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Universit Pontificia Salesiana

Facolt di Teologia
Doctoral thesis n. 919
Approval date: 24th September 2015

Rui Alberto PEREIRA DE CARVALHO ALMEIDA

Believing in God

An empirical-theological study of social representations


among adolescents in Portugal

Roma - 2015

Contents
Abbreviations................................................................................................. v
Introduction...................................................................................................1
Chapter 7: Theological interpretation of the results.......................................7
Chapter 8: Conclusion: a critical appraisal of research procedures and results...101
Bibliography...............................................................................................124
General Index.............................................................................................175

iii

Abbreviations
AFC

Analyse Factorielle de Correspondence. See CFA.

CCC

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vatican, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003.

CEP Portuguese Bishops Conference.


CFA

Correspondence Factorial Analysis.

CSR Cognitive Science of Religion.


CST Classic Secularization Theory.
DS

Denzinger-Schnmetzer. Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et


declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. 34 ed, Barcinonae, 1967.

DV

VATICAN COUNCIL II, Dei Verbum, Dogmatic constitution on


divine revelation, 18th November, 1965.

EB

Eurobarometer.

EG FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium. Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy


Father Francis to the bishops, clergy, consecrated people, and the lay
faithful on the proclamation of the Gospel in todays world. Citt del
Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013.
EMRC Educao Moral Religiosa Catlica.
EN

PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi. Apostolic exhortation of his holiness


pope Paul VI to the episcopate, to the clergy and to all the faithful
of the entire world. Citt del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana,
1975.

EP

Evolutionary Psychology.

ESS

European Social Survey.

EVS

European Values Survey.

FR

JOHN PAUL II, Fides Et Ratio. Encyclical letter of the supreme pontiff John Paul II to the bishops of the catholic church on the relationship between faith and reason. Citt del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, 1998.

GDC CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY, General Directory for


Catechesis, 11 th August, 1997.
GDR German Democratic Republic.

HADD Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device.


IRP

Identidades religiosas dos Portugueses.

ISSP

International Social Survey Programme.

IWM Internal Working Model.


LF

FRANCIS, Lumen Fidei. Encyclical letter of the supreme pontiff


Francis to the bishops, priests, and deacons, consecrated people and
the lay faithful on faith. Citt del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013.

LXX Greek translation of the Old Testament.


MCI Minimal CounterIntuitiveness.
MMH Massive Modular Hypothesis.
NT

New Testement.

NSYR National Study of Youth and Religion.


OT

Old Testement.

PN

Positivist Naturalist.

PQOL Perceived Quality Of Life.


RCT Rational Choice Theory.
RI

Religious Integration.

SA

Similitude Analysis.

SCT

Social Categorization Theory.

SIT

Social Identity Theory.

SPCM Socio-Political Conflict Model.


SR

Social Representation.

SRT

Social Representations Theory.

The abbreviations used to designate the Bible books are taken from the
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.

vi

Introduction
This research project aims to investigate how the adolesecents who attended the Portuguese catechetical curriculum live, after the end of catechesis, their
faith. What relationship do they have with God? What image of God have they
built? What are the processes involved in the construction of their faith?
These teenagers are a relatively small percentage of all the Portuguese population. But are, probably, the ones that are nearer to the ecclesial proposal.
Investigating theologically their experience of faith has all the scientific justification. But it is also a sign of respect towards those who dared to believe.
Motivation and Theme
The Church in Portugal, since the beginning of the 90s, offers a catechetical project with a ten-year duration (from 6 to 16 years old), culminating in
the sacrament of Confirmation. The original goal of this catechetical project
was to empower the children and adolescents with the proper tools to build an
adult and committed Christian identity.
But the social and religious changes in Portugal, and the possible internal
limitations of the project, led to the presence of signs indicating the possible
failure of those goals: decline of the ecclesial belonging, disarticulation between faith and life, disappointment in many catechists
About this situation, there is a joke circulating in Church environments: a
priest laments with his bishop about the presence of bats in the church attic;
he has already tried all possible solutions: poison, ultrasounds there is no
way to get rid of them. And the bishop offers a solution: Confirm them, they
wont remain in the church for long!
Between the playful and the bitter, this joke underlines a serious problem
in Portuguese Church. There is a serious effort to offer a ten year catechetical
curriculum, during childhood and the first part of adolescence; catechists formation is made with honest commitment; the 60000 catechists do their ministry with generosity and are one of the largest experiences of voluntary work
in Portugal. But this catechetical architecture, culminating in confirmation,
leaves very unsatisfactory results. There are many voices complaining that,
after confirmation and so many years attending catechesis, identification with
the faith and the Church from these young people is very weak. The situation
is annoying, especially as lasts for two decades.

Meanwhile, there is a growing consensus among the experts that adolescence is becoming longer, and that people tend to delay the identity processes.1
Despite some calls from the Bishops Conference,2 Portuguese churches have
not done any relevant proposal to deal with adolescents and youths after 16
years old.
The catechetical process has no standard evaluation mechanisms to measure the success of the proposed objectives. As a result of this absence, we can
only have access to very generic impressions about the success of the catechetical programs, a diffuse awareness that the adolescents needed a longer and
better pastoral support. Above all, we have a deep ignorance about the real
faith experience of the new generations of Christians.
This ignorance about the real religious experiences makes impossible the
existence of a serious debate about faith in God, the contents attributed to
God, the quality of the relationship the adolescents have with Him.
At the center of the Christian experience and of the evangelizing efforts
of the church we have the faith in the Trinitarian God, revealed in the person, words and deeds, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. According
to General Directory for Catechesis (= GDC), it is from such faith that can
grow, with the proper processes of ecclesial insertion and education-initiation,
a Christian identity, adult and autonomous. But, in fact, concerning the adolescents living in Portugal that followed the catechetical curriculum, we know
very little about their faith contents, their quality or relevance.
This need for a better understanding of reality is not only nor mainly
academic: it is an important factor to understand the quality of the actual
pastoral processes; it is an important factor to think, project and implement
alternatives.
Despite this alarming scenario, it is surprising the absence of scientific
knowledge about the actual faith experience of this group of teenagers that
attended all the catechetical curriculum. Often, some Church circles use generic data and interpretations imported from youth sociology. They assume
the presupposition that youth is a coherent and unified reality and apply to
all its segments the same grids. Sociologically, this is a very weak operation. It
ignores the deep fracture lines that run across the youth continent. And ignores
the specifics of the religious education and pastoral action processes that were
FERREIRA Vtor Srgio, A condio juvenil portuguesa na viragem do milnio. Um
retrato longitudinal atravs de fontes estatsticas oficiais: 1990-2005, Lisboa, ICS, 2006.
1

2
CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Bases para a pastoral juvenil,
2002.

activated with this group. Or, worst, considers, without further analysis, that
they are irrelevant.
At the same time, many people, with different levels of knowledge and
ecclesial responsibility, do not conform to this situation. They feel it is their
duty to to search for an improved praxis of the Church.
The ignorance about the real faith experience of the adolescents that attended catechesis, the refusal to accept simplistic solutions, and the solidarity towards all those committed to a renewed pastoral effort, led us to start
this research project. Understanding how these adolescents assume the Church
faith, what processes and people are involved in such appropriation, would be
a worthy contribution to all those who try to establish a bridge between the
happy experience of the Gospel and the world of young people.
The scientific ignorance about the religious experience of young people is
staggering. It would be acceptable to investigate the Portuguese adolescents
has a unified group. But, instead, we chose to study only those adolescents that
attended catechesis for the all curriculum. They are a minority group (around
10% or slightly more) within that cohort. But they are an interesting population because they, apparently, are the ones more identified with faith and the
Church. A renewed and qualified youth ministry project should pay attention
to them. Knowing who they are, and how they believe is a mandatory task
for anyone trying to improve the way christians in Portugal minister to young
people.
Method and Articulation
Affirming and living accordingly to the faith in the God revealed in Jesus
Christ is essential to Christian existence and ecclesial praxis. This research
project aims to verify the quality of the reception Portuguese adolescents who
followed the systematic catechesis curriculum offer to the announcement of
the mystery of God. After attending catechesis for ten years, what kind of faith
do these 16-20 years old adolescents have?
This research seeks to reach three objectives. The first is to identify the
images of God elaborated by the adolescents and what relationship they establish with Him. The second is to understand the processes by which those
images and relationships are generated and adopted. And, in the third place,
we will be able to reflect and evaluate, dogmatically and practically, the actual
experience of believing in God.
This research opts for a practical-theological approach. Differently from
human sciences who claim to be value-free towards the object under scruti3

ny, we assume a theological point de vue. This desire to make a specifically


theological research is not equivalent to the denial or contempt for the human sciences contributions. On the contrary! As always, theology is done in
partnership with other sciences: philosophy, literature, history, law In our
case, we put ourselves into the well-established path of empirical theology.
This current defends that the theological task can be done using the texts
(in semiotic sense) produced by empirical methods about contemporary reality. This empirical attention will ensure a genuine dialogue between different
knowledges.
Another option is the practical approach. We want to study the Church
in action. It is not enough to research, even with empirical support, the cognitive conformity between the doctrinal corpus of the Church and the way
our adolescents receive it. It is important to understand how the adolescents
become protagonists of such faith appropriation, understand what processes
and people are involved.
Following the empirical-theological method,3 this research will have three
main moments.
The first part will offer the theological criteria to define the object under
scrutiny (the faith of the Church), will review the state of the art of human
sciences research done in connection to the theme of God, and will present the
social representations theory as the most adequate option.
This project will start with a discussion of the theology of faith. In chapter
1, we will try to answer some classical questions of theology. How do we relate
to God? What do we know about God? The revisitation of the biblical perspectives, and the recovery of the different theological understandings of faith,
prepares the terrain to present a contemporary synthesis. Such contemporary
synthesis has in the Catecism of the Catholic Church (CCC) a good example.
The second chapter will offer the status quaestionis of human sciences.
Unfortunately, there are no other researches dealing with the same object of
this project. But we will try to do a survey of the correlative topics with some
relevance. In this second chapter, we will distribute previous research in four
levels, according to their scope: ideological and cultural, societal, interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. The ideological and cultural level will be centred
in the Portuguese reality but will face a certain poverty of empirical data and
analysis. The societal level will deal with a different scenario: we have relevant
3
We will not try to justify the merits of the empirical theology approach. In the
last decades, this approach has consolidated its reputation within the theological field
(catholic and evangelical) and has also been recognized by the human sciences.

amounts of data about the Portuguese religious reality, but the number of
studies is scares. This will lead us to build some analysis of the available data,
in order to find some meaning in it. In the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels we do not have data generated in Portugal but the amount of international
literature is enormous. This second chapter will not stop in the presentation of
the available investigation but will discuss the merits of its epistemological and
anthropological presuppositions.
The third chapter will present the social representations theory (SRT), its
rationale, epistemological legitimation, and methodologies of choice. It will
also highlight its merits and heuristic relevance in todays socio-cultural complexity. A preliminary comparison between the Christian understanding of
faith in God and social representations might show the existence of a high
degree of isomorphism between the two. And this can make social representations theory a good candidate to frame our empirical research.
The second part will report the empirical procedures used to collect the
data and will present them and analyse them. After the three chapters of part I,
more concerned with the theoretical dimension, it will be time to be challenged
by empirical reality and by the data.
The fourth chapter will describe and justify the research design. Triangulation is a quality-enhancer option and it will be one of our key-options. Our
research design will use mainly data and analysis triangulation. To get a better
understanding of the ecosystem where the adolescents live their faith, we will
collect data from three different levels: the adolescents level, the catechetical
level and the public sphere level.
Fifth chapter will describe the analytical procedures used and the results
of the analysis. Our main tool of analysis will be the Alceste method. Alceste
has a solid theoretical support and allows for a rapid quantitative analysis of
unstructured data. Similitude analysis is a complementary method that can
help making sense of the raw data. Both methods have a solid tradition in the
field of social representation research.
In the third part, the results of the empirical study will be related back to
the initial questions and aims. Here, we will read, interpret and evaluate the
empirical data presented in the second part.
The sixth chapter will determine what social representations were produced by the respondents about each of the three divine persons, what Trinitarian representation can be derived and what configurations were activated to
the objectivation and anchorage processes.

The seventh chapter will do a theological interpretation of the social representations previously identified. We will follow a separate approach to the
dogmatic interpretation and evaluation and to the practical-theological. In the
first moment, the dogmatic interpretation, we will revisit and discuss theologically the social representations identified to each of the divine persons. We will
also evaluate the explicit and implicit faith theologies present in the sample. In
the second moment we will interpret the faith praxis of the respondents. We
will comment on the most relevant experiences contributing to faith, on the
partners that adolescents have found in their faith path and will end commenting on the faith outputs, the personal and ecclesial consequences of the faith
experience.
Thesis extract
This volume fulfils the academic requirements demanding the publication
of a thesis extract. The committee suggested the publication of chapter 7. In
the previous chapters, left behind of this extract, the procedures that led to the
identification of the social representations of God, Jesus, and the Spirit, were
presented. Now each of the representations is theologically evaluated. Dogmatically and practically.
This volume includes also the introductions, the conclusions (formally,
chapter 8) and bibliography. In the Conclusions it is possible to find a summary of the contents proposed in chapters 1 through 6. This can be useful for a
better framing of the contents found in chapter 7.

Chapter 7
Theological interpretation of the results
This seventh, and final, chapter will attempt to make a theological interpretation of the social representations that we have identified. Having collected the data emerging from reality, and envisaging it within a clear human
sciences theory, it is now time to try and understand what the data is telling us.
It is time to answer the initial question of this research: theologically, what is
the experience of faith of the adolescents who attend the catechesis?
It will be a theological interpretation with two distinct approaches: one,
more dogmatic, the other practical. In the first section, we will analyse the
way the respondents see and position themselves in front of each Person of the
Trinity, and how they perceive the Trinity. In the second part, we will see what
practical consequences faith has to the respondents lives and what ecclesial
and communicative processes are involved.
1. A Dogmatic-Theological appraisal
When attempting a theological comprehension or evaluating an author
or document, it is tempting to assess them by comparison to other authors
or documents presenting what is, supposedly, a more normative synthesis of
faith. A true theological appraisal, without dismissing this confrontation with
the normative dimension of faith, must also (and, perhaps, above all) understand the document on its own, through both the documents own internal
logic and theological (but also philosophical and anthropological) assumptions, and also by putting the document in perspective within its own historical
and cultural context. If that does not happen, we fall, easily, in the injustice of
reading and interpreting the document with the uncritical look of the analyst
that identifies, perhaps unconsciously, his own context with the normative
version of faith.
These epistemological precautions must be underlined, especially when
we are studying documents produced outside the theological academia, documents made by a population with serious difficulties in producing texts with a
modicum of articulation.4 It is tempting to identify a set (however minimal) of
4
It is worth mentioning the experience reported by Smith: In our in-depth interview with U.S. teenagers, we also found the vast majority of them to be incredibly
inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices, and its meaning on
their place in their lives. SMITH Christian and DENTON Melinda Lundquist, Soul
searching. The religious and spiritual lives of american teenagers, p. 131. In a German

normative contents and attitudes of faith in order to map out or systematically


detect the gaps in the populations understanding and conclude, hastily, that
the pastoral situation is problematic. More demanding, more honest and more
useful is to try an interpretation that ensures a true dialogue between the adolescents synthesis of faith (with all its inarticulacy and fragmentation) and the
ecclesial synthesis of faith. Only that will give us an understanding of both the
merits and limits of adolescents faith, coupled with the context and the causes
of the situation, and enable the identification of valid alternatives to current
ecclesiastical praxis.5
1.1. Believing in God
One of the most surprising information supplied by the sociology of religion is the large percentage of the Portuguese population claiming to believe in
God. However, in chapter 2 we have already seen how ambiguous that claim
is. It is clear that behind such apparent consensus, many different images of,
and stances towards God, exist. In the case of the adolescents that attended
catechesis (which we have designated cluster 1), what is the theological value of their social representations of God? Below, we will theologically interpret each of the social representations identified in cluster 1.
1.1.1. Belief & Doubt
Respondents typically use a set of very classical adjectives to refer God:
omnipresent, divinity, good... These words have a more ontological connotation than a relational one. When talking about God, the respondents are not
describing a character from a fairy-tale, nor a psychological projection, nor
a vague and diffuse entity (in a new age style). The combination of terms
used only makes sense when applied to some-One with the characteristics that
the Church attributes to God. There is no functional replacement of the term
god whether it is used to designate another immanent entity or something
else generated in the subjects consciousness.
context Faix reports: In regard to the semantic level, we recorded that a quarter of the
youth surveyed claim to have difficulties with religious and church semantics. FAIX
T., Semantics of faith. Methodology and results regarding young peoples ability to
speak about their beliefs, in Journal of empirical theology, 27 (2014) 1, 35-56, p. 37.
5
Sometimes the relation between empirical research and theological normativity
becomes problematic. A good understanding of the characteristics of both elements
avoids such problems. Cf. Van Der VEN Johannes A., An empirical or a normative approach to practical-theological research? A false dilemma, in Van Der VEN Johannes
A. and SCHERER-RATH Michael (Edited by), Normativity and empirical research in
theology, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2004, 101-136.

At the same time, other terms occur referring to the quality of the respondents relationship with God. These terms suggest the existence of a good, relevant and positive relationship with God: secure, happy, personal and joyful.
These two lexical descriptions show the existence, in this SR, of a certain
continuity and balance between the fides qua and the fides quae, between the
allocation of characteristics suitable to the divinity and the explicit nature of a
quality relationship with Him.
However, the most typical characteristic of this SR is the simultaneous
presence of both faith and doubt. Faith and doubt about the existence of God,
but also faith and doubt as a relational stance towards God. SRT describes this
coexistence of contradictory positions as cognitive polyphasia. However, this
is a non-surprising result from respondents that were exposed to an intense
Christian education which, at the same time, was overlapped by pressure from
the dominant culture that tries to silence God, and particularly, the specific
characteristics of the Christian God.
Usually, the answer from theology to those who challenge the existence
of God is more philosophical and cultural than strictly theological. More so,
since the critical climate created by the enlightenment, after which the greatest
effort has been devoted to defending the epistemological legitimacy of the very
question of God. O pensamento moderno de matriz iluminista e positivista
estruturou-se sobre a separao e ensinou a oposio entre saber e crer, razo
e f, inteligncia e sensibilidade, fazendo pender o prato da balana para o
primeiro terno dos binmios.6
And even the developments propitiated by Dei Verbums revelation theology tend towards a somewhat static model. Philosophical-theological extrinsecism has been overcome in favour of a dialogic vision of a God that reveals
Himself to mankind, which in turn must answer Him. But it is not common or
easy to leave the normative biblical horizon and build a bridge to real people,
in the context of their personal and social pathways.
In this SR, faith appears as individual adhesion to a truth of supernatural
origin. There is an objective content, hidden from normal cognitive processes,
which only through faith can be accessed and doubt is evidence of the hesitation, insecurity and difficulty in dealing with this form of alternative knowledge. Somehow, the doubt referred by these adolescents can be described with
the words of CCC when it talks of involuntary doubt: Involuntary doubt
refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected
6
TERRA Domingos, A f como dom e resposta da liberdade, in LOURENO Joo
(org), A f da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 129-180, p. 30.

with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness (CCC 2088). Doubt is not only an
ontological or epistemological question. It is also a practical question: what
should I do? Questions of being, truth and of action should always be seen
in relation to each other.7 This link between ontology and praxis (between
content and relation in the experience of faith) is obvious because the truth of
what is believed influences the action the subject takes. But also as a deterrent
against apathy; when doubt is present, when the contours of what is real become blurred, the very possibility of action seems blocked.
An objectivistic vision of revelation and faith persists that finds credibility in the miracles of Jesus and the Saints, the prophecies, the propagation
and the holiness of the Church.8 God and his revelation is, according to these
respondents, omnipresent. Faith merely consists in recognizing the constant
presence of God, and doubt is incidental to this recognition.
When we think and communicate faith from within our own experience
of faith, in line with the normative documents produced by Scripture, Magisterium and theological reflection, this ideal model, especially when enriched
by the dialogical perspective, seems quite appropriate. However, it tends to be
less effective for those who are just beginning to believe.
As Root underlined, discourse tends to insist on the power and evidence of
Gods revelation, in an obsession with Gods nearness, and in the obligation
(moral, spiritual and logical) of believing in the self-revealing God.9 The objectivistic notion of God as omnipresent is blatantly contradicted by the experience of His absence. This objectivist stance can induce an easy identification
between uncritical religious socialization and true faith.

PELKMANS Mathijs, Outline for an ethnography of doubt, in PELKMANS


Mathijs (Edited by), Ethnographies of doubt. Faith and uncertainty in contemporary
societies, London - New York, I. B. Tauris, 2013, 1-42, p. 2
7

Cf., following the line of Dei Filius, from Vatican I, CCC 156. Cf. also, CONESA
Francisco, El acto de fe en el Catecismo de la Iglesia Catolica, in Facies Domini, 5
(2013), 13-39, pp. 26-28, about the differences and continuities between CCC and Dei
Verbum. The author defends that in the CCC a truly personal and Christological vision is present. La doctrina del Catecismo en esta seccin sobre la fe ha de ser completada, en primer lugar, con lo que se ha dicho en la seccin primera sobre el ser humano
como capax Dei. () En segundo lugar, esta exposicin ha de ser completada con la
perspectiva sobre Cristo y sobre la Iglesia como signos personales de credibilidad.
8

9
Cf. ROOT Andrew and BERTRAND Blair D., Postscript: Reflecting on method.
Youth ministry as practical theology.

10

In this representation, there is a clear lack of explicit reference to the God


that reveals Himself in Jesus of Nazareth. The dogmatic and pastoral awareness of such a demand unites authors from very different sensibilities: ()
sostenere loriginalit e il carattere definitivo dellimmagine di Dio proposta
da Ges Cristo. () ma li ricava, invece, da ci che disse e fece luomo Ges di
Nazaret durante la sua vicenda storica, e soprattutto da ci che avvenne nella
sua morte e nella sua risurrezione;10 O tema da f crist assinala-se legitimamente como revelao de Deus em Jesus. Portanto, a f crist priva-se, objectiva e subjectivamente, do seu tema, e portanto da sua determinao especfica,
quando perde o nexo intrnseco com a manifestao de Jesus.11
As an alternative to declaring the diffuse omnipresence of God (God that
is everywhere anonymously, ends up being nowhere), He must be identified
in more defined places. But where are these places? A place where God is
believed (however tentatively and fraught with doubts) must be where the personality, the praxis, the word, and the death and resurrection of Jesus intersect
the experiences of life and death for the adolescents. The place where God
fully manifests Himself in Jesus is the place where the adolescents quality of
life (his salvation) is at stake. As Tonelli says, ci che avvenuto in Ges nella
Pasqua pu succedere per tutti e per ognuno; il trionfo della Vita sulla Morte
la grande promessa che riempie di senso e di gioia la vita.12
This perspective allows for the overcoming of the objectivism of faith that
reduces faith to inaccessible truths, without falling into the self-referential subjectivism of contemporary mainstream culture. It also allows a theological appreciation of doubt. Doubt ceases to be an epistemological limitation and can
be seen as part of the personal effort of the believer in finding the place where
his lack of salvation intersects the offer of abundant life made by Jesus of Nazareth, the revealer of the Father.
1.1.2. Trust & Relational Quality
The second representation of God we want to interpret theologically, presents Him using the biblical category of trust. God is seen as someone whom we
can trust, as a solid support, as a source of a quality relationship.

GALLO Luis A., Il Dio di Ges. Un Dio per luomo e in cerca delluomo, Leumann, LDC, 1998, p. 80.
10

11

SEQUERI Pierangelo, A ideia da f. Tratado de teologia fundamental, p. 126.

12
TONELLI Riccardo, GALLO Luis A. and POLLO Mario, Narrare per aiutare a
vivere. Narrazione e pastorale giovanile, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 1992, p. 61.

11

This association between faith and trust has a solid biblical background.13
In an unsafe and dangerous world, God reveals Himself as the only stable alternative upon which life can be structured. This experience remains equally
valid in the Old and New Testament as in the existence of an adolescent in the
early 21st century.
There is a consistent theological trend defending a strong continuity between existential trust, religious faith and the faith in Jesus Christ. However,
it is a continuity differentiated from identification. Such continuity is defended
because the faith in the God of Jesus finds an anthropological category able to
sustain it. Iniciamo-nos f crist, iniciando-nos confiana existencial ()
a f declina a densidade humana do reconhecimento grato e da entrega confiada ao dom incondicional que o Pai faz de Si na histria do Seu Filho entre ns
e que continuamente renova no Esprito.14
Without falling into the excesses of Lutheran fideism,15 where faith runs
out in a relationship with a faceless God (or, at the least, a blurred face), the
anthropological category of trust seems to offer a good support structure for
faith in God. Sequeri defends an urgent recovery of the anthropological dignity
of trust. If our capacity to trust each other is not recognized as a defining part
of our identity, any kind of human knowledge (not only religious knowledge)
is ruined.16 This theological project roots the phenomenology of faith in an
anthropology that recognizes the centrality of affective trust in all interactions
and forms of human knowledge.
In this representation, the experience of trust in God is associated with a
strong relational quality. To believe, to trust in God, brings a better quality to
the personal existence, which, traditionally, theology describes as salvation.
The adolescents thematize such salvation using the category of relational quality and anchor it in the vulgata of positive psychology.17
13

Cf. TERRA Domingos, A f como dom e resposta da liberdade.

