Against the Stream

Richard P. Cimino is Editor/Publisher of Religion Watch, a newsletter monitoring trends on contemporary religion.

Against the Stream examines the phenomenon of young adult conversion and return to traditional Christian religiosity. The book is based on 50 case studies of young adults who have converted or returned to three tradition-based faiths: conservative and traditionalist Roman Catholicism; the conservative Reformed (or Calvinist) tradition; and Eastern Orthodoxy. The book provides an account of these young adults' beliefs as well as how they relate their faith to everyday life and social issues, and illuminates the challenges of adhering to religious traditions in a society shaped by pluralism and religious consumerism. These young adults are going 'against the stream' by refusing to take a pick-and-choose approach to religious beliefs. Choice plays a major role in how these young adults adopt and adapt these faiths to their lives. Such selective retrievals of tradition for these young adults provide benefits and solutions for the ills and dislocations created by modernity, such as the fragmentation, secularism, and politicization of society. Co-published with Religion Watch.