassion shaped by Jesus’s invitation to love: grounding in divine compassion to acting compassionately toward ourselves and others. This practice, the Compassion Practice, moves us from compassionate understandings and feelings to wise, restorative, compassionate actions. It draws wisdom from contemporary research in psychology, neuroscience and spirituality. In other words, it gathers into one package key compassion-cultivating processes from Christian traditions and from current understandings that lie outside of religious traditions. [2]

I would like to argue that this Christian practice -- whose development began in 2008 -- is, for the struggling contemporary Body of Christ, in not just a treasure of immeasurable intrinsic value, but also the very thing that is need to get Christianity out of its rut and its continuing perceived irrelevance to not just the secular world, but to a majority of young professed Christians, both Catholic and Protestant.

3) New Research on Young Catholics

In the fall of 2020, Josh Packard, a Christian sociologist known for his 2015 book, Church Refugees [3] on the widespread phenomenon of deeply faithful Christians who leave the institutional church out of frustration with what they perceive to be shallow institutionalization, released a study on the state of young Catholics. [4]

In a 2016 podcast interview on the phenomenon of “church refugees,” Packard disclosed the disturbing fact that:

[Our] research shows that American congregations have lost over 30 million adults who are the Dones–those who have left the organized church, but not their faith. . . . They aren’t done because they lack faith in God. They aren’t done because they lack faith in the concept of Church–the community of believers. They’re done because they lack faith in the current church model that some leaders desperately try to defend. “The type of person that is typically found among the Dones is this really high-capacity, super-involved congregant, who’s super-involved -- really the, sort of, lifeblood and pulse of a lot of these churches before they walk out. And so they are really the movers and shakers that are often leaving. [5]

In the new study on young Catholics, Packard’s team “surveyed over 10,000 young people aged 13-25 to get a nationally representative sample across gender, race, and region.” They “interviewed 165 young people and heard their stories in-depth to see how it matched, deepened, or complicated what our survey data revealed.” [6]

This long passage from an interview with Josh Packard lays out the problems and, in a generalized sense, described the solution.

Our study confirmed that Gen Z is incredibly lonely. 40 percent told us they feel they have no one to talk to and that no one really knows them well, at least sometimes. Of young Catholics, 45 percent feel that no one understands them, while 65 percent have three or fewer meaningful interactions in a regular day. The pandemic only exacerbated this problem — across the entire sample, 60 percent of young people agreed they felt very isolated as shutdowns and social distancing began, while 44 percent agreed they were scared and didn’t want to be alone.

But there’s a clear (though maybe not always simple) solution. Our data make it clear that the presence of trusted adult mentors can have a significant impact; more mentors make young people less likely to say they experience isolation and loneliness, and more likely to say their life has meaning and purpose.

But these all-important trusted adult mentors are rarely religious leaders — just 8 percent of young people say there is a religious leader they can turn to if needed. This number is slightly lower for young Catholics – only 6 percent say they turn to a religious leader when in need. On the whole, just 1 percent say a religious leader checked in with them as shutdowns and social distancing began in Spring 2020.

These findings around mentors, meaning, and loneliness are critically important. But it can be hard to do something about this information. We developed a framework, derived from the data, that outlines what we heard from young people about building bonds of trust with adults in their lives. We call this framework Relational Authority. Those who rely on relational authority are best poised to be who young people need right now. Relational authority combines the sharing of wisdom and expertise with the practices of listening, transparency, integrity, and care. On the contrary is an approach that relies on one’s institutional authority to do the heavy lifting. What young people desire right now is to feel seen, heard, and related to. This requires leaders to invest themselves, and not just their programs or pedigree, into young people to earn their trust.

It is not just religious institutions that young people find difficult to trust right now — it’s all of America’s institutions, including schools, congress, and the media. In a society increasingly glued together by impersonal, transactional exchanges, young people have a deep need for connections that are familiar, honest, and long-suffering. Religious leaders of all faiths have an opportunity to meet that need, as well as parents, siblings, coaches, teachers, and even bosses.

Half of young Catholics today, for example, report little to no trust in organized religion. A third of young Catholics told us they do not think it’s important to have a faith community, and a third attend religious services once a year or less. Like their peers, a sizable chunk of young Catholics doesn’t necessarily consider institutional engagement to be an important aspect of their faith. [7]

Dr. Packard sums up what must be done with respect to young Catholics, “Faith leaders will also need to make the effort to go out and find Gen Z’ers. Many faith leaders today are asking how they can reach this generation, but few are actually doing so.” [8]

4) Compassion Cultivation Training as Solution

In early 2020, Heather S. Lonczak, Ph.D., a psychologist and researcher, with expertise in youth resilience and socioemotional development, published an encyclopedic article for the general reader outlining all aspects of the Compassion Renaissance.

The following advice-offering passage ought to alarm Christian leaders.

What can I do to be more compassionate?

Be altruistic.

Avoid judgment.

Practice gratitude.

Consider Buddhism.