CORREIA Jos Frazo, A f como forma vital e forma expressiva da existncia


humana, in LOURENO Joo (org), A f da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 11-57, p.
13.
14

This reference to Lutheran fideism should be understood as a reference to popular piety. Cf. CARROLL Thomas D., The traditions of fideism, in Religious Studies,
44 (2008), 1-22.
15

Cf. GALLAGHER Michael Paul, Truth and Trust: Pierangelo Sequeris Theology of Faith, in Irish Theological Quarterly, 73 (2008), 3-31. Cf. also PAWAR Sheila,
Trusting others, trusting God. Concepts of belief, faith and rationality, Farnham - Burlington, Ashgate, 2009, for a less enthusiast view on the relation between faith and trust.
16

17

12

Castellazzi would prefer a more psychoanalytic interpretation. The adolescence

In popular perception, the topic of salvation continues to suffer from an


individualist and temporal reduction. To be saved is to be rewarded, individually, in the afterlife for faithfulness demonstrated through the years, and the
fact that the respondents are trying to find a way around this distorted notion
of salvation is positive.
Without endorsing an instrumental and utilitarian notion of faith, there
is a consensus that faith brings salvation as an improvement in the believers
quality of life. In the texts of the Old Testament such experience could be
expressed with the word shalom and thought of in very materialistic terms.
However, biblical theology always insisted that the focus should be on Gods
benevolence and mercy and not merely on the material nature of His gifts.
This certainty that faith is profoundly liberating is a constant of the Christian
existence, both in the personal and social fields.
The contact with God in Jesus Christ is an intensely rewarding experience
for the existence: the Christian faith is the path to salvation. And the salvation
should not be thought of as just the end point of the believers lifes journey,
but as something that happens in the day to day. There is certainly some degree of tension between the actual quality of Christian existence and its eschatological resolution, but this tension should not be seen as a dichotomy. It is
tempting and poor to deny a salvific quality to our actual existence in order
to underline the superlative character of Gods eschatological gift. It is entirely
possible to think that, in everyday life, Christian existence is being marked by
God-given salvation, in a complex process, where historical circumstances,
personal freedom, and Gods mercy interact. And, at the same time, knowing
that a life lived in the fullness of God is immeasurably superior.
Another important feature of Christian salvation is the fact that it is offered. The possibility of a happy and free life happens because of Gods action.
The Promethean or narcissistic notion that we can save ourselves, so pervasive
in the dominant culture of today, clashes with the reality of the facts.
Besides all this, salvation is always double-sided: positive and negative. On
the negative side, we have salvation as something that hinders our humanity; it
is salvation from death. On the positive side, salvation is growth, in a new
and unexpected way of life. Salvation occurs as a healing of evil and forgiveness of sin, but also as an entry into the life of grace, as a communion with
maternalization hypothesis finds, with the data from our research, ample confirmatory clues. Cf. CASTELLAZZI Vittorio Luigi, La maternalizzazione del mondo adolescenziale e giovanile: sue ripercussioni sul vissuto religioso. Una lettura psicoanalitica,
in NANNI Carlo and BISSOLI Cesare (A cura di), Educazione religiosa dei giovani
allalba del terzo millennio, Roma, LAS, 2001, 51-84.
13

God. These two aspects are not mutually exclusive, however; they are just two
sides of the same coin.18 According to the circumstances or the psychological
physiognomy of the subject, communicative priority can be given to one or the
other. But it is essential to retain the notion that salvation offers the believer a
profound transformation.
Assuming a stance of faith, engaging lovingly in the dialogue started by
God, the believer is saved, that is transformed. And whether or not we privilege the positive or the negative perspective of salvation, it offers a process of
deep transformation for the believer. This salvation must not be understood
as a mere acquisition of goods (material or spiritual), external to the subject,
as salvation transforms the believer internally. And from this comes the link
between faith, salvation and conversion. Conversion, in this context, is more
than a moral choice. Conversion is more than the abandonment of a more or
less immoral life; it is an internal change of the subject, made possible by God,
that opens the door to a new life and new options.19 The moral, behavioural
dimension of salvation, is a corollary of the transforming interaction with the
God that offers abundant life. As Terra puts it: A f crist constitui uma
experincia de salvao, porque quem a pratica conta com a graa divina que
dotada de fora transformadora. auxiliado pelo prprio Deus, que se faz
presente como dom.20
It is obvious that this process is dialogic and happens in a freedom context.
The connection between salvation and faith is not automated. When a positive
answer to the Gift of God is given, the transformation process still happens
within the specificities and constraints of our humanity. This salvation, capable of transforming the believer, is profound and radical but is also slow,
mediated by the circumstances surrounding our surrender to God.
This salvation includes a social dimension. The salvific will of God does transform not only the individual but also societies and their underlying structures.
This description of the articulation between faith and salvation was based
on the biblical information, in a western context, and to be read in an academic environment. So how can such salvation, brought about by faith, be expressed in different existential and cultural horizons? How is the adolescents
vision connected with what we have seen previously about salvation?

14

18

Cf. TONELLI Riccardo, Per la vita e la speranza, Roma, LAS, 1996, pp. 18-23.

19

Cf. EG 164.

20

TERRA Domingos, A f como dom e resposta da liberdade, p. 170.

This question is reminiscent of a previous one: is it legitimate to talk plurally about the one God-given salvation? A careful analysis of Scripture itself
shows how salvation is expressed in different categories, crossing the founding
experience of Gods revelation with the different circumstances of each specific
community. Commenting on the panorama of the New Testament, van der
Watt says: Thus a truly diverse soteriological landscape is birthed as individual situations play a decisive role in how the message of the Christ-event is expressed. The documents address different issues, employing different linguistic
styles, thereby creating different foci.21
There is, in the NT, a plurality of images taken from various contexts: law,
economic, social, political and apocalyptical. However, this plurality of images is functional to the expression of a common soteriological reality. Different and divergent imaginaries are used to describe a shared structure. This
elemental narrative that would be behind the plurality of imaginary departs
from a blocked anthropology. Blocked towards humanity and God. People are
divided among themselves and separated from God. But God allows real possibilities to restore such relationships. How this happens is described in various
ways. But all of them happen through Christ. And His Cross and Resurrection have a decisive role. Mankind must welcome this restored relationship
through the attitudes of faith, obedience and renewed praxis.
The embracing of this narrative in such disparate texts demonstrates how
the message, and not the image, is the priority. To the NT authors, this means
that the expression of the idea (the image they choose to use) must be distinguished from the content (the message). This relativizing of the images and
categories used, suggests that, even today, it is legitimate to recount Gods
salvation in Jesus using plural forms, selecting the more relevant soteriological images for each particular situation. This process, which we, today, call
inculturation, has always happened throughout Church history, and it is not a
specificity of mission territories. It is born from the very nature of culture and
the nature of the Gospel.22
If inculturation and plurality of languages are a possibility, the attempt
to express salvation by faith anchored in positive psychology should not be
immediately rejected. Rather, it should be evaluated according to the double
van der WATT Jan G., Conclusion - Soteriology of the New Testament: some
tentative remarks, in van der WATT Jan G. (Edited by), Salvation in the New Testament. Perspectives on Soteriology, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2005, 505-522, p. 505.
21

22
Cf. GALLAGHER Michael Paul, Fede e cultura. Un rapporto cruciale e conflittuale, Cinisello Balsamo, San Paolo, 1999, pp. 141-154.

15

fidelity criterium: both to contemporary man, and to the revealed message


(EN 4).23
The amount of published reflection about the underlying ideology behind
positive psychology and its theological merit is small.24 Most commonly, authors debate the articulation between theology and psychology25 or the use of
psychology in pastoral contexts.26
Whether, generally, among advocates of integration and of the advantages
of the use of psychology to present salvation, or rather, specifically among
the proponents of positive psychology, there is a strong current supporting
the positive psychology paradigm and its operational instruments as adequate
tools to express the theological concept of salvation.27
Gaudium et Spes 62 is often cited to support the use of the positive psychology paradigm.28 And following Gaudium et Spes, the defenders make lists,
some longer, some shorter, of the similarities between positive psychology and
Christian doctrine and spirituality.
Positive psychology outweighs the common idea that happiness is associated with the possession of material goods. Despite the dominant materialistic
discourse, empirical research demonstrates that there is no causality between
For the different understandings of inculturation, cf. ANTHONY Francis-Vincent, Ecclesial praxis of inculturation. Toward an empirical-theological theory of inculturizing faith, Roma, LAS, 1997, pp. 31-56.
23

Once again, it is important to distinguish the different meanings that positive psychology can assume. In a minimalistic way, PP is just normal psychology researching positive approaches: The future task of positive psychology is to understand
the factors that build strengths, outline the contexts of resilience, ascertain the role
of positive relationships with others. GABLE Shelly L. and HAIDT Jonathan, What
(and why) is positive psychology?, in Review of general psychology, 9 (2005) 2, 103110, p. 108. But a more enriched understanding of PP is possible, where it becomes
prescriptive with all the scientific findings it has produced. And when this enriched
vision of PP falls in the public domain and is popularized by the mainstream media,
becomes an ideological narrative.
24

25

Cf. Chapter 2, 3.2.2, The religious integration paradigm.

Cf. WIARDA Timothy, Psychology and pastoral ministry, in Church and Society
in Asia Today, 7 (2004) 3, 114-128.
26

Cf. HACKNEY Charles H., Possibilities for a christian positive psychology, in


Journal of Psychology & Theology, 35 (2007) 3, 211-221.
27

28
In pastoral care, sufficient use must be made not only of theological principles,
but also of the findings of the secular sciences, especially of psychology and sociology, so
that the faithful may be brought to a more adequate and mature life of faith. (GS 62)

16

money and happiness. And this is in tune with the Gospel vision relativizing
material goods. A second point of convergence is the importance of thanksgiving either as a therapeutic exercise or as prayerful practice. The importance
given to forgiveness is another point of convergence. The concept of a good
life or a virtuous life also has similarities to the biblical vision; Christianity
and Positive Psychology share the critique of hedonism and defend the merits
of a philanthropic attitude.29 Finally, the supporters of continuity tend to assimilate the benefits of optimism with the theological virtue of hope.30
But Gillespie suggests that there is a risk of conflation: a danger of distinct items from science and religion being used in such a way that their definitions collapse so that their differences are confused and lost.31 Philanthropy
and charity can seem, to an external and superficial observer, similar concepts.
However, their motivational system is quite different. And, with time, also are
the forms of action generated by each one. The use of an innovative mental
framework to express Christian salvation has its risks. However, like the authors of the NT, it should be attempted, without prejudices about the images
that are used to express the mystery. However, the normative narrative of
Christian identity must be respected.
There are four main theological objections to the use of Positive Psychology. First is the uncritical reproduction of the success models and notions of
quality of life dominant in contemporary western consumer culture. Although
it is true that it is possible to trace the genealogy of many contemporary values
to the Gospel, many others have nothing to do with Christianity. And this
lack of critical sense becomes an epistemological problem within the Positive
Psychology field. Many proponents of Positive Psychology limit themselves
to declare some attitudes as more positive than others without conducting an
anthropological and philosophical foundation for those choices. However, we
can acknowledge that such a foundation would always be difficult in the fragmented context of any postmodern axiology.
A second critique has connections to the first and comes from individualism. We have seen in chapter six (4.1.1) how, even when recognizing the
essential role of interpersonal relationships, the individual subject remains the
functional measure of all things. In a European context of Christian education,
29

Philanthropy is, in a Christian perspective, a very ambiguous concept.

Cf. ZAGANO Phyllis and GILLESPIE C. Kevin, Ignatian spirituality and positive
psychology, in The way, 45 (2006) 4, 41-58, for another possible comparison.
30

31
GILLESPIE C. Kevin, Patterns of conversations between catholicism and psychology in the United States, in The Catholic Social Science Review, 12 (2007), 173183, p. 180.

17

individualism is seen as a part of growing up. However, it is also a sustained


ideology. And it collides with the biblical God, who is relational and reveals
Himself as a Trinity. A God whose salvific project is, necessarily, social.
A third objection arises from the underlying Pelagian tendency. It is not
difficult to find a Christian theology that respects graces priority and, at the
same time, integrates the subjects freedom and responsibility, involves all human resources (that come always from the creative love of God) in a fully committed answer to Gods calling. In the Christian notion of salvation, there is
always a clear and dramatic awareness that self-salvation is not viable. However, some readings of Positive Psychology suggest that the subject can reform
his identity without recourse to Gods grace. Often, this Pelagian tendency is
more the result of the individualistic tendency than a conscious decision.
The fourth critique, theologically more damaging, comes from the irrelevance of Christ. If, as we have seen in the previous critique, the subject can
save himself (or, at least, try), Christ becomes useless. If any human experience is, potentially, a carrier of positive emotions and forces, the openness to
Christs paradox becomes very narrow.
a process of inculturation, it is expected to find difficulties such as the ones described in the last paragraphs. The shock waves that the reintroduction of Aristotles
philosophy caused in medieval Europe can be compared with these critiques. The ability of the critical dialogue developed by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas helped
to overcome the so-called incompatibilities between Christian faith and Aristotelism.
Similarly, we can aspire to dialogue and interpenetration whereby Christian faith is
expressed using the purified ideas of Positive Psychology in a new narrative, compatible with Christian soteriology.
In

We return now to the question of the theological quality of the anchorage


made in the Positive Psychology narrative. And we have detected some potential ambiguities. In a North American context, they can emerge as, using
the expression proposed by Smith, moralistic therapeutic deism.32 The respondents, in our sample, converge with the NSYR sample and share the ideology
of well-being. But the way they articulate their faith is entirely different. Bachland asks for a different interpretation of Smiths data and explains the reduction of God to a cosmic therapist as a restriction of the adolescence developmental process: It is, rather, a 21st-century American version of adolescent
faith, a limited but developmentally appropriate way of making meaning and
imagining God enroute to full, adult faith.33 Even if we do not pay attention
32

Cf. Chapter 2, 3.8.1.

33
BACHLAND Sarah Caffrey, Living God or cosmic therapist? Implications of the
national survey of youth and religion for christian religious education, in Religious education, 105 (2010) 2, 140-156, p. 143. The fact that the catechists sample (a sample

18

to the respondents lack of maturity, we observe that the structure of Trust


& Relational quality, its contents, its foundation and its processes of objectification, brings us closer to the image of God proposed by Jesus, in more ways
than we would think. Despite the potential limitations of the well-being and
Positive Psychology narratives, the respondents will to inculturate their faith
within the categories offered by Positive Psychology is very noticeable.
After the last pages discussing specific details of this representation, it is
time to take stock of what has been said. The way respondents categorise faith
and salvation contains some positive elements and some ambiguous ones.
In the positive list, we have the asymmetry in the relationship between
God and the believer. Using a vocabulary inspired by interpersonal relations
the respondents are able to drop the ideas of reciprocity and symmetry and assume that, in the relation between God and the believers, God has the priority.
The tension between personal and social salvation is less well resolved.
The words chosen suggests a more individualistic perspective. It is possible to
think in a way in which interpersonal attitudes are used to express the way
God relates to us, and from this we have the inspiration to imagine how our
relations with others should be. In chapter 5, 1.8 we have seen how the second
biggest group of attitudes towards faith has such characteristics. This individualistic bias derives from the anchorages used and is one of the theological
limitations of this representation.
Another problem is the loss of tension between salvation offered today
and in the eschatological horizon. God is presented as establishing a high quality relationship with believers, and this relation happens in the now. The possibility that this relation could become greater in eschatology is absent.
The creative tension between gift and task is also absent. That becomes
clear in the selective schematization (chapter 6, 3.2.1, Figure 76) where the
subject appears as a grateful receiver of Gods gifts. Where the responsibility
to answer with commitment and generosity is missing.
The tension between positive and negative is also absent and the rejection
of a hamartiocentric theology is very present. The God that appears relevant
in suffering and evil is not referred to.34 The theme of evil is excluded from this
representation.
made with adults) presents a similar representation (combining classes 1 and 5) seems
to deny this interpretation.
34
Some respondents make these references. But it can be demonstrated that such
references come from personal representations and not from the identified social representations.

19

1.1.3. Relations & Ritual


This third social representation of God shares with the former the perspective of relational quality but enriches it with attention to personal prayer
rituals and community liturgy. However, this is not only additional content.
Probably, the awareness of the importance of the liturgy and prayer, acts as a
qualifier of the contents associated with relationship quality.
Ritual is an expression that the respondents do not use and a term that,
in itself, has no significant theological consistency. We have used that expression as a common term for all prayer and celebratory practices the respondents
report associated with their faith in God.
It is an anthropological category with a scope larger than just the religious. But it frames quite adequately what Christians catalogue as prayer and
liturgy. Recent decades have produced a dense and fruitful scientific reflection
on the role of ritual in contemporary human societies. Ritual is approached
as a means to create and renew community, transform human identity, and
remake our most existential sense of being in the cosmos.35 Ritual should not
be understood as mere external expression, functional to the social needs of a
group. A deep understanding of ritual allows us to overcome the split between
belief and action and allows for the Trinitarian understanding of the liturgy36
to emerge enabling the believers to have access, in our times, to the dialogue
with the God that reveals Himself and that asks acceptance.
Formally, distinctions between liturgy and prayer persist. But, in the order
of faith, both practices are deeply intertwined.
Prayer and liturgy activate, in the believers space and time, Gods revealing dialogue: God takes the lead, communicates Himself to man and man
welcomes Him in faith. This revelation from God is no mere transmission of
ideas; it happens through words and deeds, through symbols and matters.
A orao a comunicao que Deus exerce ao dar-Se a todo o nosso ser em
todos os seus nveis de conscincia: biolgico/corporal, inteligvel ou racional,
tico ou moral, afectivo ou sensitivo, espiritual, brotando do centro da identidade pessoal.37

BELL Catherine, Ritual. Perspectives and dimensions, Oxford - New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 264.
35

36

Cf. CCC 1082-1083.

37
MESSIAS Teresa, A f como experincia existencial, in LOURENO Joo (org),
A f da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, 285-381, p. 334.

20

Christian ritual, liturgy and personal prayer, are distorted when seen as a
merely sociological process, as cultural inertia where subjects have little saying.38 More or less explicitly, Christian ritual gives body, in the concrete existence of the subjects, to the process of faith. Torevell says
it is the task of the liturgical Church to offer the embodied presence of the resurrected Christ to the world, a body once disfigured but
restored to glory, a body of beauty. Such a task demands an imaginative performance of ritual which encourages worshippers to see the self
and the world in a new Christological way, entailing the enactment of
a drama of beauty which enthrals and attracts.39
The old theological axiom lex orandi, lex credendi again finds all its meaning. It is much more than harmony between dogma and cult; it is a circular
process that leads the believer to delve more deeply into the mystery of the
God who reveals Himself. Referring to the sacraments, the Catechism says:
They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish,
strengthen, and express it. (CCC 1123). Faith believed is expressed through
rites and is reinforced. Liturgy and prayer have a strong effect on reinforcing
faith because it is here the community expresses and sets its ultimate identity
before God.
The symbolic strength of the ritual, the communitarian framework,40 acts
as a blocking force against the Promethean and narcissistic temptations of
making God in the image and likeness of the believing subject. One of the
challenges of contemporary sensitivity is the reduction of experience to consumption: o apelo experincia individual, como modo de afirmao livre
de si, lanado no registo crescente da quantidade, do culto da emoo e da
vertigem, da novidade e da originalidade.41 The openness of this third SR of

Cf. SCHILDERMAN Hans, Liturgical studies from a ritual studies perspective,


in SCHILDERMAN Hans (Edited by), Discourses in ritual studies, Leiden - Boston,
Brill, 2007, 3-34, pp. 28-31 on the need to use a plurality of levels in the empirical research on liturgy and rituals. The coexistence of micro, meso and macro levels respects
the experience and appropriation made by the subjects.
38

TOREVELL David, Liturgy and the beauty of the unknown. Another place, Aldershot - Burlington, Ashgate, 2007, p. 1
39

Even in individual prayer, there is always a social horizon in which the subject
appropriates contents and prayer models.
40

41
CORREIA Jos Frazo, A f como forma vital e forma expressiva da existncia
humana, p. 39.

21

God to an explicitly sacral and communitarian dimension allows counteracting this trend to some extent.42
The traditional expression effective signs of grace applied to the sacraments in our subjectivist context, helps us to understand how the ritual dimension of this SR enriches the quality of the faith experience. It opens life to the
normativity of revelation: Il sacramento diventa pertanto il momento di una
fede ritualizzata, che a sua volta ritualizza sia i momenti essenziali della vita
() sai le rinnovate scelte di una esistenza in Cristo.43 This liturgical tension
introduces an itinerant dimension that removes faith from the immediacy of
the moment (that quickly becomes consumerism). There is a before the ritual,
charged with the believers memory and the normative memory of revelation;
there is a during ritual, in which ritual language manifests itself and where
the believer opens himself to the power of revelation in act; and there is also
an after ritual, where believed and celebrated faith is challenged to confront
everyday life.
The presence of this ritual sensibility in the process of building the image
of God brings the added advantage of reducing the tension between credo and
credimus. Liturgical action cannot be reduced to the particular purposes of individual subjects. Liturgy is always an ecclesial experience. In this perspective,
personal prayer is more prone to subjectivism. But it is possible to underline
the social weight, the learned aspect, of personal prayer practices (contents,
materials, procedures, conformation with a social representation of prayer).44
This social dimension of ritual does not convert the individuals into passive
Obviously, the concrete experience of prayer and liturgy can also be infected
by the double Prometaic or narcisistic alienation. It would be necessary to investigate
the real configurations that these adolescents rituals assume. But stands on its own the
notion that lex orandi carries with it a strong centrifugal component, that promotes
the openness to the real God, freeing Him from subjectivism.
42

SODI Manlio, La dimensione liturgica della pastorale nella vita della comunit
cristiana, in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et al. (Coordinatori dellopera), Pastorale
Giovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed esperienze, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 123-142, p.135.
43

44
It is always possible to interpret this attention to ritual as a vestige of Trents
pastoral model, supported by a decaying social configuration. But is also possible to
do the opposite interpretation: the option to connect cult and faith as an experience of
innovation. Grace Davies talked about believing without belonging. Hervieu-Lger
talks about dcouplage de la croyance et de la pratique and dsembotement de la
croyance, de lappartenance et de la rfrence identitaire. This phenomenon of ritual
crisis has been detected many years ago. What can be new it the adolescents option
(and it is always an option and not some kind of social automatism) to recover the
bridges between belonging, ritual practice and faith. And this option should be hailed
and recognized as relevant.

22

recipients of the celebration. The ecclesial dimension of ritual is larger than


the individual-collective distinction. DeJong invites to understand actuosa participatio as an action performed by all, which could not be performed by any
of the participants individually. To perform a collective activity they must
cooperate and coordinate their activities with a view to a common goal that
they can only achieve as a group and from which their individual contributions
derive.45
Another merit of this representation is the reduction of the distance between fides qua and fides quae. Prayer and liturgy are always bearers of contents. And by the nature of ritual, those contents cannot be reduced to cognition; the believing subject forms a relation with the ritualized God.
1.1.4. The otherness of God
We can only think about God using human languages, experiences and
images. All of the salvation economy is based on Gods effort in revealing
Himself in such a way that we can know Him faithfully, without voiding our
humanity. However, the task of thinking and saying God with radically inadequate communicative instruments faces the risk of being radically distorted.
There is always the possibility that our efforts to build/appropriate the image
of God are too conditioned by our prejudices.46 The distinction between faith
inculturation and idolatry is not always easy.
This fourth representation, underlining Gods otherness, counteracts this
risk. God is different from us. This statement can seem banal, obvious, and
tautological. However, in our cultural context, hostage to expressive individualism, to state the otherness of God, that there is a substantial difference
between God and man, is a fact worth noting. Be it a remnant of a decadent
social system or being the result of an option alternative to the mainstream,
this SR must be carefully studied.
The primacy of authenticity, the growing support of expressive individualism, had a deep impact upon the way people and groups, in western culture,
frame the question of God. The direct effect of this expressive individualism in the spiritual and religious sphere is to call into question, in the eyes of
JONG Aad de, Liturgical action from a language perspective: about performance
and performatives in liturgy, in SCHILDERMAN Hans (Edited by), Discourses in
ritual studies, Leiden - Boston, Brill, 2007, 111-146, pp. 115-116.
45

46
Sesboe identifies the risk of silence and of denial about the possibility of a discourse about God. But seems to forget the risk of idolatry. Cf. SESBO Bernard,
Creer. Invitacin a la fe catlica para las mujeres y los hombres del siglo XXI, pp. 71-83.

23

the believers themselves, the institutions claim to bear witness to the true
faith.47 This logic of expressive individualism encourages everyone to do
their own thing. Applied to the image of God, this leads to inversions of the
Genesis narrative: And man made god in his image, after his likeness.48
This ideological framework worked towards the explosion of Spirituality.49 This concept is highly fluid and difficult to define. Spirituality ()
can easily be understood to refer to whatever inspires someone the vision of
reality from which they derive their zest for life, their sense of meaning and
purpose, their basic worldview and fundamental values.50 The ethic of authenticity, combined with the principle of originality, leads to openness to the
spiritual, to the soul, to the core identity of the person. But this attention of
the subject about himself and his own quality of life, tends to reject all traditions and structures capable, even remotely, of controlling the autonomy.51 In
this spiritual sensitivity, there is no space for a normative revelation, external
to the subject and his momentary needs.
This relativism of individualistic matrix is added to all the other problems, or difficulties, the 20th century had with formulating a discourse about
God. The critiques of the multiple atheisms forced a retraction of the discourse
about God. Even inside the theology and not only in the pastoral action of
the Church, it was no longer possible to talk as strongly about God as before. The usual masters of suspicion and the semantic atheism of the Vienna
HERVIEU-LGER Danile, In search of certainties: the paradoxes of religiosity
in societies of high modernity, in The Hegdehog Review. Critical reflections on contemporary culture, 8 (2006) 1-2, 59-68, p. 60.
47

It became a classic the reference to sheilanism. Bellah reported the case of Sheila Larson, that overcoming the weight of an oppressive family, affirms her individuality, defining her religion as sheilanism, the experience that she makes of the divine,
where she (Sheila) is the source of all normativity.
48

Cf. the debate between Voas & Bruce and Heelas about the real numbers on
spirituality. VOAS David and BRUCE Steve, The spiritual revolution: another false
dawn for the sacred, in FLANAGAN Kieran and JUPP Peter C. (Edited by), A sociology of spirituality, Surrey, Ashgate, 2007, 43-62. HEELAS Paul, Challenging secularization theory: the growth of new age spiritualities of life.
49

MASON Michael, The spirituality of young australians, in COLLINS-MAYO


Sylvia and DANDELION Pink (Edited by), Religion and Youth, Surrey, Ashgate,
2010, 55-62, p. 56.
50

51
Cf. SOINTU Eeva and WOODHEAD Linda, Spirituality, gender and expressive
selfhood, in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47 (2008) 2, 259-276. The
authors start with Taylors concept of expressive individualism but try to go further in
order to determine how this cultural trend is differentiated by gender.

24

Circle forced the resizing of the act of speaking about God both in terms of
content and in terms of communicative placement. It was no longer possible
to propose an image of God subject to the criticism of being socially alienating
(Marx), of being an authoritarian and paternalistic projection (Freud), or of
being a God that restrains the better part of our human condition (Nietzsche).
These critiques were accepted by the Church and theology, not as merely tactical management but as an appeal to the purification of faith and to a return
to revelation sources.
The sharp conflicts between theism and atheism, so typical of the cultural climate of modernity, have led, in this postmodern context, to the desire
to talk about negative theology. This interest in apophatic theology helps us
overcome a double parasitism. Some forms of atheism are obsessed in denying certain caricatures of God, and a theodicy has developed to counter those
forms of atheism. However, both attitudes bring little of use to the debate and
quest for truth.
Beyond the classical references to Pseudo-Dionysius or Eckhart, we find
that even Thomas Aquinas has a more humble and modest discourse than
we could imagine possible.52 Aquinas is quite aware of our limitations when
talking about God. We cannot say what God is, but merely what He is not. The
proofs of Gods existence do not bring understanding about God; the proof is
just the proof of the existence of a mystery. However, this does not condemn
us to aphasia. Thomas defends that we can talk about God in a non-contradictory way, even when we do not grasp the full extent of the words we are
using about Him and assume all language used to describe Him as provisional.
Being aware of the limitations of language, of the constant demand to
fight idolatry that leads us to identify our image of God with the truth of God,
theology and recent magisterium state the radical compatibility between man,
capax Dei, and Gods will to self-communicate throughout history. And thus
is recovered the centrality of revelations documents. It is the Word of God
that makes it rightfully possible, to know and say something meaningful about
God. Recognizing that revelation happens through human words, categories
and contexts, theological reflection states its truth. Revelation as is is capable of telling us something meaningful about Gods reality.
The fourth SR of God assumes this, recognizing that the Word of God
is capable of offering access to the truth of God. Inspired by a biblical background or by the catechetical language, respondents sharing this representa52
Cf. McCABE Herbert, Aquinas on the Trinity, in DAVIES Oliver and TURNER
Denys (Edited by), Silence and the word. Negative theology and incarnation, Cambridge - New York, Cambridge University Press, 2004, 76-93.

25

tion, state that God can be known through revelations sources and that there
are normative contents of faith. The God that reveals Himself is more relevant
than the task of building an image of God by the recipient.
God is described with some attributes specific to the divinity. He is omnipotent, powerful, infinite, glorious, mysterious, and invisible. He is the creator.
These notions have a biblical origin but are quite widely known as possible attributes of an abstract idea of divine (not necessarily associated with Judaeo-Christian theology). But God is also the saviour, kind, patient, compassionate, faithful And these characteristics are much more connected to a biblical idea of
God. These two groups of attributes point to a convergence of fides qua and
fides quae: the image of God has clear attributes and, at the same time, there is
awareness that this God wants to get in relation with us. God is seen as other;
but, at the same time, He is also a near God. This apparent contradiction finds
in Jesus of Nazareth a solution. Even if respondents do not make explicit reference to Jesus in this representation, a legit hypothesis can be put forward: The
life of Jesus of Nazareth emerges as the normative source from which respondents inspired themselves in order to build their own image of God.
1.2. Believing in Jesus
The sixties and the seventies popularized the phrase Christ, yes; Church,
no; God, maybe. The phrase became popular in the climate of crisis and was
supported by the ideas of counter-culture.53 It expressed a certain attitude and
a certain theology. Independently of its theological merits (few), it eventually became a sociological failure. Moreover, the resurgence of strong ecclesial religious expressions seems to be a yes to Church. High percentages of
the population still believe in God. However, Christ, who had such approval,
seems to be in a serious crisis. The idea that someone (even Jesus) can become
a normative instance of faith and humanity is not capable of oppose radical
individualism. But, beyond these ironies, how and in what Jesus Christ do the
respondents believe?
1.2.1 The Christological titles
The first representation of Jesus characterizes Jesus from His identity, using titles. In this representation, Jesus is described by who He is and by what
He does. These descriptions base themselves on ideas commonly found in the

53
Pop culture (JesusChrist superstar, Godspell) seemed to endorse the figure of
Jesus Christ. Or, at least, of certain aspects of Jesus biography.

26

Bible and theological discourse, but sometimes also use more contemporary
categories.
This approach is the most common in the Churchs Christological discourse. Remembering who Jesus was and what He did is the strategy used by
most of the NT writers.
Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, the Holy
one and the Lord. All these titles have an OT origin. That does not mean that
they are, somehow, out of date, or that they are destitute of Christological
relevance as the OT theological themes themselves have very fluid meanings,
according to the different times and contexts. When the first Christian communities applied them to Jesus, they went through a radical reinterpretation.
Moreover, Jesus Himself was the one to begin using OT categories.
How should we interpret the titles of Jesus in the NT? There is an evolutionary interpretation that presents Christological developments as a logically
backward process. And according to this line of thought, the most primitive
Christology was centred in the parousia and, as needs arose, Christology shifted its centre. Initially towards resurrection, and later to Jesus baptism and His
conception (with genealogies starting with Abraham or Adam); the process
reaches its peak with Johns prologue, where Jesus is presented as pre-existing
creation.54 An alternative to this linear model is multi-local. It defends that different communities (different because of geography and cultural background)
developed, independently, different Christological perspectives.
Recently, another perspective has gained some notoriety. It connects
Christological development to the prayer and salvation experiences of the first
communities. Starting with the Pascal event of Jesus, the first Christians had
an intense salvific experience. It is in function of the communicative use (ad
intra and ad extra) of the reflection made in that context that the first communities elaborate, with the available theological and cultural categories, their
Christological synthesis. Larry Hurtado is one of the main proponents of this
line of thought: I have argued that the devotional practice of early Christians
is the crucial context for assessing the meaning of their verbal expressions of
beliefs about Christ.55
Cf. BROWN Raymond E., The birth of the Messiah. A commentary on the infancy narratives in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, New York, Doubleday, 1993,
pp. 29-32.
54

55
HURTADO Larry W., At the origins of christian worship. The context and character of earliest christian devotion, Grand Rapids - Cambridge, William B. Eerdmans,
1999, p. 2. Cf. also HURTADO Larry W., How on Earth did Jesus become a God?
Historical questions about earliest devotion to Jesus, Grand Rapids - Cambridge,

27

In this perspective, the understanding of the titles that the NT applies to


Jesus is not achieved by determining their original veterotestamentary meaning and transferring it to Jesus. Neither is a question of accepting or rejecting
the use of Hellenist cultural categories. Soteriology precedes Christology. First
Christian communities had an intense experience of Jesus, which they felt as
deeply transformative. From there, they used the available categories, changing their original meanings and recombining different narrative, in order to
create a discourse coherent with the soteriological core that defined their identity.56 A discourse with two audiences: the in-group (to reinforce the identity)
and the out-group (evangelization efforts).
This debate of ideas helps to understand the history of Christological ideas
that only in the fourth and fifth centuries councils found some stability. However, this does not mean that when respondents use the same terms that Christian tradition has used and consolidated, they are assuming the same Christology. What is the meaning attributed by the respondents to those expressions
of biblical origin? The answer is not easy because often the respondents do not
explicitly explain the meaning given to the words. They just use the words.
To assume, without added caution, that they are using the biblical vocabulary
with the same meaning as biblical theology, would be naive.
All those titles have a strong theological connotation and in the context in
which we are working, they are not applicable to anybody else but Jesus. And
if they are applied to Jesus, it means that Jesus belongs to the divine sphere.
It is possible to do an orthodox reading of the use of these titles. The use
of this kind of technical vocabulary, so attached to official Church discourse,
would correspond to a vision where Jesus is in fact the only-begotten Son of
God, the redeemer of mankind, pre-existing since before creation. However, a
more vague interpretation is also possible, where the use of these words is just
a device useful to give Jesus a religious connotation, to place Him in relation
with God. But in a relation very undetermined in its contours.
Jesus receives other titles inspired by contemporary relational sensitivity. Jesus is brother, friend, compassionate, present and available. That
makes Him a nice figure, admired, ethically attractive. But assimilates Him to
a prophet, as another one of Gods messengers. And a doubt about the proper
William B. Eerdmans, 2005, pp. 13-29. For a critical view on Hurtados work, cf.
FLETCHER-LOUIS Crispin, A new explanation of christological origins. A review of
the work of Larry W. Hurtado, in Tyndale Bulletin, 60 (2009), 161-205.
56
Cf. TALBERT Charles H., The development of christology during the first hundred years. And other essays on early christian christology, Leiden - Boston, Brill,
2011, p. 3-42.

28

interpretation of these statements persists. If we opt for a higher Christology, these titles show Jesus proximity towards our humanity. But in a lower
Christology, they just create a friendly prophet.57
This representation also includes some references to Jesus actions. Mainly
related to the Easter mysteries and, in a lesser degree, His birth. These narratives give substance to the idea of Jesus as saviour. This attention to history
prevents the creation of a Jesus outside time, a Jesus reduced to just a concept
or metaphor.
It is tempting to apply this data to the radical questions of every Christology: what position does it take on the adoptionism-docetism axis? How
does Christ activate His salvation in favour of mankind? It is not easy to give
a precise answer. Not only because of the difficulties in interpreting the data,
but possibly, because of an ambiguity sought by the respondents. Carefully
reading the answers they gave, we get the feeling that they are familiar with
classic Christological formulations, and that there is a certain acceptance of
the central role of Christ in salvation history. But, at the same time, there is a
lot of hesitations and indecisions about the role of Christ.
1.2.2. I like Jesus
This second representation is made of positive feelings and attitudes towards Jesus. It is structurally similar to the representation Trust & Relational
Quality (applied to God), as both present a believer in a strong relationship
with God/Jesus. We can apply here all that we have seen previously in the use
of the relational quality narrative. But, in this case, the object of the relation
is Jesus.
Faith in Jesus is expressed with a very rich set of affectionate expressions.
We have here a real relationship and not only a state of mind. Some of these
expressions are feelings (residents in the subject) but another part is made of
manifestations of interpersonal relationships.
This representation of Jesus is more oriented towards faith as a relationship, and the idea of faith as content is almost absent. This disbalance can
be interpreted in two different ways. The first interpretation is more critical
and underlines the risk of individualism: El acto de fe definido exclusivamente como fides qua, como mero acto de un sujeto solo tiene relacin con la
57
The use of the categories of high and low Christologies is just functional in
order to summarize very complex models. It is important to not identify high and low
Christologies with Christologies from above and from below. Cf. OCOLLINS Gerald, Christology. A biblical, historical and systematic study of Jesus, p. 17.

29

conciencia individual, y no con un testimonio exterior o una revelacin que


acontezca fuera de la prpria interioridade.58 Faith is no longer the human
response to the dialogue started by God and becomes a mere manifestation of
the sovereign autonomy of the subject. The absence (or, at least, the lack of
explicit presence) of contents can give rise to a kind of faith held hostage by
personal emotions. A faith that becomes a psychological projection and not a
theologal experience.
A second interpretation, more benign, underlines the necessary link between fides qua and fides quae. Even if the manifestations of fides qua are
more visible, this interpretation anticipates that the contents of faith are intrinsically associated. An example of this more optimistic interpretation can
be found in EG 124: Nor is it devoid of content; rather it discovers and expresses that content more by way of symbols than by discursive reasoning, and
in the act of faith greater accent is placed on credere in Deum than on credere
Deum.59 The absence of explicit references to the contents of faith should not
be understood as emptiness of contents; it would be important to detect the
latent contents in the symbolic and ritual forms.
To make the theological interpretation of this representation even more
difficult, some theologians note that the deeply individualistic context in which
we live shifts the debate about the articulation between fides qua and fides
quae towards the debate credo-credimus. The accentuation placed in fides qua
becomes equivalent to a rejection of credimus, of the ecclesial dimension of
faith experience. Contemporary theological synthesis has insisted, on the contrary, in the inseparability of the personal and ecclesial aspects of faith. The
believed faith (fides quae) is the ecclesial faith; but also the relation between
the believing subject and God (fides qua) is personal and ecclesial.60
Faith has an irreducibly objective dimension: it must be faith in Jesus. But
Jesus can only be found in the subjective experience of the believer. The believers subjectivity becomes the necessary place where Jesus truth happens and
can be found. This is especially true when Jesus truth is a saving truth; if the
believer is not personally involved in the salvation offered by Jesus, there is no
true faith. As Terra says
IZQUIERDO Csar, Fides qua - Fides quae, la permanente circumincesin, in
Teologia y Catequesis, 125 (2013), 57-77, p. 64.
58

Meaningly, this description is applied, originally, to popular religiosity, to


non-literary appropriation of faith. A context similar to the one we are investigating.
59

60
Cf. SARTORI Luigi, Fides qua - Fides quae, in Studia patavina, 49 (2002) 1,
109-112.

30

Se o crer a experincia de Deus que se comunica, no se pode


separar nele acto e contedo. A expresso fazer a experincia de sugere precisamente a ligao ntima entre estas duas dimenses. Significa
que h actividade a respeito de qualquer coisa. Costumamos distinguir entre f-contedo (fides quae) e f-acto (fides qua) por comodidade didctica. Mas a vida crente no existe sob a forma de uma s
destas dimenses.61
A healthy theology insists on the necessary nexus between content and the
act of faith. How, then, can we interpret this lack of equilibrium between fides
qua and fides quae, the (explicit) absence of content in this representation?
It is highly unlikely that the respondents are professing a radically subjective faith, devoid of content. A radically subjective configuration of the faith
always leads, one way or another, to the subjects centrality, and there is no
openness to the divine Other. In this representation, we have a strong affective
and relational tension towards Jesus. The produced texts are not explicit about
the Jesus they are talking about, but that Jesus must have a face; otherwise he
would not be so attractive.
The wisest option would be to consider that the respondents use a narrative that strongly values the well-being and relational quality as the foundation
of their faith, and they express their relation towards Jesus according to those
categories. To describe their relation with Jesus, they use profane words
that can also be used in other areas and situations. But Jesus emerges without
competition as the recipient of those words.
This makes Jesus unique. And this would be another situation where
Christology is sequential to soteriology. Jesus offers a salvation experience
that makes Him important in the subjects life. We can interpret that the contents assigned to Jesus are reflecting His unique and distinctive character, even
if that is not explicitly stated in the respondents texts.
1.2.3. Jesus attitudes
A third representation of Jesus is focused on His actions and attitudes. In
the Christological titles, we have already found some references to Jesus
actions, concentrated mainly in the Easter cycle. More than with isolated acts
or a collection of mysteries, respondents represent Jesus with His attitudes. All
of the attitudes have in common being in favour of the others. There are some
terms with a strong theological connotation (sacrifice, salvation, passion),
but the majority uses more contemporary language.
61
TERRA Domingos, Discernir o crer cristo, in Didaskalia, XXXVII (2007) 2,
47-68, p. 62.

31

In 20th century Christology there is a strain between ontological (or essential) Christologies and functional ones.62 An ontological Christology is
concerned with Jesus ultimate identity; a functional Christology pays more
attention to His redeeming action. CCC proposes an integrative synthesis. As
Caviglia says risultano cos saldate assieme cristologia (aspetto ontologico
o essenziale) e soteriologia (aspetto funzionale), per cui non si pu dare una
cristologia senza una soteriologia, n esserci una soteriologia senza una cristologia.63 So, somehow, the list of attitudes attributed to Jesus in this representation expresses well the balance between identity and salvific action in Jesus:
behind the identified attitudes is a Jesus with a well-defined face, expressing
Himself in gestures and attitudes that will benefit others.
This representation resumes the image of the historical Jesus. These attitudes are a summary of the canonical narratives, even if they are interpreted
and filtered according to the contemporary sensibility. The relation between
the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith has generated, throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries, heated debates.64 Kasper made a triptych of theological demands that should be respected in order to articulate faith in the history about
Jesus. The first is the rejection of the idea of myth; Christ and His history are not
a mythical narrative, located in a cycle of eternal return. Jesus existed in very
precise spatial and temporal coordinates, and Jesus introduced in the course of
human history a turning point. The second is the rejection of Docetism. The
revelation of the Word and His salvation happen in the flesh, in the concrete
of the human condition and this leads to a strong identification between the
pre-existing and exalted Christ and the humble carpenter from Nazareth. The
third is the fact that the constant reference to the historical Christ offers a filter
against the enthusiastic projections of the believers. Ultimately, it is a question of the rejection of enthusiasm and a purely contemporary understanding
of salvation. The reference is to the extra nos of salvation as the presumption
of faith. A faith which refers only to the kerygma, becomes, in the end, faith
in the Church as bearer of the kerygma.65
Cf. HURTADO Manuel, Novas cristologias; ontem e hoje. Algumas tarefas da
cristologia contempornea, in Perspectivas Teolgicas, 40 (2008), 315-341.
62

CAVIGLIA Giuseppe, Credo in Ges Cristo, il figlio di Dio: CCC 422-682, in


AMATO Angelo, COVOLO Enrico dal and TRIACCA Achille M. (a cura di), La catechesi al traguardo, Roma, Las, 1997, 247-265, p. 249.
63

Cf. DUNN James D. G., Jesus remembered, Grand Rapids - Cambridge, Eerdmans, 2003, pp. 25-238 for a very systematic presentation of the state of the art on
this topic.
64

65

32

KASPER Walter, Jesus the Christ, p. 22.

Apparently, the data from this representation points to the historical action of Jesus Christ. There are no vestiges of the debate on the historicity of
the gospel narratives, or of demythologizing the scriptures or any of the other
strong tensions affecting theology. Should we conclude, hastily, that this representation is rooted in the canonical narratives? Is it not possible that there is
a projection in Jesus of contemporary ethical ideals? To settle the question it
would be important to clarify what made Jesus action.
Historically, it is quite safe to say that Jesus praxis is strongly committed
with the proclamation of the Kingdom. The centrality of the kingdom of
God (basileia tou theou) in Jesus preaching is one of the least disputable, or
disputed, facts about Jesus.66 With this term, Jesus expressed a time and a
place where Gods salvation plan would become victorious. The expression
kingdom of God was a form of talking of God as Lord of the world and
Gods decisive, climactic intervention to liberate sinful and suffering men and
women from the grip of evil and give them a new and final age of salvation.67
Through parables, miracles and the communicative style that Jesus embodied,
we detect that in the person and presence of Jesus, Gods sovereignty was in
action. Using the kingdom category, like the Synoptics, or other categories, all
the NT identifies Jesus action as a saving action.
This saving action of Jesus is structured in order to counter the specific
configuration that evil assumes. Evil, the denial of Gods project, can take the
shape of alienation: alienation towards oneself, towards others, towards the
world, or towards God. It can take the form of death, or of denial of the possibility and the quality of a truly human life. It can take the form of the loss
of meaning and truth. All these experiences can be expressed as sin. Jesus
action consists in fighting sin and evil. His salvation takes the shape of love
offered in the name of God, which returns us value and identity. It is a victory against the strength of death acting in the world. It is a full truth and full
meaning, offered as a credible alternative to an absurd existence.
It is important to underline the notion that the salvation offered by Jesus
in the name of God is totalizing. It is a project that must be activated right
now in the history even if its resolution has an eschatological horizon. It is
personal but also social and affects the most intimate and spiritual dimensions
of persons and groups, but also the economy, politics, power and wealth dis-

66

DUNN James D. G., Jesus remembered, p. 383.

67
OCOLLINS Gerald, Christology. A biblical, historical and systematic study of
Jesus, p. 55.

33

tribution, and freedom.68 It is the salvation that introduces into the Trinitarian
life while at the same time touching all dimensions of everyday life. It is, in
Jesus and in those that welcome Him, a line of continuity between the love
received from the Father and the human experiences further removed from the
creative and redemptive projects of God.
The list of attitudes that the respondents have made to describe Jesus
echoes some of the characteristics of the salvation that Jesus offers, in Gods
name, to mankind. Jesus is seen as a source of quality of life in His public
ministry and His passion. The attitudes assumed by Jesus are compatible with
the existential and personal sensibility. Jesus saving action works in favour
of those in need of a new quality in their relationships and a more substantial
meaning for their lives.
But the social and political dimensions are missing; the economy, youth
culture and abuse cases, have no references. The explicit continuity that Jesus
affirms between His filial relation to the Father and His service to his brothers
is also absent.
1.3. Spirit representations
In theology and also in the discourse of the church, it has become a commonplace to talk about the neglect (substantive or relative) of the Holy Spirit
in the Western Church. Obviously the magisterium has not abandoned the
dogmatic formulations elaborated during the first four councils. But in spiritual life, the Spirit has been effectively sidelined. He has become, for many
believers, a personification of grace and is no longer a divine person.69

Cf. GALLO Luis A. and MIRANDA ngel, Para que tenham vida. O projecto de
Jesus de Nazar, pp. 13-40.
68

69
Some authors prefer to use the category of pneumatological deficit instead of
forgetfulness of the Spirit. The serious problem we are facing is not the mathematical decrease of references to the Holy Spirit. The issue is the integrity of the theological
vision. A theological text or a faith existence can have a superabundance of references
to the Spirit and still have a serious pneumatogical deficit because the Spirit is not fully
or properly integrated with the theological vision. Cf. HILBERATH BERND Jochen,
Identity through self-transcendence: the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of free persons,
in HINZE Bradford E. and DABNEY D. Lyle (Edited by), Advents of the Spirit. An
introduction to the current study of pneumatology, Milwaukee, Marquette University
Press, 2001, 265-294, pp. 265-268; McDONNEL Kilian, A response to Bernd Jochen
Hilberath, in HINZE Bradford E. and DABNEY D. Lyle (Edited by), Advents of the
Spirit. An introduction to the current study of pneumatology, Milwaukee, Marquette
University Press, 2001, 295-301, p. 295.