Be kind to yourself. [8]

My point in showing this is that Buddhism is now, in the public eye, the go-to spiritual path for those who seek an escape from self-centeredness, self-loathing and confusion about the meaning of life. The secular methods that have developed from empirical neuroscientific study of certain ancient Buddhist practices are spreading at increasing pace throughout the academy, psychotherapy, business management. and public policy. Christianity as a path to the acquisition of compassion is not even considered -- not even when we define compassion rigorously in line with neuroscience’s definition -- by institutionalized Christianity. There are exceptions, of course, but they remain at the extreme margins of Catholicism and even more so with Evangelicalism.

The effective and reliable means by which one might learn to engage in the transformative process  resulting in becoming one who is equipped to follow Christ’s expression of the Great Commandment is seldom discussed in public Christian discourses. And the secular world knows it.

This is why I am convinced that the Christian Compassion Practice, developed by Frank Rogers Jr., Andrew Dreitcer and Mark Yaconelli, at the Center for Engaged Compassion in Claremont, California, is what Christianity needs to adopt if it ever hopes to stem its decline and to reach the disenfranchised, alienated youth that is hungry for a way out of the self-obsession and social alienation the culture (including Christian institutions) has led them into -- or, allowed them to fall into.

5) The Compassion Practice, Publications

Two succinct books describe the Christian Compassion Practice: Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus (2017, 158 pages), which offers an overview of the historical influences and the neuroscience findings that have informed the practice, and, Frank Rogers Jr., Compassion in Practice: The Way of Jesus (2016, 167 pages), which gives the most complete instructions for the practice. The advanced practice on developing compassion for the “Difficult Other” given in the Rogers book is of particularly notable value, in that it shows a practicable way to develop the spiritual/mental capacity to follow Christ’s direction as expressed in The Sermon on the Mount, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the Great Commandment.

6) A Mustard Seed for New York City

I have visited, participated in, and have studied a good number of Evangelical Churches in New York City (and have also spent quite a bit of time working for the Soup Kitchen at St. Francis Xavier.) I have found that serious practical spiritual formation, of the sort I discuss here, is simply not of interest to leaders and congregants. There are, however, some excellent sermons on the Good Samaritan, critiques of “Cheap Grace” self-centeredness, delivered in some churches by brilliant preachers. But their effect, in my opinion, is nil. Evangelical congregants I have interacted with in large number are, in actuality, focused on what they get (eternal live, special favors accessed through petitionary prayer) augmented by “doing church” as directed by the church elders.

Neuroscience-based compassion cultivation trainings are available in Manhattan at Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science (practice created in 1998; institute founded 2004), The Center for Compassion Focused Therapy (practice created in 2006, founded 2009). Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training (created in 2009) is offered at multiple venues (Tibet House, 92Y, Columbia U, NYU, and others). Yet, despite the existence of a Christian compassion practice, there is no offering for Christians anywhere in the Greater New York City area.

In my (informed) opinion, the provision of compassion cultivation training to Christians, most importantly young Christians, is not a frill, not an advanced-level study, not a fellowship event, but rather, it is simply a basic discipleship activity in the spirit of Matthew 28:20. It is, in other words, How to Transform One’s Mind In Order to Follow Christ 101.

Gen-Z teens and young adults, hampered by a lack social skills, lacking traditional communication skills, without guidance, without genuine friendship, without mature mentors can be successfully served in many crucial character-building aspects, which are “spiritual” in the generic sense, by non-Christian sources, such as Jordan Peterson’s “Rules for Life,” or will increasingly, I believe be attracted to secularized Buddhism. Christianity needs to do something about this, and do it promptly.

My contention is that a decision to initiate a high-quality program in Christian Compassion Practice in New York City is, considering the state of the culture, economy and the Church, a necessity, not merely an attractive option. Further, if it this were to occur, providing it produces reliable concrete, results the planting of this program will be the planting of a Mustard Seed. It would need little promotion, no cumbersome bureaucratic infrastructure, nor elaborate apologetics. But it will take integrity, focus and conviction.

NOTES

[1] Richard K. Stephens, “The Compassion Renaissance: Science, Mind & Spirit,” Compassion Renaissance (blogger.com), Dec. 18, 2021

[2] Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus, Upper Room Books, 2017, p. 106.

[3] Josh Packard Ph.D & Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are DONE With Church But Not Their Faith, Jun. 1, 2015, Group Publishing.

[4] Josh Packard, The State of Religion & Young People 2020 - Catholic Edition: Relational Authority, Springtide Research Institute (Winona, MN). Sep. [?] 2020. Ages surveyed: 13-25.

[5] Thom Schultz, “Are the Dones Really Christian?” Holy Soup Podcast, Apr. 20, 2016.

[6] Charles C. Camosy. Interview with Josh Packard, “Study shows younger people lack faith in religious institutions,” Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse, Feb 17, 2021.

[7] ibid.

[8] Josh Packard, Casper ter Kuile, “Gen Z is keeping the faith. Just don’t expect to see them at worship.” Religion News Service, Sep 23, 2021.

[9] Heather S. Lonczak, Ph.D., “20 Reasons Why Compassion Is So Important in Psychology,” Positive Psychology, Jan. 9, 2020.

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