34

The comparison between todays situation and the situation in Ephesus,


described in Acts 19, is also common.70 Like them, there is a great difficulty in
answering some obvious questions: is it the Spirit really acting in our lives?
Who is the Holy Spirit? What does He do?
Some of this difficulty in coping with the Holy Spirit is born from the
Scripture. In both Testaments, the Spirit is represented with objective metaphors: wind, breath of life, water, light, fire, dove, cloud, gift71 It is a power
(dynamis) the Father grants the Son for His action. All this makes it difficult to
see the Spirit as a real person. It is true that the tendency to personalize the
Spirit can already be found in the Old Testament (Wisdom), but the fact that
the Spirit is faceless, makes it difficult to see Him as a person.
A second difficulty is born from the unpredictability of charismatic experiences. Throughout history, there has been a constant risk of legitimizing
intuitions and experiences outside of faith by invoking the Holy Spirit.72
A third difficulty that arises with the Holy Spirit is His ecclesial reception
and some theological currents. The difficulties in placing the Father and the
Son at the same level (subordinationism) also extends to the Spirit: los debates en torno a la divinidad del Hijo tendrn un efecto de rebote sobre el
Espritu Santo.73 The Spirit was seen as a mere activity of God and not as
a substantial and personal reality.74 In fact, Scripture itself presents both the
Spirit as a gift from God and as a mode of Gods being. The teachings of the
first councils tried to extend to the Spirit the homoousious and to maintain the
Cf. COFFEY David, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Some
basic questions for pneumatology, Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 2005, 7.
70

Only the notion of the Spirit as paraclete, as a defender character, escapes this
tendency. But, in contemporary Portuguese culture, the expression parclito is inevitably esoteric. Cf. LEVISON John R., The pluriform foundation of christian pneumatology, in HINZE Bradford E. and DABNEY D. Lyle (Edited by), Advents of the
Spirit. An introduction to the current study of pneumatology, Milwaukee, Marquette
University Press, 2001, 66-85.
71

Cf. TABBERNEE William, Will the real Paraclete please speak forth!: the
catholic-montanist conflict over pneumatology, in HINZE Bradford E. and DABNEY
D. Lyle (Edited by), Advents of the Spirit. An introduction to the current study of
pneumatology, Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 2001, 97-118.
72

SESBO Bernard, Creer. Invitacin a la fe catlica para las mujeres y los hombres del siglo XXI, p. 454.
73

74
Cf. RADDE-GALWITZ Andrew, The Holy Spirit as Agent, not Activity: Origens Argument with Modalism and its Afterlife in Didymus, Eunomius, and Gregory
of Nazianzus, in Vigiliae Christianae, 65 (2011), 227-248.

35

oneness of God, and the real distinction between the Father, the Son and the
Spirit and the monarchy of the Father. In Patristics, there is a strong continuity
defending that the Spirit is a divine person, closely associated with the Father
and the Son and not just a divine gift or manifestation of His power.75
Some interpreters believe that the relative neglect of the Spirit in the West
came from Augustines Trinitarian theology. Interpreting the Spirit as reciprocal love between the Father and the Son, the Spirit loses his personal character
in the believers perception.76
Another group of authors link the neglect of the Holy Spirits theology to
the use of the filioque in the creed.77
Independent of the exact causes, data from our research, confirms the
forgetfulness of the Spirit in the respondents representations (and even in the
catechists). There are quantitative indicators that prove it: systematically, the
amount of produced answers was smaller about the Holy Spirit. To the point
of making problematic, to those that rarely attended catechesis (cluster 3), the
identification of consistent social representations. But we also have qualitative
indicators: the quality and depth of the answers is quite weak.
However, it is also true that the last decades have witnessed a recovery of
the Holy Spirit. Three things can explain this recovery. The first is the growth
of Christian projects that strongly underline the role of pneumatology.78 A
second cause is the pastoral and theological conversion of the churches; who
are recognising the theological weaknesses that the obscuring of the Spirit
brought.79 The third cause is the cultural shift in the West, which brought
Cf. van OORT Johannes, The Holy Spirit and the early church: doctrine & confession, in HTS Theological Studies, 67 (2011) 3. The author defends also the role of
the early creeds. Both in the East and in the West, they had a three part structure and
suggested a Trinitarian confession.
75

76

Cf. KASPER Walter, El Dios de Jesucristo, p. 249.

Cf. CROSS F. L. and LIVINGSTONE E. A., Filioque, in CROSS F. L. and LIVINGSTONE E. A. (Edited by), The Oxford dictionary of the christian church, Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 2005, 614-615. SIECIENSKI A. Edward, The filioque. History of a doctrinal controversy, Oxford - New York, Oxford University Press, 2010
opposes such thesis.
77

McDONNEL Kilian, A response to Bernd Jochen Hilberath refers especially to


the charismatic movement and the American Pentecostalism. And it is important to
remember David Martin and the attention to the Pentecostal sensibility in the global
South.
78

79
In catholic tradition, the role of Congar was decisive. Cf. GROPPE Elizabeth Teresa, Yves Congars theology of the Holy Spirit, New York, Oxford University Press,

36

a strong sensitivity to the spiritual dimension.80 The postmodern worldview


overcomes the raw materialism of the enlightenment and demands a more
spiritual standpoint. God might be dead, but the demand for a spiritual source
of meaning and healing is very present.
It is not possible to confirm if the respondents of this research are experiencing this because we have no point of reference to the past. However,
the low quality of the collected data suggests that such recovery has not yet
occurred.
1.3.1. Peace & Love
This representation results from the convergence of a series of positive
feelings and manifestations of quality in interpersonal relations. It is a collection of terms quite similar to the paradigm of positive psychology. Is the fact
that these terms occur in connection with the Spirit mere chance or has it some
sort of theological merit?
The Augustinian thematization of the Trinity as love (the lover, the loved
and the love) is still a very strong trend in theology.81 Its intersection with
existential-personal sensitivity has become very popular in recent decades. The
Spirit appears as the personification of the love between the Father and the
Son and it is this Spirit, love personified, that is sent to man, to enable us to
enter into communion with God, for our salvation. The Spirit acts as a bond
of unity within the Trinity but also ad extra also ensuring such communion
with creation (CCC 703-704) and with salvations history (CCC 705-741).
The Spirit reveals Gods gift and eschatological love, definitively, in us and for
us, because He is, in Himself, love and a gift from God. He is not only a gift
from God; he is the giver of such gift. There is no split or discontinuity in the

2004. Krkknen talks about a pneumatological renaissance that can be seen in the appearance of several contextual pneumatologies (liberation, ecological, feminist, African). Cf. KRKINNEN Veli-Matti, Pneumatology: the Holy Spirit in ecumenical,
international and contextual perspective, Grand Rapids, Baker, 2002.
It is curious to detect in the text from Kasper (KASPER Walter, El Dios de Jesucristo, pp. 231-232; original from 1982) the opposite view: Las verdaderas dificultades de comprensin en el tema de la pneumatologia no se encuentran, sin embargo,
primariamente en la tradicin eclesial y teolgica, sino ms bien en la situacin espiritual de la poca y en su ausencia de espritu.
80

81
Cf. LADARIA Luis F., El Dios vivo y verdadero. El misterio de la Trinidad, Salamanca, Secretariado Trinitario, 2005, pp. 339-346, for a presentation of this notion
in the theological tradition.

37

Spirit, between being and action. He performs in a personal way what God is
in His essence.
El Espritu santo expresa, pues, la esencia ntima de Dios, el amor
autocomunicante, de forma que esa intimidad es a la vez lo ms manifiesto: la posibilidad y la realidad de la manifestacin o ser fuera-de-si
de Dios. El Espritu santo es en cierto modo el xtasis de Dios; es Dios
como superabundancia, Dios como efusin de amor y gracia.82
Just as there is continuity in the action of the Spirit ad intra and ad extra,
there is continuity present in the various modes of action of the Spirit. In creation, redemption or eschatology, the Spirit is always gift. The same Holy
Spirit of God who is given to believers in a wholly specific way, namely, so as
to dwell in them (Rom. 5:9; 1 Cor. 3:16), is none other than the Creator of
all life in the whole range of natural occurrence and also in the new creation
of the resurrection of the dead.83 The God in which we believe is not a God
closed in himself. The category of self-transcendence is adequate to describe
the Trinity who reveals itself in the Father who freely created the world, in
the Son who gives himself for the salvation of the world and in the Spirit who
gives space to creation to breathe freely. It is the self-transcendence of the Spirit creator that makes possible the self-transcendence of the human being. The
human self-transcendence is not a mere evolution strategy for survival; in the
light of faith, is an aspiration made possible by the Spirit. And the fact that we
are, by virtue of creation, called self-transcendent does not prevent us from being inconsistent, disloyal, and self-centred. The self-transcendence of the Spirit
in creation is not diminished by human freedom. Our experiences of service,
mutual trust and care for the others must not be seen as a mere psychological
attitude. These things have the hand of the Creator Spirit in their beginnings,
and they are very dense, in a theological sense. The Spirit is present and active
throughout the history of salvation, renewing mankind and enabling us to be
beings of communion and fellowship, leaving behind selfish narcissism.
The prophets who announced the sending of the Spirit (Ez 39, 29; Jl 3,
1-5) are not interested in ecstatic experiences, but instead in a profound transformation of the human heart. In the New Testament, Paul and John, although
using different vocabularies, converge on the idea that the self-transcendence
of God in His Spirit makes possible, whether for the subject or the community,
to transcend oneself and attain the fullness of life. The gospel consists in the
gift of the Spirit which permits that a new life, in accordance with the gift of
KASPER Walter, El Dios de Jesucristo, p. 260. This text is admittedly influenced
by von Balthasar and Congar.
82

83

38

Cf. PANNENBERG Wolfhart, Systematic Theology, pp. 1-12.

God, be possible and accessible. The tension between the life of the flesh and
life of the Spirit consists in remaining in a self-centred life, one of sin, or in
opening your life to the gift and the love, made possible by the presence of the
Spirit, who is the gift that empowers all gift. A life flowing from the Spirit of
God stands, then, in confrontation with biologically based and (perhaps to a
greater extent) culturally transmitted patterns of behaviour, which are often
labelled typically human and insuperable.84
By this logic, idea Peace & Love representation can be the carrier of
an interesting theological density. More than commonplaces or the search for
individual well-being, the idea of associating a harmonious life, peace, and
quality relationships with the Spirit could be quite sensible. These respondents
seem aware that the Spirit of God challenges to self-transcendence in order to
overcome the selfish behaviours that deny our condition of creatures made
through love and towards love. And it is the Spirit that is the possibility for
this new lifestyle.
It is important to underline the fact that this representation does not contain a consciousness of the role of the Spirit in relation to self-transcendence.
The respondents limited themselves to merely describing a set of attitudes.
This inarticulation of ideas can always be interpreted as a pneumatological
weakness, or a depersonalization of the Spirit in favour of a spiritual force,
or ethical values. alternatively, it could be interpreted in the opposite way:
despite the difficulties in articulating a pneumatology (that is spread through
all ecclesial structure), the respondents have the capacity to assume an essential
element of faith: the Spirit is real and perceptible through a series of attitudes
that typify a new existence.85
Even in this second interpretation, it is important to note that the auto
transcendence horizon associated with the Spirit is limited to inter-personal relations. It made a step in the right direction in order to overcome the association between the Spirit and intra-individual religious experience. However, the
absence of a social, economic, ecological and political impact, that an intense
awareness of the Spirit could have, remains absent.

HILBERATH BERND Jochen, Identity through self-transcendence: the Holy


Spirit and the fellowship of free persons, p. 275.
84

85
Cf. RABENS Volker, Power from in relation: the relational experience of the
Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts in Pauls churches, in MARSHALL Howard I, BENNEMA Cornelis and RABENS Volker (Editor), The Spirit and Christ in the New Testament and christian theology: essays in honour of Max Turner, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2012, 138-155.

39

Another difficulty in valorising this representation arises from the possible


overlap with representations of Jesus (specially I like Jesus) or with representations of God (Trust & Relational quality; Relations & Ritual). Does
the repetition of these attributes indicate that we are close to a modalist interpretation? In the Scriptures and in theological reflection, the action of the Son
and the action of the Spirit are intimately linked in the creation, eschatology
or in redemption,86 although this closeness does not nullify their distinction
(CCC 689-690). However, once again due to the low level of theological articulation used by the respondents, it is not easy to arrive at a definite interpretation. The most pessimistic interpretation tends to say that the presence of
representations containing similarities between the three persons of the Trinity
indicates a modalist monotheism which does not respect the otherness of the
Holy Spirit; a more benign interpretation would say that despite the fragility
of their theological and cognitive faculties, the respondents are anticipating
the communicatio idiomatum and intuitions underlying the doctrine of the
trinitarian perichoresis. 87
1.3.2. The Spirit and the Trinity
This second representation presents the Spirit in relation to the Father and
the Son. It is where we find the most explicit references to the doctrine of the
Trinity.
We know that, in the Scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity is not systematically elaborated. Bible talks about the faith in the one God who assumes a
human face in Jesus; it recognises that the Son is also divine and assumes that
the Spirit is a real presence that acted in the historical existence of believers.
Even the New Testament is extraordinarily plural in its formulations.88 But,
generally, there is a strong convergence of the double affirmation the Father,
the Son and the Spirit have some form of otherness between them, and at the
same time, share their Divine identity. In the middle of the plurality, there are
strong shared convictions about the difference and unity of the three divine

86

Cf. PANNENBERG Wolfhart, Systematic Theology, pp. 4-6.

Cf. MANASTIREANU Danut, Perichoresis and the early christian doctrine of


God, in Studia Archaeus , XI-XII (2007-2008), 61-93.
87

88
Levison, specially on the Holy Spirit: our comprehension of early Christian
pneumatology will be diminished if we fail to recognize the varieties of conceptions
which coalesced in first century writings. LEVISON John R., The pluriform foundation of christian pneumatology, p. 83.

40

persons: One does not baptize people in the name of a divine person, a holy
creature, and an impersonal divine force.89
Since early on, Trinitarian thought had to debate with two contradictory tendencies. Christian thinking cannot denounce monotheism, because of
the strong Jewish background and because of the strong Greek philosophical trends that ridiculed Greco-Roman polytheism. This absolute principle,
which Plato and Aristotle defended, had little to do with the God of Israel,
but, for the Christian communities of the first centuries, monotheism became
impossible to renounce. Hence, to avoid the danger of tritheism, they strongly
affirmed the unity of God. This unity of God can be sustained by reducing
the differences between the Father, Son and Spirit, who become represented
merely as different modes of the same unique divine being. This did not negate
the difference between the three divine persons, but, considering that the Son
and the Spirit cannot be God in the same way as the Father, a hierarchy was
introduced. So, inheriting this Greek idea of degradative emanation, the Son is
considered inferior to the Father, the Spirit inferior to the Son.
Despite the conceptual difficulties in dealing with these problems, the
church resisted the temptation to change its founding intuitions for easy adaptations to the dominant culture. The following text that the Eastern Bishops
wrote to Pope Damascus expresses the challenge in avoiding these risks.
La profesin de fe bautismal nos ensea a creer en una sola divinidad y potencia y esencia del Padre, del Hijo y del Espritu Santo,
en su igual honor y eterno poder real, en las tres hipstasis perfectas o
en tres personas perfectas. As no se da lugar a la peste de Sabelio, que
confunde las hipstasis y elimina las propiedades, y no se da fuerza a
la blasfemia de los eunomianos, arrianos y pneumatmacos, que divide a esencia, la naturaleza y la divinidad, e introduce en la Trinidad
increada, consustancial (homoousios) y coeterna una naturaleza posterior, creada o de outra esencia.90
The main worry of the theological debate over the Trinity was essentially
soteriological, () el qucio de la arguentacin patrstica es sempre el inters
soteriolgico. No se arguye en nombre de la correccin matafsica, sino en
nombre de la experiencia de Salud que define la fe y hermana a los creyentes
en la Iglesia.91
89

MEIER John P., Matthew, Collegeville, Liturgical Press, 1980, pp. 371-372.

According to the translation from LADARIA Luis F., El Dios vivo y verdadero.
El misterio de la Trinidad, pp. 232-233.
90

91
GONZLEZ FAUS Jos Ignacio, La humanidad nueva. Ensayo de cristologia,
p. 436.

41

More than just an odd question, understanding who God is and how
monotheism should be understood after the revelation of Jesus and the gift of
the Spirit, had a dramatic impact on our human condition. The intensity of the
debate was born of the conscience that the doctrinal error would take away
the possibility of a renewed existence. The doctrinal correction, orthodoxy, is
functional to salvation. This generated, on the churchs part, a great pastoral
effort to show orthodox Trinitarian formulations. This included the sign of
the cross, the greeting at the beginning of Mass, the gloria Patri, the gloria in
excelsis, and the creed. However, this ritual proliferation of Trinitarian formulations cannot necessarily be translated into a conscience of salvation and the
existential question of the Trinity.
The respondents who adhere to this representation limit themselves to
repeat a learned formula. They do not detect the impact of a Trinitarian faith.
Probably the adhesion to a formula, doctrinally correct, is understood as a
strange sort of arithmetic (accepted within a horizon of faith in which they
believe but badly understand).
This negative interpretation is founded on the absence of connections between the believer and the believed Trinity. The strict parallels between the
three divine persons ensure doctrinal correction, but it does not guarantee its
saving impact.
1.3.3. Pentecost & Church
This representation is relatively complex and includes biblical metaphors
that have become traditional within Christian discourse such as, the light, the
dove and the fire. The Pentecost, where the Spirit is manifested in the form of
tongues of fire, is also referred explicitly. However, the respondents did not
limit themselves to objectifying the Spirit; they associated the Spirit to the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. The more abstract notions of purification, renovation, and white also are strongly associated with baptism,
coupled with God and Jesus and the Trinity. The Spirit is also described
as shapeless, or as a thing.
The reference to symbols of the Holy Spirit is not surprising. Traditional
spirituality incorporates these images, and the formulation of the CCC (CCC
694-701) influences contemporary preaching in this aspect. Today, when we
conceptualise the Spirit with one of these symbols, we are mixing various ideas
and representations from paintings, illustrations, sculptures in temples, the
cultural industry, and biblical texts (either read individually or liturgically proclaimed). The expression of the Spirit (and of the Trinity) through visual art is
42

never a linear translation. We cannot hope for an isomorphism between a biblical text (and its interpretation in teaching and theology) and the visual arts.
Theological language primarily distinguishes and differentiates,
whereas artistic creations correlate, integrate and interrelate. Art
thrives on multiple hermeneutical and heuristic dimensions. The encounter with mystery or with inexhaustible intelligibility stimulates the
rich insights of artists and their beauty-full creations.92
So, it is important not to exaggerate the difference between a visual and
verbal discourse about God. Today, with a broad education and the facilities
to access all types of information, both the visual and the verbal intermingle
with each other. When we read the account of Pentecost, our imagination
(which associates images to written text) is already influenced by the iconic
representations that we have witnessed in the past. Likewise, when we see an
iconic image associated with the Holy Spirit, our comprehension of it is always
influenced by the theological teachings to which we have had access.
Somehow, Christian artworks in agreement with the fundamental axiom
of Rahner, which states that there is an equivalence between the economic
Trinity and the immanent Trinity.93 There is a real relation between the interior life of God, as a unity in plurality, and his saving actions in human history.
The imagination of artists tries to express, through external actions (economy)
the interior life of the Trinity. The success of the visual arts in the history
of the Church is a demonstration of the fact that they can express the ineffable with more balance and likelihood than mere verbal formations. Applying
Rahners Grundaxiom to the Holy Spirit, Hilberath identifies six statements:
1) We proceed from specific experiences of the Spirit. 2) We experience these as given from the Spirit of God himself. 3) We remain
conscious that we cannot comprehend the essence or the person
of the Holy Spirit. 4) Nevertheless we can discern this essence or person
in the experience of the self-giving Spirit. 5) We check the adequacy of
our concept of person. 6) And at the same time we allow our concepts,
especially that of person, to be corrected on the basis of our experiences of the Spirit.94
LABRIOLA Albert C. and WORGUL George S., The Holy Spirit in art: the theological bearing of visual representation, in CTSA Proceedings, 51 (1996), 143-162, p.
145.
92

Cf. CONGAR Yves M. J., I believe in the Holy Spirit, New York - London, Seabury Press - Geoffrey Chapman, 1983, pp. 11-18.
93

94
HILBERATH BERND Jochen, Identity through self-transcendence: the Holy
Spirit and the fellowship of free persons, p. 278.

43

The respondents who adhered to this third representation of the Spirit, in


order to deal with the Spirits representation in historical manifestations, explicitly adhere to this path. Reinforcing the hypothesis that this representation is
aligned with Grundaxiom, we have the reference to baptism and confirmation.
All of the sacraments (and any ecclesiastical action), can only be understood
through the strength of the Spirit. So, why the preference for baptism and confirmation? Possibly because, in their performance, they work in the same way as
some of the iconic images in visual art that we have discussed above.
The ritual nature of these sacraments, coupled with the convergence of various oral and visual elements fosters continuity with the classic biblical symbols.
Furthermore, these sacraments seem to emphasise the link between the Spirit
and salvation. The appearance of expressions such as renovation, purification,
and forgiveness shows how the sacraments (and the Spirit) are the source of salvation. This form of characterising salvation is different from the one we have
found in Peace & Love. While this representation characterised salvation as
a relational quality of life, the representation Pentecost & Church insists more
in the renovation and rupture with old ways of being.95 According to Pannenberg the Spirit, as gift is related to their [believers] becoming sons and daughters in baptism by fellowship with Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15; 6:3ff.).96 The Spirit
is a condition of a new birth in the fatherhood of God.
The reference to the Spirit as a thing seems to clash with a rich and structured representation like this. One can have a functionally adequate vision of
the Spirit without considering that He is a person. In Portuguese, the expression
thing (coisa) can designated an inanimate object (it) but it can also be used to
designate something undetermined, which it is not easy to categorise.
There are several factors that make it difficult for the respondents to personalise the Spirit. The first is a contradiction between the constant occurrence
of the Spirit in liturgical and dogmatic formulations and the Spirits absence in
the rest of the pastoral discourse; the Spirit is resigned to limbo between being
and not being, between a perfect parity with the other divine persons and a
functional irrelevance. A second factor is the preponderance of zoomorphic
and polymorphic iconography when compared with the anthropomorphic
representations of the Father and Jesus.97 If the other figures are represented as
It can be interesting to observe that the notions of renewal and purification come
associated to baptism but not with confession.
95

96

PANNENBERG Wolfhart, Systematic Theology, p. 9.

97
Benedict XV has declared that only the iconographies of the dove and the fire
(dependent on Scripture) were allowed. Cf. GNOCCHI M., Spirito Santi, in CASTELFRANCHI Liana and CRIPPA Maria Antonietta (Diretto da), Iconografia e arte cri-

44

humans, and the Spirit as an animal or inanimate, he becomes inferior


and impersonal.
However, the use of thing to describe the Spirit does not have to be the
result of reducing Him to an anonymous force. It can result from the difficulty
in expressing the particular personality of the Spirit in relation to the Father
and the Son. Sesbou suggests the expression meta-person/meta-pessoa to
designate the personality of the Spirit.98 We can think and imagine the Father
and the Son as people with an anthropomorphic form appearing in front of
us; however, we cannot do the same with the spirit. He is someone who dwells
within us, who brings us the gift of God, who makes us speak, think and act
according to God. It becomes easier to understand the specific nature of the
Spirit when we compare his action with that of Jesus. The action of Jesus
takes place in a public historical setting. He communicated the Kingdom of
God, made real the gift of God with his life, death and resurrection. All this
happened in a visible and historical form. However, the mission of the Spirit
occurs in a subjective space. He acts in the conscience (of the individual or
ecclesial). He inspires our freedom and our prayers. It is the Spirit who renews
us, making us sons of the Father and brothers of the Son. Commenting on
the pneumatology of Gregory of Nazianzus, Beeley says: it is precisely the
character of the Spirit to be self-effacing, because the Spirit serves primarily to
enable the knowledge of God that is focused in Jesus Christ.99
1.4. A Trinitarian faith
Empirically investigating the Christian faith has some difficulties associated. Questioning people about God and the image they have of God tends to
forget that theism or monotheism are insufficient categories to describe the
Christian faith.100 According to Scripture and tradition, the Christian faith is,
doctrinally and existentially, Trinitarian. Cartledge acknowledges the problem: This poses a problem for empirical research. How might one measure
belief in or attitudes towards a complex doctrine such as the Trinity? Indeed,
stiana, II (I-Z) Cinisello Balsamo, San Paolo, 2004, 1309-1310.
Cf. SESBO Bernard, Creer. Invitacin a la fe catlica para las mujeres y los
hombres del siglo XXI, pp. 459-462.
98

BEELEY Christopher A., Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the knowledge of God. In your light we shall see light, New York, Oxford University Press,
2008, p. 154.
99

100
Pasierbek is one of the few paying attention to the Trinitarian specificity of
Christian faith, in an empirical perspective. Cf. PASIERBECK Wit, What God do
young people in Poland believe in?.

45

is such a task possible? () It appears to remain one of the outstanding challenges for contemporary scholarship.101
In this study, we opted for a low profile strategy in relation to the Trinity. We asked about God, Jesus, and the Spirit and consciously omitted questions about the Trinity. We tried to follow the enunciation proposed by the
CCC in its first synthesis (CCC 150-152). However, the omission of explicit
questions about the Trinity brought about some empirical concerns. Accepting
the hypotheses that respondents had serious difficulties at the theological level,
it would be expected that an elevated number of respondents would refuse to
respond or respond with a non-personal discourse, giving the answers they
thought the interviewer wanted to hear. But it is evident that the omission
had a cost. Specifically, the fact that it is not easy to understand what the respondents actually think about the Trinity. However, in the body of answers
produced, it is possible to detect some patterns about the understanding they
have of the Trinity, even if they are just latent.
1.4.1. A frail notion of the Trinity
The first idea that we can detect with respect to the Trinity is its fragility.
Even among the respondents of cluster 1, there is a significant percentage that
says nothing about the Holy Spirit.102 And, even between those who respond,
the dimension of the responses is substantially smaller than in other cases. The
same applies to the second wave. This forgetfulness of the Spirit inevitably
distorts the understanding of the Trinity. In sound theology, this amputation
of the Trinity is extremely traumatic. However, when we understand that the
protagonists of this discourse are still in the process of growing, both as persons and as Christians (even if they have exhausted the official Church proposals to their formation), we might be tempted to consider this as an optional
nuance. In the end, we could settle for an affirmation of monotheism, leaving
out the Trinity.103 At a formal level, never has the magisterium, or theoloCARTLEDGE Mark J., Empirical-theological models of the trinity: exploring
the beliefs of theology students in the United Kingdom, in Journal of empirical theology, 19 (2006) 2, 137-162, p. 137.
101

These affirmations are related to the data coming from God representations.
Wave 1, Chapter 5: 1.4. Cf. Table 46: Descriptive statistics on String Size Q8, Q6 and
Q4. Gods representations. Wave 1.
102

103
Cf. the description made by Moltmann: Many people view the theological doctrine of the Trinity as a speculation for theological specialists, which has nothing to do
with real life () Whether God is one or triune evidently makes as little difference to
the doctrine of faith as it does to ethics. MOLTMANN Jurgen, The Trinity and the
Kingdom. The doctrine of God, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1993, p. 1.

46

gy tried to make an optional Trinity. However, the fact remains that in the
West, theology, spirituality, and dominant pastoral models were marked by a
non-Trinitarian generic monotheism. The balanced summary of the situation
made by Gevaert must be mentioned here. He defends the distinction between
post-biblical dogmatic precisions and the core of faith. Certamente nel primo
annuncio di Ges Cristo fuori luogo lintroduzione di distinzioni sottili e difficili che si trovano nel trattato teologico sul Dio uno e trino.104 But already
in the first announcement, and in the catechism the Trinity is indispensable.
The weakness of Trinitarian monotheism is not just noticed because of
forgetfulness, on behalf of many, of the Holy Spirit. The responses given about
God and Jesus also omit the Trinity and its relations. The respondents can
speak about God, the Father of Jesus,105 without referring Him to Jesus. Jesus
is, in some representations, the Son of God. But in the majority of representations Jesus is represented a se, without references to either the Father or the
Spirit. On the contrary, in the representations of the Spirit, more references to
the Trinity and its relation to God and Jesus are found.
1.4.2. An implicit Trinitarian theology
Whether using the Alceste analysis or alternative qualitative analyses, it
was not possible to detect an explicit Trinitarian theory. However, the researcher would suggest the existence of an implicit Trinitarian theology, although badly articulated, whose merits consist in trying to ensure the functionality of the faith relation, in its two valences of fides qua and fides quae.
The image of God the Father is very much influenced by the characteristics of
Jesus. He is an accessible God, with a positive and saving relationship with the
believer. Jesus is presented in a strong relationship with God, and at the same
time, in a quality relationship with the believer. Just like what happens in the
relationship to the Father, the relationship with Jesus is associated with salvific
experiences. The Spirit, for those who dared to answer, is also described as a
source of salvation, and sometimes occurs in relation with the Father and with
Jesus.
GEVAERT Joseph, La proposta del Vangelo a chi on conosce il Cristo. Finalit,
destinatari, contenuti, modalit di presenza, Leumann, Elledici, 2001, p. 158.
104

105
In the questionnaires we have always used the expression Deus (God) to refer
the first person of the Trinity, the Father of Jesus. In this option, we have followed
CCC as well Rahners thesis (in the NT, Theos and Pater are interchangeable). But
after a careful reading of the data, we must accept the hypothesis that, at least for
some respondents, Deus designates the totality of God; Deus is a synonym of
the Trinity. Or we can be dealing with a radical monotheism, without space to Jesus
nor to the Spirit.

47

Duque argues that the Trinity is the possibility condition of the Christian
faith. Whether at an ontological-transcendental level or at a historical-phenomenological one. la relacin intratrinitaria se nos presenta como fundamento ltimo y condicin originaria de posibilidad de la relacin entre el ser
humano y Dios.106 It is this relationship that we call faith. However, we do
not find any traces of a consciousness of this transcendental condition in the
respondents. That being said, we also do not find the opposite opinion, which
would reduce faith to a human projection.
The transcendental nature of faith presents itself also as a condition of
its historical or categorical realisation. Faith is historically possible because
Jesus, the Son, assured the historically-objective conditions, and the Spirit secured the historically-subjective conditions, through which the human subject
receives, objectively and subjectively, the Father (the original condition of the
whole process). It is the Spirit who subjectively opens our eyes to faith. But
our availability to believe needs the content offered by the historical revelation of Jesus. We welcome the revelation brought by the Son. However, the
understanding of the role of the Spirit, as a light through which we can see
the revelation, is not so clear. The Spirit is Who allows us to come close to the
self-revelation of God. However, if we are not aware of the Spirit and its role,
what does it mean to believe in the God that Jesus reveals? We could believe
in Jesus because he would confirm what we already know about our salvation.
Jesus would be right because he says the same as the ideology of positive psychology. However, in this case, the experience of faith would be nothing more
than a ritual of legitimisation of a dominant or popular ideology. One might,
in another way, believe in Jesus while dismissing a subjective involvement. The
connection to Jesus would be done only through a historic route. The faithful
transmission of the memoria Jesu, accepted today by the believer, would welcome Gods revelation. 107
1.4.3 Trinity, faith and action
A Trinitarian framework also permits thinking about faith in action. The
essence of God, one and triune, is His perichoretic relatedness, the movement
by which the differences are source of relation and being, excluding subordination and nullification. Christian faith is obedience to the Lord on whom we
depend on. But this relationship works, just like the relationship between each
person of the Trinity, without subordination or dependence. The relationship
106

DUQUE Joo, Dimensin trinitaria de la fe cristiana, pp. 268-269.

107
Obviously, this posture is unable to cope with the challenges posed by a critic
historiography and leads quickly to apostasy or literalist fundamentalism.

48

between God and man cannot be univocal; it cannot lead to the identification
between Creator and creature. This would always lead to narcissist idolatry.
But can neither be equivocal, placing the human and the divine in incommunicable spheres.108 We identified one group (chapter 5: 2.4) that tends to deny
the Trinity, in what seems to be a sort of nominalist monotheism. God, Jesus
and the Holy Spirit are, to these respondents, different names for the same
reality. However, it does not make much sense to try and apply the categories
used in the theological debate of the first centuries AD to a still maturing population with notable difficulties with vocabulary.
Traditionally, the wrong interpretations of the mystery of God oscillated between modalism and tritheism (with innumerable nuances between extremes). Here, however, the problem is over: God is one, independent of the
names assumed. The respondents do not seem to grasp the seriousness of the
problem of the Trinity. This is not to say that they are following a radical
monotheism, however. Probably, for them, God is a poor and a generic idea,
resulting from the addition of the characteristics traditionally attributed by
Christian tradition to Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
The relation between God and man must be thought of in analogical terms
because it is a relation between different realities. It is this analogy that allows
the possibility of a relation between different realities, mutually irreducible. It
is in this perspective that creation and human identity must be understood: as
the possibility of freedom, autonomy and responsibility. However, this perspective does not appear in the replies.
This relational analogy also extends to the area of inter-human relatedness. It is seen as participation in inter-divine love. Esa determinacin de la fe
se realiza, concretamente, en la acogida el ser como donacin de otro (relacin
a la alteridad como origen o memoria), en la modalidad del ser con el otro
(relacin a la alteridad como camino o presente) y en la donacin del ser a otro
(relacin a la alteridad como meta o esperanza).109 It was possible to detect
the reception of these ideas in the past and the present, and less obviously, in
the future. The relation with God is felt as a source of personal salvation, offering the believer a redefinition of their identity and the resources for a more
communal relationship with the others. The dimension of hope, of projectual
salvation, appears less clearly.

108

This would bring, sooner or later, the temptation of idolatry.

109

DUQUE Joo, Dimensin trinitaria de la fe cristiana, p. 277.


49

1.5. Explicit and implicit theology of faith


Throughout the previous pages, we have had the opportunity to identify
tangentially some of the faith understandings of the respondents. We found
variations in the balance between the fides qua and the fides quae. Also in the
relationship between personal faith and ecclesiastical faith we found different
positions. However, there are some specific questions about the theology of
faith, which appear to be missing from the discourse and worries of the respondents. A reflective approach to the respondents on faith does not seem to
be explicit. However, admittedly, there were no specific questions about that.
One topic notable by its absence is the dual nature of faith as divine grace
and human task. The encounter with God and the very possibility of trusting
Him does not come from a pure human decision. It is the work of God himself,
who, through grace, makes it possible. Even within a dialogical understanding
of revelation, the very possibility of a human response to the dialogue initiated
by God, has its origin in the God who attracts and enlightens us with his Spirit.
However, for the respondents this question does not arise. In one way or another, the respondents limit themselves to believe, without seriously thinking about
the possibilities of their own faith.110 However, the contents proposed by the catechisms are also silent about this issue. It is, to a point, understandable: we are
dealing with adolescents still within a course of Christian initiation, and these
questions can appear to be details reserved just for specialists. However, knowing how the experience of doubt is common among adolescents, a more robust
framework around the process of faith could be beneficial for the respondents.
A second topic is the articulation between reason and faith. Faith must be
an act intellectually honest and morally responsible. There are always reasons
to trust someone, and the same is true with God. Signals are necessary; motives that make plausible the proposal offered by revelation. There are always
reasons to believe. And this does not take anything from the fact that faith is
always a gift from God. These reasons to believe are not evidence. They
never cancel the fiduciary dimension.
In the Belief and Doubt representation, some of the reasons invoked are
placed within biblical or ecclesiastical history. Among the respondents from
cluster 1 this is less common. We must search among the respondents from
cluster 2 (Class 1 The inexistent God and the Church; Class 4 The unbelief
experience) and those of cluster 3 (Class 1 Indifference & Doubt; Class
2 Gods existence; Class 3 Mistrust) for references to the role of reason
in the process of faith. We can verify that are the less socialised in the church
110
It is important to underline the differeny situation of the catechists. They are
able to produce an explicit reflection about their own faith experience.

50

that are more critical and find more obstacles in the relation between reason
and faith. This can make us think that the relation between reason and faith
only arises as preambula fidei, as a relevant topic for the first proclamation of
faith. But this would be a mistake. The respondents from cluster 1 omitted this
issue not because they outgrew it, but because, probably, they live in a system
of cognitive polyphasia. For the respondents from cluster 1, this theme is not
more problematic because the experience of faith is not sufficiently shared, or
challenged.
A third topic that stands out for its absence amongst the respondents is
the dynamic character of faith. In the magisterium and theology there is a
consensus that faith is an analogic reality that assumes different values and
configurations throughout time; faith can grow or change throughout time.
However, in practice faith is treated as a discreet reality that assumes just
two values: existent or non-existent. Even during adolescence, a time marked
by change and development, the catechisms are silent about the dynamic nature of faith. It is then, no wonder that the texts produced by the respondents
omit the dynamic character of faith. However, some respondents identified a
passage from non-faith to faith, which made them happy; others remember the
jump from an inconsequential faith to a more committed faith. However, even
this response is marginal.
2. Practical-theological analysis
The design of our questionnaires allowed the recovering of much information about the practical processes involved in the transmission and appropriation of faith.
The questionnaire God representations. Wave 1 collected data about
the processes that potentially influenced the faith of the respondents: what
are the relevant experiences on the journey of faith? What people and sources
of information are important to the faith? And what are the consequences of
faith? These three perspectives will structure the second part of this chapter.
2.1. Relevant faith experiences
Referring the important experiences, the respondents with the most time
spent in catechesis111 identified the pastoral proposals of the Church (47,02%),
relevant persons (18,1%),112 salvation and life quality (9,9%), faith sourcAlso in here we can detect that catechesis attendance is a major variable. The
other two clusters offer very different experiences. Cf. chapter 5, 1.6.
111

112

To almost a fifth of the respondents the most important experience in their faith
51

es (9,98%), intense moments (8,58%), myself (3,79%) and Media


(0,08%). The respondents recognised that their journey of faith was deeply influenced by people, proposals and processes associated with the Church.
2.1.1. Pastoral proposals of the Church
The Pastoral proposals of the Church include catechesis, youth ministry, religion classes in public schools, catechesis rites,113 scouts, and service and
outreach experiences. This group of experiences is responsible for almost half
of the reported experiences.
These are the pastoral practices that the Church in Portugal traditionally
offers young people. It is common to find critical evaluations of the catechesis
that the Church offers the young generations.114 However, the data recorded
suggests that the proposals offered by the Church are, in fact, effective in the
field.
Not just among those who most frequently attend the catechesis, but also
for the rest of the population.115 The relevance attributed by the respondents
must not be naively identified as an indicator of quality, however. What it
can say is that the proposals that the Church directs at young people are not
useless. However, we still need to understand the motivations that influence
a large percentage to classify these proposals as the most influential on their
faith identity. We also need to know what happens when, locally, the quality of these proposals is weak.
The fact that this collection of pastoral offers is appreciated by such a
large percentage of the respondents could generate the idea of a certain coherence. However, this idea is wrong. It is important to understand that the
quality of the offering and the level of adhesion to it, varies immensely from
place to place. And there are differences between the catechesis, youth ministry, EMRC, and scouts. The fact that there are some co-occurrences must

experience is the contact with relevant and credible people, overlapping to the answers
of the influential people in the faith process.
Each year of the catechetical curriculum proposes a rite inspired in the traditio
reditio schema or initiates in a sacrament. These feasts have a liturgical, familiar and
social impact.
113

Cf. AZEVEDO ngela S, Ser ou no ser... O jovem de hoje sabe responder, in


Theologica, 2 Srie 47 (2012) 1, 115-124.
114

115
34,41% of cluster 2 refers this set of experiences and the same do 17,16% of
cluster 3.

52

not be understood as the suggestion that the Churchs different proposals for
youth ministry constitute an articulated package (Table 107).
Locally, some of the proposals could be available and others absents.
When some of them coexist, it is usual that the pastoral projects are distinct
or incompatible. Within each one of them, even locally, the difference in the
pastoral and educational quality can be enormous.

TOTALS:

Youth Ministry

Catechism Feasts
and rites

Experiences of
Service

Scouts

EMRC

Catechism Student

Table 107: Co-occurrence of pastoral proposals of the church codes within important experiences to the faith. Data from God representations. Wave 1

Catechism Student

0,12

0,03

0,08

0,24

EMRC

0,01

0,01

Scouts

0,12

0,01 0

0,02

0,07

0,22

Experiences of Service

0,02

0,02

Catechism Feasts and Rites

0,03

0,02

0,03

0,08

Youth Ministry

0,08

0,07

0,02

0,03

0,2

2.1.2. People
The second most referenced group of experiences is that of the people.
These respondents consider that the experiences most relevant to their faith
were the contact with friends, romantic partner, family, priests and nuns.
There are also generic references to people of the Church and the processes
of socialization and tradition. The biggest slice of this comes from the family.
There is a second subgroup of peers (friends and romantic relationships) and
a third, ecclesiastical subgroup, which is relatively under-represented. The
consistency of this group of experiences is especially relevant when there is another question especially about influential people. Curiously, the values given
for this group of experiences remains almost consistent in the three clusters
(swinging between 15% and 20%).
This relevance of short-range socialization can be sociologically interpreted as a persistence of old solidarity or as a reaction to the growing individualisation of contemporary society. A theological interpretation would opt to see
53

this preference as a manifestation of ecclesial nature. These respondents say


that their faith was profoundly influenced by the interaction in the Church.
Family, friends, and priests spoke, interacted and were present in the life of the
adolescents. This topic will be further developed in 2.2, later in this chapter.
2.1.3. Faith sources
A third group of experiments collects references to the sources of faith.
Overall there are references to the history of salvation and the sacraments. In
the first subgroup, the respondents referred to the Bible, read personally or
communally, some contents of the Bible and creation. In the second subgroup;
there are references to the sacraments, principally the Eucharist and baptism.
However, it could be abusive to put two different realities in the same group
such as the Holy Scriptures and the sacraments: the bible was written in the
past and refers to historical events whereas the sacraments happen in the
present of the believer. This incompatibility appears to be confirmed by the
lack of co-occurrences (Table 108).
Table 108: Co-occurrence of bible and sacraments codes within important experiences of
faith. Data from God representations. Wave 1

Bible

Creation

Gestures of God in the


Bible

TOTALS:

Baptism

Eucharist

0,02

0,02

Reconciliation

The Sacraments

However, either dogmatically or pastorally, there are strong connections


between the two subgroups. It is the same God who communicates through
his Word in the normative past of the Scripture and the present of the believer.
Both the Scripture and the liturgy make a memory of a God, who wants to
be present in communion with the believers. In more practical terms, both the
subgroups share an objective element in relation to the subject. The Scripture
and the sacraments of the Church are there; the subjects do not create them.
They have a public dimension.
The relevance given to these faith sources shows the perennial character
of a pastoral model based on the Word of God and the Sacraments.

54

2.1.4. Salvation and life quality


A fourth group of relevant experiences was named Salvation and life
quality. The respondents associated their faith almost always to personal experiences.116 God is more than just an idea or a historical fact. God is more
than just a partner with whom you have a joint interaction. God is experienced
(and talked about) as Someone capable of helping and capable of changing the
life of the subject for the better. Some people ground the improvement in their
quality of life with references to miracles, physical healings and support during
the processes of divorce of their parents, for example.
This sensibility of the respondents for the indirect verifiability of faith
could be interpreted as reminders of an infantile and magical mentality, marked
by the do ut des. Despite intense schooling, with propaganda in favour of a scientific mentality, the post-modern context allows the persistence of pre-critical
pouches. In this line of thinking, the respondents would be interpreting, in a
mechanical way, some events from their personal life. However, another interpretation is possible: the respondents adhered to an image of God that offered
them an increase in their quality of life and meaning in life.
Essa [evangelization] aiuta a vivere: restituisce vita a chi si trova
immerso nella morte e d ragioni per credere alla vita a chi le cerca con
trepida attesa. Essa risuona come una parola interessante solo perch
fa vibrare lorizzonte del senso, offrendo nel Vangelo un progetto che
d speranza allesistenza quotidiana.117
It is possible that the affirmation of miracles or empirical demonstration
of Gods presence is more functional than substantive; the respondents could
be using them as psychological mechanisms or ways of expressing the conviction that contact with God works, for them, as a source of meaning and
improved quality of life.118

There are small references to Gods intervention on mankinds history and to a


generic supernatural.
116

TONELLI Riccardo, La narrazione nella catechesi e nella pastorale giovanile,


Leumann, Elledici, 2002, p. 32.
117

118
The referenced percentages of this group stayed quite constant in the three clusters (moving between 9.9% and 12.22%) But they must bring up the question whether
or not to follow the same interpretation throughout the clusters. It is possible that the
magical and efficientist explanation is more relevant in clusters 2 and 3.

55

2.1.5. Intense moments


A fifth group of references have, as a common denominator, the spiritual
intensity of some moments and experiences. These would have been so striking
that the respondents identified them as turning points in the journey of their
faith. In this group of references prayer, pilgrimage and retreats are mentioned.
Prayer covered experiences like saying the rosary with the family or moments
of prayer within the youth ministry (vigils, Taiz). They are intense moments
for the subject, which bring them peace, good judgment and the recuperation
of an inner balance. The pilgrimages are mainly to Ftima. However, sometimes other shrines such as Lourdes. Taiz, Rome, or the Holy Land are also
mentioned. The World Youth Day (probably Madrid 2011) is also understood
as a pilgrimage. The respondents do not explain why they consider these pilgrimages as intense. For them, the reference to a place or an event is sufficiently explicit. The experiences of retreat or special moments are also referred.
There are also a few references to the emotional impact of the retreats, but the
majority of the respondents refer to the retreats without other adjectives.
These references to intense moments seem to be somewhat cryptic. An
external observer (like a school peer) cannot understand what the correspondents are talking about, even less the reason they consider the experiences so
impactful. By reducing the description of these intense moments, the respondents are using a codified expression. And this only makes sense when it is
used within a community that is capable of decoding it. These experiences are
so intense that they generate a strong feeling of belonging. The adhesion to
strong spiritual practices can be interpreted, sociologically, as another one of
the options disposable for the individual, but they seem to be more than this.
These respondents felt that they belonged to something bigger than themselves
and that this could be understood ecclesially.
2.1.6. Myself
A sixth group of reported experiences is centred on the self and in this
group two different approaches converge.
The first underlines the role of everyday life, of the adolescent condition
and the mere fact of being alive. God can be found in everyday life. He is a
constant presence. The second approach underlines the role of the self in the
process of faith. Through reflection, personal conversion or analysis of feelings, the self has become a decisive factor in the trajectory of faith.
Both approaches are deeply connected to the adolescent and express his
role. The first is more aware of the context while the second emphasizes the
56

will of the subject. This second approach can indict a self-sufficient anthropology, where Gods precedence in the process of faith is forgotten. The occurrence of this response is inversely proportional to the attendance of catechism.
The least religiously socialized respondents are the ones investing more in this
kind of personal experiences.
2.1.7. Media
The remaining groups of relevant experiences are quite small. Expressions
of faith rejection have only 1,39% of the references within cluster 1 but rise to
19,53% in cluster 3. Forms of alternative religiosity are also inversely proportional to catechism attendance but only vary between 0,15% in cluster 1 and
2,37% in cluster 3. Finally, explicit adherence to a new age worldview is rare.
The levels of importance ascribed to the media are surprisingly low. In
the respondents opinion, the media were not crucial to their faith experience.
Though it would be foolhardy to believe naively in this picture, this research
project was not designed to test for the level of the medias influence. The notion of the media as omnipotent and omnipresent has become an integral part
of the dominant thought. The possibility that, in this sample, the respondents
have had a reduced exposure to the media seems to be contradictory to deeply
rooted sociological and pastoral convictions. However, some recent research
challenges these convictions.
In the media itself, there is an omnipresence of religious imagery
and the supernatural in large-scale film productions such as THE PASSION (Mel Gibson, USA 2004) or the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy
(Jackson, New Zealand/USA 2001/2002/2003), in various TV series,
such as GILMORE GIRLS (Amy Sherman, USA 2000ongoing) as well
as in minor and local productions (e.g. references to the Last SuPositive
Psychology er in Germanys current BIG BROTHER production). In
both US and European book bestseller lists, books with a title borrowed from a religious tradition or dealing with religious and spiritual
issues are a constant feature.119
There are no comprehensive studies on the relationship the media has with
religion in Portugal.120 Marujo refers to the example of Lusa (a news agency)
KNAUSS Stefanie and ORNELLA Alexander Darius, Introduction, in KNAUSS
Stefanie and ORNELLA Alexander D. (Edited by), Reconfigurations. Interdisciplinary
perspectives on religion in a post-secular society, Wien, LIT, 2007, 7-18, p. 8.
119

120
Rego tried to do an historical description of the relation between Church and
media. Cf. REGO Antnio, A Igreja e a comunicao social em Portugal. His conclusions seem excessively optimistic. His text has the merit of being written by someone
that tried intensely to change the reality. But he overlaps his wishes with an objective
analysis of the reality.

57

that fills 0.7% of its production with religious themes.121 The analysis we have
done (chapter 5: 5.2) of the films shown in Portugal also points in the same
direction. The supposed change of the post-secular paradigm, which would
allow a renewed visibility of religion in the world of media, is not happening
in Portugal. As far as can be detected, the Portuguese media continue to ignore
or silence the religious topic and, specifically, the Christian worldview.
If we cannot confirm a change in the paradigm about the recuperation of
the visibility of religion, maybe we can look at the level of power attributed
to the media. Adorno and Fiske are some of the authors that theorized and
popularized the idea that the media correspond to a concentration of power
that controls the impotent masses.122 And this notion, although touted by the
left wing and some neo-Marxists, echoes quite a lot in the Catholic pastoral
discourse. The Church is the underdog trying to spread the Gospel against
the might of powerful secular corporations. There is a very linear scheme in
which the control of the media would lead to the growth of dominant ideas
in a society. As the Church does not have access to these powerful means of
social communication, the people tend to lose the religious references passive-

Cf. MARUJO Antnio Porque (no) h espao nos media para o religioso in
http://www.clubedejornalistas.pt/uploads/jj38/JJ38_16_mediareligiao.pdf, . Capucho,
Torres and Burnay underline that even that small percentage can come from exceptional events (a Pope visit to Portugal). They stress the low quality of the produced
communication: Apenas se vislumbra a notoriedade social ou poltica, e a motivao
religiosa tnue ou, mais grave, indiciadora de ignorncia. A presena tributria de
esquemas de uma cultura light . O discurso traz ento consigo a enunciao de lugares
comuns irrelevantes (em matria religiosa) ou, aparentemente, despropositados ao fim
em vista. Aqui se evidencia, pois, a fragilidade do dispositivo televisivo comunicacional a que antes nos referimos, mas justificado pelo tributo sociedade do espectculo
em que o meio labora com frequncia. CAPUCHO Carlos, TORRES Eduardo Cintra
and BURNAY Catarina Duff, A construo da festa electrnica na visita de Bento XVI
a Portugal, in Comunicao & Cultura, 11 (2011), 95-114, p. 99.
121

122
Cf. FISKE John, Introduction to communication studies, London, Routledge,
1990. FISKE John and HARTLEY John, Reading television, London - New York,
Routledge. WALDAN Diane, Critical theory and film: Adorno and the cultural industry revisited, in New German Critique, 12 (1977), 39-60. As an example: El control
dominante sobre el sistema educativo es total y directo. () Adems ejerce un control
indirecto ideolgico sobre todos los ciudadanos. () Como soporte de la ideologa y
de la cultura, la clase dominante tiene casi todos los mass media: prensa, radio, televisin, as como escuelas de periodismo, capacidad financiera y tecnologas-punta.
FRANCIA Alfonso et al. Anlisis de la realidad, Madrid, Editorial CCS, 1993, p. 119.

58

ly.123 Inspired by the liberation pedagogy of Paulo Freire,124 many specialists in


the youth ministry saw in the small group a resource to counter the hegemonic
agenda of the media:
Il grupo primrio in grado di attivare complesse dinamiche psicosociali che, se bem controllate, rivelano un elevato potenziale pedagogico. La chiave di queste dinamiche costituita della presa di coscienza () Della capacit, cio, delluomo di esercitare un efficace
controllo, nel segno della libert e dellautonomia, sulla propria vita
individuale e collettiva125
With greater or lesser theoretical consistency and empirical support, several ecclesial currents, in different geographical contexts, understand that it is
possible to overtake the hegemonic pressure of the media and return critical
autonomy to the people. There is one movement more connected to sociocultural animation and another more connected with the school and the maximising of the interpretative capacity of the believer.126 From the perspective
of youth ministry that uses animation as a reference, the group functions as a
space of interaction where it is possible to elaborate thoughts, conducts, a style
of life, and a faith that are alternative to the models imposed by the media.
Thus, media will be less influential because of the groups capacity to create
an alternative space, in which the dominant culture is less powerful. This inThis kind of analysis has also been applied to the internet and digital media.
Recent results show that nothing specially relevant can be concluded: a lot of the
religious online communication is happening inside pre-existing religious groups.
Cf. LVHEIM Mia, Rethinking Cyberreligion? Teens, Religion and the internet in
Sweeden, in Nordicom Review, 29 (2008) 2, 205-217; CAMPBELL Heidi A., Understanding the relationship between religion online and offline in a networked society, in
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80 (2012) 1, 64-93. But the explosive
expansion of new technologies, consuming habits of contents, and proactive stances
from the churches can rapidly change these conclusions.
123

Cf. FREIRE Paulo, Education for critical consciousness, London - New York,
Continuum, 2005.
124

125

POLLO Mario, Animazione culturale. Teoria e metodo, pp. 301-302.

126
Cf., for the first approach, POLLO Mario, IL gruppo come luogo di comunicazione educativa, Leumann, LDC, 1996. For the second approach, cf. TRENTI Zelindo, Educare alla fede. Saggio di pedagogia religiosa, Leumann, LDC, 2000. The youth
project proposed by the Spanish Salesians, in the 90s, aimed to build a hermeneutical
Christian, and be seen as an attempt to integrate both approaches. Nuestro Proyecto e Itinerario de Educacin en la fe tiene en el horizonte un creyente, que podamos
llamar intrprete o hermeneuta: aquel que se acerca a la propia persona y al ambiente
en que vive de forma crtica, y sabe leerlos e interpretarlos desde el Evangelio. CENTRO NACIONAL SALESIANO DE PASTORAL JUVENIL, Itinerario de educacin
en la fe. Gua del animador, Madrid, Editorial CCS, 1994, p. 29.

59

terpretation supposes that, by omission, the experience of a group (which is


always limited by time, amongst many things) becomes normative, in contrast
to the normativity proposed or imposed by the dominant culture and media.
SRT offers a more robust theoretical interpretation. It recognises that the
worldview developed by a group exists in fluid interaction with a plurality of
other representations and this can lead to cognitive polyphasia. If we attempt
to interpret the small importance given to the media by the respondents, we
can, according to the SRT, admit that the ecosystem of Christian education
in which the respondents exist is sufficiently relevant for them to assume an
alternative to that proposed by the media. But we must also admit that the
respondents are aware of the minority weight of this specific vision of faith.
2.1.8. For a global analysis of the relevant experiences of faith
Theologically we can identify an approach with which to analyse these
meaningful experiences reported by the adolescents. The experiences reported place themselves on an individual-communitarian axis, which revives the
traditional polarity between credo and credimus. Some of the referenced experiences have a stronger community framework: faith sources, pastoral proposals of the Church, people. Others are concentrated on the believer: intense
moments, salvation, quality of life, and themselves.
Some analyses of the juvenile condition underline the weight of individual
subjectivity:
la ricerca religiosa dei giovani si qualifica per il grande peso esercitato dalla soggettivit () il bisogno di spiritualit viene percepito
come qualcosa di estremamente personale, che interessa lintimo di un
individuo e che pertanto spetta solamente al soggetto valutare () La
centralit del fattore soggettivo impedisce una facile coincidenza tra la
domanda religiosa e lofferta di una determinata istituzione.127
The individual-communitarian axis is seen, in this perspective, as a necessary tension. The contemporary context shifted its weight to the subjective
pole. However, a balanced situation such as described by our data impedes
such interpretation. Sociologically, this would have been the result of the persistence of old mechanisms of sociability. Pastorally, it would be signal of an
unfinished inculturation.

127
GIULIETTI Paolo, I giovani e la ricerca di senso. Domanda religiosa e scelta di
fede, in TRIANI Pierpaolo and VALENTINI Natalino (A cura), Larte di educare nella
fede, Padova, Messaggero di SantAntonio, 2008, 70-90, pp. 77-78.

60

However, it is possible to analyse this axis from theological and pastoral


categories and not just from sociocultural intuitions. 75% of the reported relevant experiences have a reference to community. This seems to confirm the
idea that faith is always an ecclesial reality. In contact with other believers (the
Church), you can start to believe. However, are we not making an excessive
leap by moving from a social reality to an ecclesial one? When and how is it
that the catechism groups, the scouts and the volunteer experiences and service
become church? When and how do the catechism fests stop being merely social
rites of passage and become an ecclesial manifestation? Tonelli advocates minimum criteria but stringent enough. He says, about youth groups: Il gruppo,
quando assicura almeno germinalmente le dimensioni normative di eclesialit,
mediazione dellevento salvifico della Chiesa. quindi Chiesa, allo stesso
titolo analogico delle altre realizzazioni di Chiesa.128
If these 75% of reported experiences have a reference, even seminal, to the
gospel of Jesus, if they are placed in the service of His cause, and in communion with other ecclesial experiences, we can speak of Church. Theologically
and not merely sociologically.
2.2. Faith partners
One of the initial questions in the questionnaire asked who were the most
influential people in the faith process. Again, it is important to remember that
this question collects information about the perception of the subjects; an objective observation from someone other than the subject could take to different
results.
Two large groups of people influencing the faith of the respondents can
be identified: the family and ecclesial agents. The family is the most frequent
group, regardless of the attendance of catechesis. This was the case in 54.22%
of cluster 1, 54.41% in cluster 2 and drops to 48.92% in cluster 3. The church
and its agents remain the second most influential group in all clusters, but with
only half the importance in the third cluster.
2.1.1. The role of the families
In some sectors of the youth ministry, the elevated influence the family
has, can be surprising. Inheriting the idea of adolescence as a time of storm
and stress, as a time of conflict with parents, with dramatic oscillations of

128
TONELLI Riccardo, Gruppi giovanili e esperienza di Chiesa, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 1992, pp. 68-69.

61

mood and risky behaviour,129 the family should be losing relevance. Beside
this, careful analysis of the sensitive nature of the more social and cultural
aspects recognises the loss of importance given to the family in the process of
education and the transmission of faith.130
It is because of this that many youth ministry projects ignore the family dimension.131 Happily, however, it is beginning to be a turnaround in this aspect:
Sublinha-se, no entanto, a importncia da famlia como espao de vida e educao para os valores, e da escola pelo seu relevante papel, no presente e para
o futuro dos jovens.132 a que as comunidades e as famlias so chamadas
a desempenhar a sua misso. O despertar para a vida e para a f, num mesmo
movimento, comea desde a infncia. Os pais so chamados a comunicar o
seu gosto de viver, a sua maravilha perante a vida e a transmitir uma arte de
viver em referncia ao Evangelho.133 This attention to the family seems to be
placed at the level of objectives instead of findings. It persists an image of the
family that does not evangelize the younger generations but has a tremendous
potential at the level, which should be activated. A text by Gonalves is paradigmatic. In a recent PhD, done in 2010 at the Lateranensis, he states:
Ao longo dos tempos, o papel das famlias foi fundamental na
transmisso e no crescimento da f () a instituio familiar entrou em
crise () convivemos com as vrias tipologias de famlia e muitos pais
ou vivem afastados da Igreja ou tm uma iniciao crist deficitria. A
grande questo que se nos coloca como evangelizar os pais para que
estes evangelizem, sobretudo, os seus filhos.134
The situation outlined in Wave 1 is very different: the respondents recognize the decisive and positive role that the family had in their journey of
faith. The mothers are referred more than the fathers,135 but grandparents,
Cf. ARNETT Jeffrey Jensen and JENSEN Lene Arnett, A congregation of one:
individualized religious beliefs among emerging adults.
129

Cf. BOCCI Valerio, Comunicare la fede ai ragazzi 2.0. Una proposta di catechesi comunic-attiva, Leumann, LDC, 2012, pp. 91-103.
130

Cf. GONALVES Vasco A. da Cruz, Catequese de adultos. Para repensar a


pastoral da Igreja em Portugal, Lisboa, Universidade Catlica Editora, 2011, pp. 268273.
131

132

CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Bases para a pastoral juvenil, n 12.

133

CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Para que acreditem e tenham vida, n 2b.

GONALVES Vasco A. da Cruz, Catequese de adultos. Para repensar a pastoral da Igreja em Portugal, p. 245.
134

135
Traditionally, en Portugal, the transmission of religious heritage is made through female lineage. Cf. CABRAL Manuel Villaverde, Prtica religiosa e atitudes sociais

62

siblings, uncles, and aunties are also referred. At least for a certain percentage
of the population, the family, or part of it, remains as an important ecclesial
mediation. The features identified by Bissoli can be advanced as an interpretive framework for our data.136 These families are acting as ecclesial spaces, as
domestic churches,137 where life according to faith can be lived, proposed and
accepted. The family being the first social space, it becomes an environment
that enables the possibility to live in a style of life inspired by the Gospel. The
process of proposal and choosing of faith happens, but as a witnessing rather
than through teaching. Family interactions are inspired by the relational model proposed by Jesus and transmit an elevated quality of life, which generates
identification.138
The initiation of faith happens by osmosis and not by a systematic approach. Finally, the educational capacity of the family provides an education
of faith in action.
In Wave 2, the family continues to be of importance. However, they make
up 21.11% of the partners in dialogue on the theme of God, which is substantially less. Asking, in Wave 1, for the most influential people are, and, in Wave,
for partners in dialogue, is not formally the same. But it would be hoped for,
logically, that the values were comparable. However, regarding the family it
does not appear to be so.
2.2.2. Church ministers in action
The data we have found shows there is a dense network of pastoral operators that assume a role in shaping the faith of new generations.

dos portugueses numa perspectiva comparada, pp. 42-44.


Cf. BISSOLI Cesare, La catechesi familiare, in ISTITUTO DI CATECHETICA
Andata e insegnate. Manuale di catechetica, Leumann, LDC, 2002, 296-307, p. 298.
136

Cf. BOURG Florence Caffrey, Domestic Church. A survey of the literature, in


INTAMS review, 7 (2001) 182-193, for an overview of the concept and its history.
137

138
Here, we should introduce the topic of the effective quality of family life. The
recent pastoral zeal with family and the strength it could bring to catechesis, overlaps
potential and reality. It is not family, as a sociological reality, that per se can share and
witness the Gospel. Empirically, family is a very plural reality. Plural in its organic
configuration but, mainly, in the life quality it offers. We get the feeling that Church
leaders and practical theologians proposing family as a mandatory path, capable to solve
all our problems, forget that real families face severe problems of domestic violence, lack
of communication, self-indulgence, educative disorientation. Cf. DIAS Isabel, Violncia
na famlia. Uma abordagem sociolgica, Porto, Edies Afrontamento, 2004.

63

Catechism teachers and priests lead the list. Then come references to youth
ministry (scouts, animators, group) and other references less frequent to other ecclesial experiences (such as religious people, choir, spiritual director...).
The recognition of the role of the catechist is not surprising. They are
around 60000 volunteers,139 with a good school curriculum (secondary education and superior education), predominantly women.140 It is one of the solidest
sectors of the Church in Portugal. There is a tradition of qualified people at the
head of the national secretary and diocesan departments. There is consistent
practice throughout initial and on-going training of the laity. It is through the
Catholic publishers or the Internet that there is access to material, proposals
and interaction. That said, one should not assume that the average quality of
the catechist is perfect. But the idea of the catechists reported by the respondents will not necessarily be the average.
Accepting the empirical limitations that we have in describing the Portuguese catechists, we can identify some of the traits desired in a potential catechist by the Church. This image could be useful in as much as it could inspire
training, recruitment policy, and motivational systems. Carvalho underlines
the relevance of maturity as the starting point for the personality of a believer,
in which the life of faith configures the totality of identity. The theoretical and
practical skills are functional to the task of educating the life and faith of those
catechized.141 Apparently, the suggestions offered by Morante, are echoed in
Portugal.142
When we study the experience of faith of the catechists (chapter 5: 4) we
can verify that the task of sharing their faith is taken very seriously. The most
frequently referred form of sharing faith was through a Christian lifestyle; to
be a catechist and to witness personal faith (even outside of the institutional
space of the catechesis) were also very consistent values.
Which, in a country like Portugal, with traditionally low levels of social volunteering, is notable.
139

The percentage of women reached a national average of 80% in a 2002 census.


Cf. ALBERTO Rui, A situao da catequese em Portugal, in ALMEIDA Jos Cardoso,
PEREIRA Maria Helena Calado and CARVALHO Cristina de S (Organizadores),
Forum de Catequese, Lisboa, Secretariado Nacional de Educao Crist, 2003, 139146.
140

141

Cf. CARVALHO Cristina S, O perfil do catequista.

142
Cf. MORANTE Giuseppe, I catechisti: identit e formazione, in ISTITUTO DI
CATECHETICA Andata e insegnate. Manuale di catechetica, Leumann, LDC, 2002,
334-342, p. 342.

64

But, all in all, how do we explain the success of these catechists that
leads them to be recognised as so influential? The GDC defines a mediating
role for the catechist:
O catequista , intrinsecamente, um mediador que facilita a comunicao entre as pessoas e o mistrio de Deus, e dos sujeitos entre si e com a comunidade. () Enfim, de substancial importncia
a relao pessoal do catequista com o destinatrio da catequese. Tal
relao se nutre de paixo educativa, de engenhosa criatividade, de
adaptao e, ao mesmo tempo, de mximo respeito pela liberdade e
amadurecimento da pessoa.143
This ideal proposed by the GDC seems viable, at least for the relation established between the respondents and their catechists. Pollo lists a number of
traces that make up the pastoral relationship model. If these elements (or, at
least some of them) are activated by the catechists of these adolescents, it will
be possible to explain their success.144 Another possibility (not exclusive to the
previous) relates to the decisive role of unconditional love. Si percepisce di
vivere anche se non si la vita, perch qualcuno ci ama di un amore incondizionato che ci fa vivere, nonostante le esperienze di morte che attraversano la
nostra esistenza. Queste presenze di amore incondizionato sono decisive per la
maturazione dellesperienza religiosa.145 The catechists are possibly the only
adults outside the family who freely give their lives, and use their time with
the adolescents. They become credible witnesses to the message they spread, in
their interaction with the adolescents.
It was a relative surprise the frequent reference to the role of priests. The
idea that the priests are very occupied with sacramental tasks or that they are
not prepared for the catechism is very frequent.146 However, the elevated occurrence with which the adolescents identified specific priests as having been
especially relevant for the trajectory of their faith was contrary to the preconceptions. At least, for this segment of the population. GDC 224 remembers
that the priests are the educators of faith. However, GDC 225, when listing
the tasks of the priests, sees them more as making up the rear guard, so to
143

GDC 156. The English version omits the last two paragraphs of this number.

Cf. POLLO Mario, Modello di relazione pastorale, in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et al. (Coordinatori dellopera), Pastorale Giovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed esperienze, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 335-350.
144

145

TONELLI Riccardo, Quale esperienza religiosa?, p. 188.

146
The curriculum of theology in the Portuguese Catholic University does not include catechetics. In Braga, in the PhD program, there is a course on models and
practices of the cathechism.

65

speak. However, in our sample, a high percentage of priests go beyond this


bureaucratic task and assume the stance of a true role model.147
A third group of influential ministries comes from the world of youth
ministry. Possibly, the reasons for the significance and relevance of this group
are similar to those we found with the catechists. But, in relation to the world
of the catechesis, there are significant differences. The quantity and quality
offered at the level of youth ministry is much less than infant and adolescent
catechesis. Training and coordination are also substantially weaker.148 One of
the most noticeable traits of youth ministry in Portugal is its asymmetry. Side
by side, in the same area, profoundly different experiences are available in
terms of available resources, the seriousness in recruitment, the quality of the
training and support offered, and in the evangelical and educational quality
of the projects proposed. The distinction is not made, as it once was, between
progressives and conservatives, between different weights given to kerigmatic
and educative dimensions, or between greater or lesser importance of inculturation in postmodern culture. The distinction is made, primarily, between
presence and absence.
The fact that the percentage of references to youth ministry is clearly in
second place could come from the fact that these respondents, with success
over ten years in the catechism, have not had access, in a consistent form, to
youth ministry experiences.
2.2.3. Support actors
The data recovered has identified some other people and platforms as influential, albeit at a lower level.
The group School & Teachers includes references to Catholic school
(which some respondents frequent), to teachers in general and religion teachers. In cluster 1 this comes to 3.06% and rises to 12.9% in cluster 3. In the
clusters 2 and 3, the influence of the teachers is identified as favouring and
opposing faith in some cases.
The relative absence of EMRC teachers, especially for respondents from
cluster 1, deserves some attention. The Bishops Conference did not save its
strength to guarantee the presence of Catholic instruction in public schools.149
This perspective can appear counter-intuitive. Often, we here complains about
the lack of availability and/or preparation of the priests to youth work.
147

148

Cf. AZEVEDO ngela S, Ser ou no ser... O jovem de hoje sabe responder.

149
Cf. MARTINS Jos Manuel Sevivas, Enquadramento histrico/legal do ensino
religioso nas escolas pblicas, in SECRETARIADO NACIONAL DA EDUCAO

66

However, the EMRC teachers do not appear to be especially relevant for the
faith of the respondents.
One explanation for this fact could be that the respondents interpreted
the question in an exclusive sense. Which people most influenced could
have been interpreted as calling for just one response. And even if the EMRC
teachers were seen as relevant, they would be excluded from the response because they were less influential than others (families, catechists). In this case,
the absence of reference to religion teachers should not be seen as an absence
of influence. This interpretation has no support. The formulation used must
be understood as allowing more than one answer. Many respondents did understand it so and submitted long lists of those who had influenced their faith.
Another hypothesis explains the absence of EMRC teachers with a distortion of the sample. A great part of the questions of the questionnaire focus
on the parochial catechism and not on religious education in the schools. This
would induce the respondents to underrate their interaction with the EMRC
teachers. It is a possible interpretation, but it leaves without explanation the
weight the family references have in the sample.
Probably, we will have to accept the legitimate possibility that the EMRC
teachers are not influential in the defining of the faith of the respondents.
However, this questionnaire was not concerned with the EMRC, and was not
designed to confirm anything in this sense. But the disproportionate gap between effort and results, makes this a legitimate question.
Myself is the answer to between 1,11% (cluster 1) and 8,06% (cluster
3) of the references. This appears as quite narcissistic. These values could be
interpreted as coming from the desire for personal affirmation but also, as
coming from the strong individualist culture in which the respondents live.
The fact that these values are inversely proportional to catechesis attendance
is expectable. A more prosocial (and less narcissistic) posture can become an
informal prerequisite to attend catechesis often; or can be a consequence of
such catechesis attendance.

CRIST (Organizao dos textos), Frum de Educao Moral e Religiosa Catlica,


Lisboa, Secretariado Nacional da Educao Crist, 2005, 61-82. RALO Rosa, A misso do professor de EMRC no contexto da escola actual, in Pastoral Catequtica, 26
(2013), 89-95.
67

2.2.4. Faith sources


One of the items on the questionnaire Representations of God. Wave 1
asked explicitly about the sources used to clarify the image of God and the
relationship with him.
The respondents nominated between zero and eight different sources of
information. But the majority of them wrote a small list. 20.2% do not refer
to any source of information and 37.1% report just one. As one would imagine, the use of these sources of information corresponds to the frequency of
catechism attendance.
For the cluster 1 respondents, people with 31,44% and Church
with 20,2% are the most common sources of information. Correlated with
church we found other sources on information: Ecclesiastical educative offers (with 14,5%), faith sources (with 12,38%)150 and piety (with 4,02%).
The media are used by 10.48%, much more than the 3.04% that declare
themselves as a source of information or the 1.59% that seek information in
the dialogue.
It is interesting to observe that the vast majority of the sources of information declared have to do with the network of the people that the respondents
select and with the church (in its various manifestations). And this is not just
in cluster 1, but in all clusters. The school is absent, and the media is between
10.48% and 13.46%. Even with the weight of the secularising agenda of the
school, official culture, and the media, the respondents find alternative methods to support their faith. It is true that these conclusions are taken from a
self-evaluation of the respondents. It is still to determine to what extent the
school and the media are influential, even without the correspondents being
conscious of the process.
2.3. Faith outputs
As we have seen (chapter 1: 3.1.6), faith has a transformative impact on
the believers. Their praxis becomes a consequence of the new relationship established with the triune God. Faith is an identity changing experience. And
when identity changes, the praxis (and in this concept of praxis we can include
isolated acts, attitudes, values) is informed by the Gospels criteria. What are
the observable behaviours of the faith? How are the respondents expressing
their experience of faith?
150
In God representations. Wave 2 only 13% identified reading the Bible. And
45% said reading the Bible was one of the least relevant.

68

According to God Representations. Wave 1, a first group is made from


those who did not respond to the question about consequences of faith. Even
between respondents from cluster 1, this group exceeds 10%.151 What is the
rationale behind these answers? There are, at least, two possible hypotheses.
Faith can be seen as a mere intellectual opinion or as an emotional experience.
Both possibilities localize faith inside the subject. There is no necessity to exteriorise something that is lived only on the inside. A second hypothesis, which
does not contradict the previous, interprets the absence of praxis derived from
faith as a fragility of faith itself. We would be facing something similar to the
faith without works spoken of by the letter of St. James. Faith, weak and incipient for who has still to be initiated as a Christian, is not sufficiently strong
to generate a praxis explicitly inspired by faith. This absence of action can be
enhanced by the feeling of impotence and insecurity that conditions the youngest O dilema do labirinto traduz-se na incapacidade de deciso relativamente
ao rumo a tomar. Vou por aqui ou por ali?152
However, besides the absence of responses, it was possible to find, for the
remaining 90% of respondents, various types of response. Respondents were
asked, in God representations. Wave 1, to identify usual actions or attitudes, somehow, related to their faith. Responses could be aggregated in eight
main groups: Irrelevant acts (previously analysed as absence of action), ritual,
relation with others, Church proposals, intrapersonal impact of faith, Church
ministries, Christian morality, and public affirmation of faith. The questions
asked in God representations. Wave 2 about the topic of behaviours inspired by faith were generated on data from God representations. Wave 1.
2.3.1. Morality and freedom in Christ
Using different categories and languages, the majority of respondents
agrees on the idea that the experience of faith is an important factor for a moral life, and for the configuration and exercising of their liberty. As Gatti says:
Questa vita morale secondo la fede derivata e conseguente, rispetto alla
gratuit dellazione salvifica di Dio che la previene e la rende possibile; ma non
costituisce nei suoi confronti qualcosa di accessorio o di estraneo. Ne invece

To these 10,14% we should add 1,05% (from cluster 1) that declare faith as irrelevant, without any impact on their lives. As expected, in cluster 3 this stance reaches
30% (21,39% of non-answers and 10,32% faith irrelevance). In God representations. Wave 2 the option of no gesture associated with faith gets 2%.
151

152
PAIS Jos Machado, Ganchos, tachos e biscates. Jovens, trabalho e futuro, Porto, mbar, 2001, p. 10.

69

lincarnazione concreta, una verifica e garanzia di autenticit.153 This nexus


between faith and moral has a double impact. It helps to understand moral
as a behavioural response to the experience of faith and works as criteria to
evaluate the experience of faith.
The most frequent references are about interpersonal relationships. In
cluster 1, 31,52% of the answers given by the respondents to the first questionnaire are associated with the quality of relationships with others.154 Males
subscribe to this dimension slightly more than females (33,01% vs 28,53%)
and those associated with the Church have a distinct advantage over those
non-associated (33,31% vs 21,07%).
In God representations. Wave 2 respondents reported that helping
others (75%) and the way they relate to others (68%) was deeply connected to their faith. Reinforcing this connection between faith and interpersonal
relations, only 4% and 9% deemed these actions not connected with the faith.
At the same time the option to fulfil the commandments only got 13% (and
30% in the inverse formulation). Since seven of the Ten Commandments refer
to relationships with others, this much lower frequency appears odd. Probably, it is just a language problem. When hearing the language of the commandments, respondents could be associating it with an imposed morality.
The contents conveyed by the commandments could be similar to those found
in the relational expressions, but the respondents feel them differently.155
Respondents are saying that faith leads them to several forms of service
towards other people and building healthy relations with them.
This should not be understood in a conservative way, according to the
idea that religion in the younger generations works as a civilising force, reprimanding the excesses of youth, and being a pro-social factor, independently

153

GATTI Guido, Educazione morale etica cristiana. Leumann, LDC, 1994, p. 9.

In cluster 2 and 3, this percentage decrease to 26,81% and 24,6%. This 5%


drop, in an explorative instrument, can be a random anomaly. Or could be seen as a
suggestion that a strong commitment to faith leads to an increased care with interpersonal relationships.
154

155
And this fact is especially interesting when we see that the catechetical curriculum
does a lot of effort to present the commandments as expressions of life. os catequizandos so desafiados a compreender e a viver as questes da vida moral, segundo uma
proposta de felicidade. As questes morais abordadas centram-se no valor dos mandamentos e das bem-aventuranas como proposta de vida, como rumo para uma experincia de vida nova e feliz, fundamentada no amor a Deus, aos outros, no amor vida e na
vivncia madura da sexualidade. SNEC, O desafio de viver. Guia do catequista, p. 14.

70

of its truth or specifically religious merits.156 This pro-social attention derived


from faith is born of a profound theological intuition. Jesus of Nazareth tries
to establish an intense brotherly relationship with all of humanity, based in
His filiation experience. Lo Spirito di Dio muoveva Ges a vivere il suo raPositive Psychology orto con gli altri in chiave di fraternit accogliente e instancabilmente operativa, portata fino alla donazione della propria vita per
essi.157 Somehow, these respondents are capturing the deep Christology of Mt
25, which matches the recognising of Christ with a generous and free service
to the weakest.
This prosocial attention is also worthwhile, considering the contemporary difficulty of articulating identity and otherness. Between the narcissistic
closure and the fragmentary dispersion, contemporary adolescents have an
immense difficulty in constructing healthy and balanced identities.158 But the
experience of faith enables the construction of an identity open to others, capable of outreach. The otherness stops being an obstacle to personal realisation
and becomes normative for life.159 Theologically, the reasons for this prosocial
dimension of the faith existence can be found either in the person and praxis
of Jesus Christ or in the social model of the Trinity. However, this theological
reasoning is not explicitly found among the respondents. The best we can find,
in this line of theological reasoning, is the affirmation, even infrequent, that
the relational style of God, the form in which He interacts with us, is a source
of inspiration to our horizontal action, in favour of our brothers.
We should also be realistic and recognise that this attention to the other
is, still, of the short range kind. Its character is more interpersonal than social.
Contrary to the praxis of Jesus who did not reduced His action to the relationship with isolated people, but instead opened to social dimension, to the conflicts and social fractures that inhibit the realization of the Kingdom of God. It
was not detected the impact of faith in social, political, economic or ecological
Cf. EISENBERG Nancy and MORRIS Amanda Sheffield, Moral cognitions and
prosocial responding adolescents, in LERNER Richard and STEINBERG Laurence
(Edited by), Handbook of adolescent psychology, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons,
2004, 155-188, p. 177.
156

GALLO Luis A., La questione globale: quale spiritualit, in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et al. (Coordinatori dellopera), Pastorale Giovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed
esperienze, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 301-311, p. 304.
157

Cf. POLLO Mario, Manuale di pedagogia generale. Fondamenti di una pedagogia culturale dellanima, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2008, pp. 171-178.
158

159
Cf. TONELLI Riccardo, Qualit della vita, in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et
al. (Coordinatori dellopera), Pastorale Giovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed esperienze,
Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 251-264, pp. 257-260.

71

spheres. Despite the recommendations of GDC 133 and 175, Churchs social
doctrine is not being proposed nor assimilated by these respondents.
But besides these references to the new quality of interpersonal relationships, there are also references to Christian morals, and the values and necessity to fulfil the commandments. This group of references makes up for 4,62%
of the total of the references detected in cluster 1 and does not fluctuate much
in the other clusters. Sex and association variables also did not introduce any
oscillation in these values.160
Some respondents talk about general values, which some classify as
Christian and refer to Christ as the source of revelation, while others list
some of these values (justice, solidarity, good...). The generic use of the expression values includes the whole area of morality. Inside and outside the
Church, this terminology has found strong acceptance. There is no risk to
mistake values with an imposed or casuistic morality. Values in general,
or explicitly Christian values, mean a lifestyle inspired by the teachings and
example of Jesus. Probably, it is this will to adhere to the entirety of the contents of the Christian morals that takes the place of an explicit presence of a
socio-political component.
There are also explicit references to the fulfilling of commandments. Which
is unusual language, even within the Church. This was evidenced by the tacit
denial we observed in the questionnaire God representations. Wave 2. It is
not easy to understand if this use expresses a true sense of obedience or if it is
conformity to a pre-constituted moral code.
2.3.2. Faith sharing
One of the normative consequences of faith is the urgency to share it. If
faith transforms, qualifying the existence, nothing is more natural than the
believer feeling motivated to express its enthusiasm with such experience and
wanting to invite others to make a similar experience.
Information about the practice of faith sharing can be found in several
places. In God representations. Wave 1, we have questions Q14 (acts or attitudes related to God), and Q16 (Has your faith influenced other people?). And
in God representations. Wave 2 we have Q20 (who do you talk about God),
Q 21 (how often) and Q23 and Q24 (multiple choice of acts related to faith).
Asked about attitudes related to faith sharing, 2,19% from cluster 1 report some kind of public affirmation of faith. Some respondents simply talk
160

72

Data referring to the questionnaire God representations. Wave 1.

freely with their friends about their faith. And others assume a more proactive
stand and engage actively in some kind of evangelism. The need to overcome
misconceptions about God and faith is commonly identified.
When explicitly questioned about the practices of faith sharing, 13.04%
of the respondents from cluster 1 did not answer. This percentage rises to 26%
in clusters 2 and 3. Still in cluster 1,86% say that they have not, 6.52% say
they do not know what answer to give, and 30.27% respond, candidly, that
they do not share faith. The aggregation of these results attests to an absence
of faith sharing, in cluster 1, of 51.69%. This percentage of those who do not
share their faith rises to 70% in clusters 2 and 3. It is undeniable that the levels
of catechism attendance is a discriminating factor for the sharing of faith, but
the fact that more than half of the respondents that attended catechesis is not
capable of sharing their faith raises serious questions.
Among those who gave any type of positive answer there is a massive fragmentation. 42 different types of code were identified. This plurality, associated
with an elevated frequency of negative responses, strongly suggests the absence
of shared ideas (social representations) about the necessity to share faith and
the ways of doing it.
The answers were grouped into five groups (difficulty of action, strategy, influence as something negative, personal difficulties in influence, recipients).161 The most frequent of these is Strategies, with 53.69% of cluster 1.
Other groups have residual values between 0.37% and 2.83%.
Seven different approaches were identified within the group of strategies
identified. The first presupposes a strong self, without fear to proclaim the
truth of the Gospel to outsiders. The second underlines the sharing of personal
experiences. The third focuses on joint dialogue. The fourth calls attention
to the pastoral proposals given by the Church. The fifth calls attention to the
place of experiences of serving. And the sixth has to do with the role of particular ministries and the seventh with persuasive arguments.162
Each of these approaches has its theological-practical legitimacy. Some are
complementary to others, and some are radically incompatible. It is tempting

161

Not including the codes referring to the absence of the sharing of faith.

162
These different strategies cover the three different communication modes of Social Representations: diffusion, propagation and propaganda. It is clear the plurality
of ways how the relation we/others is understood. And this fragmentation could
be a clue suggesting that the processes of fait sharing do not belong to the social representations of the faith.

73

to make a mould of active pastoral actions today and in the recent past163
and try to fit these in each of the seven approaches. But this would just make
sense if we ignored the non-systematic and popular character of the texts and
opinions produced by the respondents. So it seems preferable to use a more
inductive approach and try to understand what are the factors of convergence
and distinction between these seven groups of strategies.
We can imagine that each one of the groups of strategies is placed in a
series of concentric circles, identified by different subjects. In the first place, in
the inner circle, is the respondent. We focus here on the first group of strategies, centred on a strong and assertive subject. We can find similarities between
some of the affirmations produced and the militant Catholicism of the 20th
century. This group of strategies appears as an alternative to the mainstream.
It recovers the combat again human respect. It contradicts a certain aphasia
that traditionally marks Portuguese Catholicism. But we can anticipate some
limitations in this group of strategies. The affirmation of a strong self does
not work with the fragility of the postmodern sensibility and can be seen as
oppressive and rigid. The absence of attention to the others could also lead to
an auto-referential discourse.
The seventh group of strategies, appealing to the force of argument, could
also be placed in this innermost circle. It is used as much by atheists (in cluster
3), as by believers, and both share the assumption that rationality would be the
condition sine qua non to change the point of view of the other.
In the second layer of concentric circles is the you, the partner in dialogue with whom we want to share our faith. The second group of strategies
(witnessing and experience sharing) has the subject as their protagonist.
Many of the texts classified within this group of strategies have the form I
do this or I do that. But this second group of strategies has a fundamental
difference to the first: it implicitly recognises the existence of another that you
want to influence. Even when the linguistic formulation just refers to I, the
other is present as a horizon that gives a reason to my action and testimony. In addition to the merit of recognizing, at least implicitly, the role of the
other, this group of strategies offers some guarantee of verifiability (even
indirectly) of the proposed message of faith.
Clearly placed in the second circle is the third group of strategies (dialogue). Explicitly, these respondents assume that the dialogue is the best
strategy for sharing faith. The dialogue is a category that, in much pastoral
163
Cf. MIDALI Mario, Teologia pratica. 2. Attuali modelli e percorsi contestuali di
evangelizzazione, Roma, Las, 2000.

74

work, becomes dominant.164 Accepting or not the influence of Habermas, this


third group of strategies recognises a particular efficacy in dialogue.165 In a pluralist context, dialogue appears to be the unique possibility for citizens to express minority opinions. This category offers a reasonably balanced synthesis
between protagonism of the subject, attention to the recipient, and relevance
of the proposed content of faith.
A third concentric circle shows us the church and its manifestations. The
fourth (pastoral proposals of the Church) and the sixth group of strategies
(Specific ministries) are found in this circle. The notion that contact and
participation in ecclesiastical activities acts as a stimulus to faith has a long
tradition. The sacramentalizing pastoral spread by Trento is deeply connected
to this circle. The notion that the participation in the Eucharist is an active
factor for the growth of faith persists. Paraphrasing the expression of the Sacrosanctum Concilium according to which the liturgy is fons et culmen, these
respondents suggest that the liturgy is, above all, a source or starting point for
a Christian life. It is probable, according to data from the sociology of religion,
that those more distant assume this mentality. For these people, the fact of
participating in the liturgy is a rite of openness to faith. However, this fourth
group of strategies is not limited to the Eucharist and includes in the same logic
a series of events in the world of youth ministry. A good part of the dialogue
and reflection that happens in Portugal about the topic of youth ministry is
motivated by the opportunity and quality of these events.166 Possibly, for many
of the respondents, these events were important markers in the construction
of their faith identity. And from here they extrapolated, reinforced by the nomenklatura of the youth ministry, the idea of an inherent efficacy in events and
large gatherings.
The sixth group of strategies underlines the relevance that ministries and
personal life trajectories bring on others. This is very obvious in those that,
for some time, dedicated themselves to being catechists: this ministry has as its
explicit objective the growth in faith of the students. But even in the case of
Cf. MENEZES Anderson, A evoluo no dilogo na Igreja Catlica: a Ecclesiam
Suam, Recife, Grfica Dom Bosco, 2007.
164

Cf. VILA MERINO Eduardo S., Racionalidad, dilogo y accin: Habermas y la


pedagoga crtica, in Revista Iberoamericana de Educacin, 56 (2011) 3, 1-15.
165

166
Quando samos do nvel local, quando subimos no organograma eclesial, falar
de PJ, falar das actividades que se fazem. () Os rgos e plataformas de convergncia da PJ entendem-se a si mesmos como organizadores de actividades. No como
dinamizadores de verdadeiros projectos. AZEVEDO ngela S, Ser ou no ser... O
jovem de hoje sabe responder, p. 84.

75

young catechists, the fact of assuming a strong commitment to the Church is


seen as a call to faith by the social network of the respondents.
The outermost circle puts us in contact with the world, with the people
and situations that, outside the church, could benefit from the saving action of
the Gospel. These respondents describe a movement going from their personal
faith towards the experience of service. This process, done without intentions of
proselytising, ends up working as a stimulus to equate faith with benevolence.
The questionnaire God representations. Wave 2 included two question
about the practices of dialogue related to faith. This does not necessarily coincide with the processes of faith sharing, but in Portuguese it presents various overlapping areas. The questions show that an elevated percentage speaks
with relative frequency about religious themes. But this result is somewhat
ambiguous. If we consider the secularising agenda of the public sphere, the
fact that 4/5 of the respondents claim to have established dialogues about faith
with other people is surprising. Of course, knowing that the population at
which this questionnaire is aimed is strongly integrated in the Church (participation in catechism, attendance of holy communion and personal prayer), the
surprise decreases.
On the other hand, when 63% of the sample goes to mass once a week and
58% pray one or more time a day, we can notice that just 9.35% speak about
religion once or more per week, and just 1.29% do so every day. That is to say
that the practice of dialogue with other people about religious themes occurs
much less than ritual practice. This goes to confirm the earlier impression that
the dialogues expressing faith are not common. The partners chosen for these
dialogues are the family, students of the catechism or other religious educators
and friends.
2.3.3. Ritual: Mass attendance
When asked about actions related to their faith, respondents have identified sacraments and prayer as their first choice. 38,65% of the cluster 1 respondents refer to piety as a consequential action of their faith. Interestingly,
the percentage of those who attended less catechesis is even higher: 45,96%
for cluster 2 and 48,41% for cluster 3. Those, with a less intense socialization
process in the Church, assume the traditional view that faith is cult. This
is an idea also present outside the Church. As we have seen in the Portuguese
dictionaries (Chapter 5: 5.1), cult and prayer are the most frequent definitions
associated with God.

76

Besides these more qualitative references, the questionnaires produced


quantitative data about the frequency of participation in the Eucharist, confession, and prayer.
We will start with Mass attendance. Respondents belonging to cluster 1
(God representations. Wave 1) attend Mass frequently. 53,08% do so weekly,
and 30,38% does so more than once a month. These attendance values are
much higher than the national average. Respondents from God representations. Wave 2 have similar behaviour, 63% attend mass weekly, and 21% do
it more than once a month.
How should we interpret this data, in a practical-theological perspective?
One strategy would be to quantify the results. Accepting the paradigm of progressive secularization, in which the indicators of religious practice tend to
decrease, these values are anomalous. This could be explained by suggesting
that the quality of the catechism and the processes of religious education and
socialisation are countering, at least within this group, the corrosive effects of
secularization. However, this strategy leaves aside some pertinent questions.
What is the Eucharistic experience of these young people? How and why do
they participate in the Eucharist? Are these religious behaviours going to remain constant when respondents get older, or will they diminish? How does
this high frequency of attendance relate to their experience of faith?
Analytical approaches relating the Eucharist and young people are not
common. Researches such as Pollo and Tonelli (in a more qualitative sense)
or Scilligo (with a more quantitative approach) are honourable exceptions.167
Unhappily, the results are not applicable to our study, due to the temporal,
geographic, and cultural distance between us.
Another strategy would be to evaluate the liturgical conformity of the Eucharistic practice of the respondents. In Portugal, there are no explicit studies
that follow this strategy, but there are multiple evaluations, more or less informal and more or less prejudiced, following this strategy. According to this
strategy, the important thing is to assure a well-defined celebrating practice
without useless concessions to the juvenile condition or the possible necessities
of inculturation.168
Cf. POLLO Mario and TONELLI Riccardo, Il vissuto giovanile nellEucaristia,
in CARLOTTI Paolo and MARITANO Mario (A cura di), LEucaristia nel vissuto
dei giovani, Roma, LAS, 2002, 17-44. SCILLIGO Pio, Il Dio con noi tra speranza e
timore. La relazione con Dio nellEucaristia condizionata dalla relazione con noi stessi
e dalla relazione con i genitori, in CARLOTTI Paolo and MARITANO Mario (A cura
di), LEucaristia nel vissuto dei giovani, Roma, LAS, 2002, 65-82.
167

168

Cf. PALOMBELLA Massimo, Lanimazione musicale della celebrazione, in


77

Strictly speaking, the data provided by our survey does not permit to elaborate analytic strategies. But the two complementary hypotheses offered by
Polfliet are very suggestive. The author invites to see the liturgy as having a
special expressive capacity. Con il suo linguaggio, i suoi riti, la liturgia a
volte ben pi parlante dei discorsi, quando sia questione devocare liniziativa e la presenza di Dio, desprimere il suo desiderio dentrare in comunione
con gli uomini.169 Recovering the old intuition of lex orandi, lex crendendi, it
understands that the liturgy has an essential role in the transmission of faith,
through its symbolic dimension and by the capacity of making present the celebrated faith to those present in the celebration. At the same time, the author
recognises that the liturgy demands an extra effort to initiate into Christian
faith and identity. The liturgy is not today, in current culture, easy reading.
Initiation is necessary, and it is struggling with the risk of indifference. But
liturgy always happens inside the Church. It presupposes and requires a community that welcomes, accompanies and celebrates.
This vision, described by Polfliet is fundamentally compatible with the
theory of social representations. The liturgy and especially the Eucharist in
which the respondents participate so assiduously, acts as a space of construction, ritualization and feedback of shared knowledge. Here, the expression
knowledge is more than just cognitive. It includes experiences and ideas. All
this takes place in a context of strong interactions, where you can elaborate a
vision of a life alternative to the hegemonic view of society. But this process
only gets a positive outcome when there is continuity between the languages
of the liturgy and the participants languages (in SRT terms we could recover
the notions of objectivation and anchorage) and when there is an ecclesiastical community (in SRT, we could talk about a group) that presents itself as a
credible and welcoming space of belonging.170
Another question that is not possible to resolve in this investigation is the
relationship between the liturgy as a source and the liturgy as the endpoint.
Some authors underline the evangelising potential of the liturgy; it acts as a
CARLOTTI Paolo and MARITANO Mario (A cura di), LEucaristia nel vissuto dei
giovani, Roma, LAS, 2002, 263-277.
POLFLIET Joris, La liturgia, luogo diniziazione alla fede, in DERROITTE Henri (A cura di), Catechesi e iniziazione cristiana, Leumann, LDC, 2006, 97-106, p. 99.
169

170
Cordeiro supports this decisive role of the group and of the social context in liturgy: O campo semntico do termo smbolo estendeu-se a todos os elementos (objeto, palavra, gesto, pessoa), quando permutado no seio de um grupo. Como qualquer
grupo, a Igreja identifica-se atravs dos seus smbolos CORDEIRO Jos Manuel,
Coraes ao alto. Introduo liturgia da Igreja, Lisboa, Paulus, 2014, p. 46.

78

process and place where faith grows.171 Others have underlined that participation in the liturgy is an act derived from faith.
A final issue that is relevant for the understanding of the Eucharistic experience of the adolescents is born in the form of the liturgical supply. When
a young person decides to participate in the liturgy (and we are always talking
about choices), what kind of liturgy is offered? We have seen earlier that their
experience is strongly configured by their attitude to and their experience of
faith. However, their personal experience does not happen in a vacuum. What
liturgical choices does the celebrating community make? Obviously, there are
no empirical studies about the liturgy in Portugal. A recent message from the
Bishops proposes dar a todas as aes litrgicas a dignidade que lhes devida.172 The phrase implies an evaluation where problems arise in terms of the
lack of dignity. This lack of dignity is an ambiguous expression. The bettering of the liturgical offering would mean for some a greater formalism of the
liturgy; a greater fidelity to the letter and to the spirit of the liturgical norms. It
would be urgent to contest the excesses of liturgical renewal:
Derrubados os diques da intangibilidade e do imobilismo, foi
impossvel deter o mpeto das guas e passou-se do extremo de uma
liturgia regulada por normas rgidas e aparentemente intocveis a celebraes inventadas, construdas, manipuladas, mutiladas em que, por
vezes, se tornou irreconhecvel, quando no ausente, o ncleo irrenuncivel da Liturgia: o mysterium fidei.173
A different sensibility insists that the liturgy must respect a double fidelity
(both the message of God and man). 174
Cf. LANZA Sergio, La parrocchia in un mondo che cambia, Roma, Edizioni
OCD, 2003, pp. 125-126.
171

Conferncia Episcopal Portuguesa, Promover a Renovao da Pastoral da Igreja


em Portugal, Lisboa, 2013, 6A.
172

PEIXOTO Joo da Silva, A liturgia da Igreja a 50 anos do Conclio, Ftima,


2013, p. 5. This line of interpretation should not be confused to the critiques of the
Paul VIs reform, that defend that the new liturgy is eminently flawed: The will of
the Second Vatican Council was to reform this living Roman Rite, and not therefore
to create a new liturgy.1 Contrary to this intention, the Consilium, under Archbishop
Bugnini, manufactured a new liturgy that broke the ancient continuity of the classical
Roman Rite. The solution can only be to return to the situation of the rite in 1962, not
in order to stop there, but to implement the intended conciliar reform in small, genuinely organic, steps. DOBSZAY Lszl, The restoration and organic development of
the roman rite, London - New York, T&T Clark, 2010, p. 263
173

174
Esta sensibilidade existencial uma das grandes caractersticas da liturgia do
Vaticano II. essa nfase existencial que possibilitar releituras da liturgia dentro de
contextos especficos como, por exemplo, a cultura afro-brasileira (missa dos quilom-

79

However, beyond these two theoretical sensibilities, I suggest the hypothesis that, in practice, the liturgy performed in Portugal and offered to the respondents is positioned between the two poles. The first valorises sacramental
efficacy and presupposes a faithful adult community. It underlines the transforming force of the liturgy which tends to leave in the shadow the possible
cultural discrepancies between the forms of the liturgy and the culture of the
population. The second pole valorises the adaptation to the condition of the
receivers. It is willing to sacrifice essential elements of the liturgy and the celebrated faith, in the name of a badly understood adhesion and enthusiasm of
the participants. This describes two polar opposites, which are rarely found in
a pure state. However, what is easily found, is the absence of communication,
the difficulty of those who want a liturgy rich with meaning and, at the same
time, capable of being significant to the cultural and spiritual sensibility of
those that, today, celebrate the mysteries of faith.
2.3.4. Ritual: personal prayer
After having interpreted the role of the Eucharist, we will now move on
the role of personal prayer. The frequency of personal prayer is even more
intense than mass attendance, as happens in most sociological surveys.175 In
cluster 1 (God representations. Wave 1), 42.94% pray once or more per day
and 32.91% pray once a week. In God representations. Wave 2 58% report
daily prayer and 25% weekly. Reinforcing the importance that the respondents give their prayer is the fact that 27% choose praying as an important
expression associated with God and just 6% consider it of little importance.
Of the gestures associated with faith, praying is agreed on by 67% of the
respondents. Just 10% include it in the list of gestures less connected to faith.
These numbers confirm, even for the most uncommitted respondents, the essential role of prayer.
However, the design of the questionnaire does not permit to know what
are the practices that the respondents associate with prayer.
bos), a questo indgena (missa da terra sem males). Estas releituras s foram possveis
por causa da mudana operada no conceito de liturgia. Mudana que permitiu ver
todo o povo cristo como celebrante do culto e que fez da vida cotidiana a matria-prima a partir da qual se celebra a pscoa de Cristo. COSTA Luiz Antnio Reis, A
virada litrgica do Vaticano II: mutao conceitual e prxis institucional, in Anais dos
Simpsios da ABHR, 13 (2012).
175
Samples like the one found by Gibson in Scotland, where a large majority of
the respondents reports absence of prayer are outliers. Cf. GIBSON Harry M., Adolescents attitudes to prayer, in British Journal of Religious Education, 17 (1995) 3,
140-147.

80

The practice of prayer in Christianity is connatural to faith. But it has always assumed a plurality of forms and roles.176 This plurality, when we speak
of prayer, results from its theological richness and complexity. Besides the different Trinitarian perspectives the prayer of the believers assumes, it also varies
with the believers posture in relation to the mystery of God and in function
of the specific techniques used.177 The empirical tradition also has difficulties
in dealing with this plurality. Much investigation has recognised this richness
but frequently, it all boils down to the question of the frequency of prayer.178
Sociologists and psychologists of religion tend to use a not discussed definition of prayer in order to create their models.179 Even when they discuss the
theoretical definition of prayer, they do it from common sense or in the sense
accepted by the scientific community and not from the theological framework
that acts on the subject. 180
Some investigators from the area of practical theology have tried to fight
these limitations by giving a voice to the effective experiences of faith of the
respondents: To investigate contemporary praying we should not rely on
pre-structured questionnaires but instead apply open-ended questions.181 But
this attention to concrete experience makes it impossible to extrapolate the
conclusions obtained in a context and a population for other contexts and
populations.

Cf. ZEVINI Giorgio, Educare alla preghiera in Spirito e verit, in GARCA Jess
Manuel (a cura di), Accompagnare i giovani nello Spirito, Roma, LAS, 1998, 141-163.
176

Cf. HRING Bernhard, Orao, in FIORES Stefano de and GOFFI Tullo (Organizadores), Dicionrio de espiritualidade, So Paulo, Edies Paulinas, 1989, 841848.
177

Cf. LADD Kevin L. and SPILKA Bernard, Inward, outward, and upward: cognitive aspects of prayer, in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41 (2002) 3,
475-484, pp. 475-477.
178

Cf. DEIN Simon and LITTLEWOOD Roland, The psychology of prayer and
the development of the prayer experience questionnaire, in Mental health, religion &
culture, 11 (2008) 1, 39-52.
179

Cf. GIORDAN Giuseppe, Toward a sociology of prayer, in GIORDAN Giuseppe and SWATOS Jr William H. (Editors), Religion, spirituality and everyday practice, New York, Springer, 2011, 77-88, pp. 78-81.
180

181
BNZINGER Sarah, JANSSEN Jacques and SCHEEPERS Peer, Praying in a
secularized society: an empirical study of praying practices and varieties, in International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18 (2008), 256-265, p. 257. Cf., also
KNIPPENBERG Tjeu van, The structure and variety of prayer, in Journal of empirical
theology, 13 (2000) 2, 55-67.

81

With only the data collected, a deep interpretation of the adolescents praying experience is not possible. We must limit ourselves to surveying relevant
questions.
The first is whether these elevated levels of prayer refer to an encounter
with God or an encounter with themselves? The search for your own self is
a powerful force in the culture of expressive individualism in which we find
ourselves.182 Also strong is the urgency of the young to construct their own
identity.183 There is ample empirical evidence from various contexts that in the
word prayer several narcissistic practices and ideas are housed. These interpretations of prayer reduce it to self-centred processes, in which the focus is
on personal well-being.184 Pollo describes this in the Italian context of the 90s:
Tra le varie forme di rapporto esaminate molte erano centrate
sulla soggettivit, ovvero sul rapporto personale, esclusivo non condiviso del soggetto con Dio, senza quindi, alcuna verifica se questo fosse
realmente un rapporto verso lAlto o solamente un rapporto con se
stesso, con la propria interiorit.185
Both spiritual theology and religious psychology confirm that prayer is
associated with a bettering of personal well-being.186 Especially in adolescence,
prayer helps the believer clarify his image of himself and find resources for
growth. So, it is not easy to distinguish phenomenologically a prayer that is
communion with God from a prayer that is nothing more than intrapersonal stabilization.
A second question concerns the balance between prayer as dialogue and as
obedience. When we analysed the Portuguese catechisms, we identified a class
(Chapter 5: 3, class 5) very much marked by the proposals of prayer. The proCf. ZONDAG Hessel J., I want to pray and i dont want to pray: expressive
individualism and prayer for the possible relations between expressive individualism
and personal prayer.
182

Cf. COLLINS-MAYO Sylvia, Young peoples spirituality and the meaning of


prayer, in DAY Abby (Edited by), Religion and the individual. Belief, practice, identity, Hampshire, Ashgate, 2007, 33-46.
183

Early researchers () argued that meditation is simply an effective technology religious practices could be used to construct and maintain a secular self and
intensify the therapy process. NELSON James M., Psychology, religion, and spirituality, p. 468.
184

185

POLLO Mario, Le sfide educative dei giovani doggi, pp. 135-136.

186
Cf. WHITTINGTON Brandon L. and SCHER Stefen J., Prayer and subjective
well-being: an examination of six different types of prayer, in International Journal for
the Psychology of Religion, 20 (2010), 59-68.

82

posals of prayer are presented under the guise of dialogue. An open dialogue,
confident, but asymmetric. The God with whom we can talk to, is not in the
same plane as us. He can bring to our life an abundance of meaning and love
that is unobtainable with our own forces. This loving relationship with God
has, in prayer as in faith, God as its origin. It is Him that always takes the initiative. Hence Christian prayer is understood, just like faith, as listening and
acceptance of an offer. However, the respondents, in pouncing their relationship with God from their own experience of interpersonal dialogue, can leave
out this important aspect of the obedient nature of prayer.
In adolescent culture, dialogue is appreciated. The requirement to see your
own voice respected is conditio sine qua non for a healthy relationship. There
is a risk, evidenced by some formulations recovered from the respondents,
of assuming a practice of praying in which the specificity of the roles of the
believer and God is dissolved. Admitting that this process could be occurring,
how can we interpret and valorise it? A more objective way to see it would
highlight the discrepancy between the practice of young people and the normative ideal of the Church. It would look for the causes of this in the current
cultural climate and in the incapacity of catechetical offers to create a practice that conforms to normative ideas. A pedagogical line can suggest that
the age of the respondents has a role to play in this more horizontal practice
of prayer. A reductionist vision of prayer as dialogue would not result from
a radically wrong understanding of the mystery of God and the relation to
which He has invited us, but, instead, from the difficulties adolescents have in
appreciating healthy non-symmetrical relationships. This second interpretation recommends agreeing provisionally with the status quo and introducing
stimuli that favour the relational maturity of the adolescent, opening him to
the possibility of an asymmetric and free gift.
A third issue relates to the forgetting of the Holy Spirit. If, as we saw before, the Holy Spirit is forgotten or ignored, is it possible to pray? And this socalled prayer, what is it worth without the presence of the Spirit? The problem is theologically serious and has substantial impacts in the evaluation of the
practice of praying. It is by the Spirit that God is made present and that we can
be present before God. Without the Spirit, what relationship can we have with
God, even if God revealed himself fully in Jesus? A teenager sits to pray, to
enter in dialogue with God, to enter in communion with him. But if the Spirit
is not present, God remains exceedingly far away. Prayer becomes a cry into
the void. Which easily turns into a monologue that the subject establishes with
himself, as God does not appear. The distance between the prayerful and God
can be reduced when the praying adolescent has a good historical memory
83

and accepts the revelation that God made in the past (Jesus of Nazareth). But
this is insufficient. Even if the young person praying overcomes all historical
criticism, the memory of what God did is not a comparable experience to actual contact with the mystery of God. Again, two interpretative ideas appear.
The first underlines the radically deficient nature of a prayer based on a distorted Trinity. The second, a little more elaborate, suggest that the practice of
prayer can overcome the gaps in Trinitarian theology of the respondents. We
have already seen how the great majority ignores the Holy Spirit or empties
Him of His specific traces. But prayer can introduce in the believer the exigency and the possibility of a relation with God in which He can be found and
touched, here and now. Even without explicit faith in the Holy Spirit, prayer
induces in the prayerful the notion that God is not distant and could be close
to concrete existence. Functionally, prayer acts as a practice through which the
truth of God is most respected; God is not just an abstract notion or an object
of vague desire. Even without recognising the specificity of the Spirit, people
praying welcome its role of putting them in communion with God.
2.3.5. Ritual: Sacramental Confession
After reflecting the practices of Eucharist and personal prayer, it is time
to investigate the form in which the respondents articulate the sacrament of
confession. Usually, sociological inquiries do not include questions about the
practice of confession. It is supposed, probably correctly, that the information
retrieved will be consistent with the other indicators of religious practice, even
with extremely low values. The sociologists also arrived at the common sense
conclusion that the sacrament of confession is in crisis.187
The data from the questionnaire about religious identity in Portugal
agrees with the data recovered in our project: the practice of confession is reduced in all religious segments of the population.188
The reading of Table 109 gives some insight to the situation. Catechism
attendance is a relevant factor for determining the frequency of confession.
But in any case, the values, even in cluster 1, are very small. Little more than
half (54,8%) confess more than once a year. Probably, around Christmas and
Cf. FERRARI Luca, Il sacramento della riconciliazione: nuove istanze e prospettive teologico-liturgiche a partire dalla giornata mondiale della giovent del giubileo
2000, Reggio Emilia, 2004, pp. 5-6, for the bibliography about the crisis in confession,
sociological and theological perspectives.
187

188
TEIXEIRA Alfredo, Identidades religiosas em Portugal: Representaes, valores
e prticas, Questo P23. 48,8% never confesses; 25% does it less than once a year;
15,7% does it once or twice a year; 5,2% does it three to six times a year.

84

Easter. 37.7% say that they confess less than once a year or never. The more
frequent attendees of this sacrament sum only 7,4%.
Table 109: Frequency of confession cross-referenced with catechesis attendance cluster. God
representations. Wave 1

Cluster 1

Cluster 2 Cluster 3

Total

Count

% within
Cluster

0,0%

0,0%

1,2%

0,2%

324

127

138

589

37,7%

54,3%

79,8%

46,5%

Count

471

96

28

595

% within
Cluster

54,8%

41,0%

16,2%

47,0%

Count

50

62

% within
Cluster

5,8%

3,4%

2,3%

4,9%

Count

14

18

% within
Cluster

1,6%

1,3%

0,6%

1,4%

Count

859

234

173

1266

% within
Cluster

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

Never, or Count
less than
% within
once a
Cluster
year
Frequency of
Confession

More
than
once
a year
Once a
month
Once a
week

Total

100,0%

The situation we find in God representations. Wave 2 is similar. 35%


never confesses or does it less than once a year, 51% do it more than once a
year, 9% once a month, and 3% once a week. 69% associate God with forgiveness and just 4% reject this association. The idea of forgiveness (which is
much broader that the notion of sacramental confession) appears as one of the
central elements in the representation of God.
In ecclesiastical documents, there is a general agreement about the causes
of the crisis. The Portuguese Bishops speak of a loss of the feeling of sinfulness, a decrease in conviction in the sacramental power of the church, of the
divorce between professed faith and lived faith, of the reduction of sacramental celebration in favour of a private dialogue without the liturgical shape or
community element, of the obsession with the moment of confession and abso85

lution and alienation from a penitential journey.189 This text covered the same
ground as the synthesis proposed by John Paul II in 1984.190
To understand the reasons for the crisis of this sacrament, specifically in
the target population of this study, we need to delve deeper.
Adolescence, with all of its uncertainties and internal contradictions,
brings an added difficulty for the establishment of a moral conscience. Eisenberg & Morris defend that adolescence brings an increase in moral capacity
and pro-social behaviours.191 But this view could be erring on the side of optimism. Smith suggests that adolescents are very much marked by a hedonistic
morality and are dependent on expressive individualism.192 Gatti underlines
the difficult articulation between contextual complexity and relaxation in
moral life: () il carattere non drammatico del vissuto morale dei giovani,
nonostante le contraddizioni che anchessi, come ogni altra persona umana,
sperimentano vivendo unesperienza in cui si rivelano fortemente i limiti della
condizione umana, il senso della propria colpa e della propria impotenza.193
The sacramental reconciliation demands a moral clarity on behalf of the adolescent that he still cannot give, immersed as he is in trying to make sense of so
many voices and moral proposals surrounding it.
A second difficulty connected to adolescence has to do with the difficulty of
being intimately open with an adult. There is no agreement on a comprehensive
interpretation of the relationship between adults and young people. The generation gap was a favourite topic in the 60s that offered an explanation about
Cf. CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Instruo pastoral O ministrio da reconciliao, in CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Documentos Pastorais. 1996-2001,V Lisboa, Secretariado Geral da Conferncia Episcopal
Portuguesa, 2002, 234-249, pp. 237-238.
189

Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia. Post-synodal apostolic exhortation of John Paul II to the bishops clergy and faithful on reconciliation and penance
in the mission of the church today. Citt del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana,
1984, n. 28.
190

Cf. EISENBERG Nancy and MORRIS Amanda Sheffield, Moral cognitions and
prosocial responding adolescents.
191

Cf. SMITH Christian, On moralistic therapeutic deism as US teenagers actual,


tacit, De Facto religious faith. In the same line, with data from several contexts, cf.
GRAAF Nan Dirk de and EVANS Geoffrey, Why are the young more postmaterialist?
A cross-national analysis of individual and contextual influences on postmaterial values, in Comparative political studies, 28 (1996), 608-635.
192

193
GATTI Guido, Esperienza religiosa ed esperienza morale, in MIDALI Mario
and TONELLI Riccardo (a cura di), Lesperienza religiosa dei giovani. Approfondimenti,2/3 Leumann, LDC, 1996, 167-188, p. 188.

86

the emergence of counter culture. And today there are still those who defend this
perspective. However, not in the way it was presented in the 60s; many authors
suggest that there are serious problems of communication between different generations Molte inchieste sui giovani rivelano linsignificanza degli adulti per la
maggioranza dei giovani. Per questi giovani gli adulti, infatti, non sono modelli
n da imitare n da rifiutare, non sono n occasione di incontro n occasione di
scontro, sono solo semplicemente insignificanti.194 The generational conflict of
the 60s opposed the authoritarian style of the parents and the libertarian and
progressive tendencies of the young ones. Today, this conflict was substituted
for a regime of hyper protection, typical in families self-defined by affections.195
The digital divide in the last decade has reinforced the lack of communication between young people and adults.196 And, at the same time, other
investigators defend the opposite idea: relationships between different generations are currently good and the idea of the generation gap does not have
any empirical evidence in its favour.197 Fontana & Tnolo defend that relations with adults are positive and modelled on the relationships adolescents
have with their parents.198 Independently of which hypothesis is more credible,
it is not easy for an adolescent to appear before an adult with whom they are
not familiar, and share with him his sin or inner world. Certainly, there are
examples where this is overcome, but this does not eliminate this generational
distance as one of the strong factors for the crises of this sacrament.
A third difficulty comes from the divestment of confession by the Portuguese catechism. From 13 to 16 years of age, there is only one lesson about this
sacrament.199 In the doctrinal introduction of this lesson, we have the usual di194

POLLO Mario, Le sfide educative dei giovani doggi, p. 61.

Cf. BOCCI Valerio, Comunicare la fede ai ragazzi 2.0. Una proposta di catechesi
comunic-attiva, pp. 94-100.
195

Cf. BOLIN Gran and SKOGERB Eli, Age, generation and the media, in Northern Lights, 11 (2013), 3-14.
196

() uma parte aprecivel da populao portuguesa ser uma fortssima defensora das solidariedades familiares intergeracionais (em sentido ascendente e descendente). VASCONCELOS Pedro, Vida familiar, p. 371.
197

Cf. FONTANA Umberto and TNOLO Giorgio, Ladolescente e la famiglia,


in TNOLO Giorgio and PIERI Severino de (Coordinamento di), Let incompiuta.
Ricerca sulla formazione dellidentit negli adolescenti italiani, Leumann, LDC , 1995,
109-140, pp. 130-135.
198

199
Cf. SNEC, A alegria de crer. Guia do catequista, pp. 295-314. This catechesis,
developed in two weekly meetings, is about the two healing sacraments: reconciliation
and anointing of the sick.

87

agnostic of the sacrament as being in crisis, and a synthesis inspired by CCC is


offered. There is no attention given to the particular needs of the adolescents at
the beginning of the 21st century, nor are they offered a way to deal with this.
The development of the catechism is designed to favour a correct and positive
vision of the sacrament. But nothing is said about the frequency of personal
confession. The mandate of annual confession is not referred to. In the annex
that offers alternative proposals of activities to do between weekly meetings, a
proposal is made to celebrate with the sick, but not to confess. Throughout the
four final years of the catechesis, there are many proposals for the celebrations
of the Word before Christmas and Easter. During Christmas, references to
confession never appear. In the 7th year, during Easter, the adolescents are invited to make his or her confessions personally. In the 8th and 9th years, during
Easter, they are asked to examine their conscience, but there is no invitation
to a sacramental celebration, nor are they given any support. It is foreseeable
that the adolescents get to the end of their catechetical curriculum ignoring the
sacrament, and not appreciating its liberating potential and without the capacity to overcome the prejudices of Portuguese culture against this sacrament.
A fourth difficulty comes from the lack of opportunity. One of the reasons
that lead young people not to confess (or confess less frequently than desirable) is the difficulty in accessing the sacrament. Many parishes do not have an
accessible schedule for the confessors. In many pastoral agents, a pro-active
attitude to offer the sacrament and to educate to its use is also lacking.200
However, the idea that the crisis is also a crisis on the side of the clergy is also
not a new one. In 1990, Albuquerque collected a number of insights over the
70s and 80: Otras veces percibimos que si son reacios a la prctica penitencial segn el modelo seguido por los adultos, no lo son, en cambio, a participar
con sinceridad en las celebraciones motivadas en encuentros y convivencias
y en algunos momentos ms significativos (adviento, pascua).201 John Paul
II, reports a similar experience: if many people, and among them also many
young people, have benefited from approaching this Sacrament, it is probably
necessary that Pastors should arm themselves with more confidence, creativity
and perseverance in presenting it and leading people to appreciate it.202

200

There are no empirical data available to support this thesis.

ALBUQUERQUE Eugenio, Moral cristiana y pastoral juvenil. Fundamentos


para una propuesta tica, Madrid, Editorial CCS, 1990, p. 117.
201

202
JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Ineunte. Apostolic letter of his holiness pope
John Paul II to the bishops clergy and lay faithful at the close of the great jubilee of the
year 2000. Citt del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001, 37.

88

After this journey through the possible causes for the crises of this sacrament, it is worthwhile questioning the meaning that this crisis has. Habitually,
the ecclesiastical discourse speaks of the crisis of frequency or the crisis of
appreciation. But, differently from what happens in the Eucharist or personal
prayer, there is no sociological tradition of investigating this theme. The expression crisis makes sense when the comparison between the actual data
and the projected ideal is found deficient. The difficulty emerges from the fact
that it is not explicit what the practice of this sacrament should be. We have
the old indications of the Fourth Lateran Council, which imposes the obligation of annual confession. We have the obligation to resort to confession in
all situations of serious sin. But these indications were always understood as
minimum criteria. What is the normal recommended praxis, either in terms
of frequency of confession or motivation? The question about the recommended praxis is not answered just by magisterium or by the discipline proposed
by pastors. There are a series of pastoral instances that give a response to this
question. Some, making proposals, and others choosing silence.
The pastoral instructions O ministrio da reconciliao proposes a
structured set of proposals and qualifying options. The Portuguese Bishops
underlined that all and any pastoral renewal of this sacrament can only happen within a global process of evangelization, in which the believer is confronted with the alliance offered by God. The renovation requires a catequese
slida, atenta a todas as dimenses da vida (6) that ensures a true initiation
to the knowledge and the practice of the Christian life. In addition to this option in favour of the quality of Christian life, the Bishops identified yet three
more options. The first is the valorisation of the penitential itinerary of Lent.
The second is increasing the offer of penitential celebrations. The third is the
zelo pastoral quotidiano que faz referncias oportunas a este sacramento.
Later (11), the Bishops give some clues to understand this pastoral zeal:
improving the quality of the personal encounter between the penitent and the
confessor, the appreciation, on the behalf of priest,s of this sacrament as an
important part of the ministry, and a proactive and creative attitude to forming consciences, and the offer of non-sacramental penitential ceremonies.203
The pastoral-theological synthesis offered by this pastoral instruction is well
structured and offers an adequate response to the challenges of the social and cultural situation in the Churches of Portugal. It is understood more as a contribution to the overall pastoral project in Portugal than as a mere response to a crisis.

203
Cf. CONFERNCIA EPISCOPAL PORTUGUESA, Instruo pastoral O ministrio da reconciliao.

89

However, it was a document with no great public or ecclesiastical impact. It is


periodically cited, but only because of the rules outlining collective absolutions.
The renewal of mentalities and practices does not depend only on church
discourses and writings. Widely circulated publications have a decisive role in
the formation of mentalities. In Portugal, O dia santificado is a classic and a
best seller, with 26 editions and more than three million copies sold and distributed throughout the last decades. With respect to confession, the book limits
itself to remembering the obligation of annual confession.204 However, previous
editions were not so concise and offered more spiritual suggestions with respect
to the frequency with which the believer should seek reconciliation. Inspired
by the success of O dia santificado, the same Publisher released a book with
the same goal, but more orientated towards a young audience.205 The theme of
confession proposes an honest dialogue with the difficulties that modern culture has with this sacrament. It is courageous in the invitations that it makes. It
encourages young people to use the sacrament in situations of grave sin, underlines the role of Advent and Lent, suggesting an optimal monthly frequency.206
Another representative book is Youcat.207 Through numbers 224 to 239,
this text tries to translate the proposal of the Compendium of the CCC into a
younger language. Only the number 235 is relevant as a proposal to encourage
confession: it refers to the example of Taiz, World Youth Day and the Saints
as examples of happy people who have found the light in this sacrament. The
intent is positive but is obvious the incapacity (or lack of will?) to offer examples and models that adhere to the everyday life of the readers.
These three examples of relevant publications fall short of proposals made
by the episcopal conference. Moreover, they can be seen as symbols of ecclesial
action that omits the evangelising potential of this sacrament. And this explains, at least in part, the low relevance this sacrament has in the faith process
of the respondents.
2.3.6. Church belonging
Faith has a reciprocal relation with the church. It is the experience of faith
that leads the believer to join the assembly of those who, with him, experience
204

Cf. O dia santificado, Braga, Apostolado da Orao, 2013.

205

Cf. GPS da vida crist, Braga, Apostolado de Orao, 2011.

206

Cf. GPS da vida crist, pp. 80-83.

207
Representative by the mediatic pressure generated inside the Church, by the
enthusiastic adherence of some ecclesial forces; not necessarily by its effective use or
impact upon youth condition.

90

the credibility, strength, and beauty of the Gospel of Jesus. But, at the same
time, it is the church that is at the origin of faith. It is from the ecclesial mediation (Scripture, community, liturgy, people) that each believer begins his or her
journey of faith. We already saw (2.1.1 and 2.1.2) how, for the respondents,
the ecclesial experience works as a cause of faith.208 And now we are going
to verify how one of the faiths consequences is a greater feeling of adhesion to
the Church. But before we do, we need to confront a pertinent question: how
can we detect, or measure, adherence to the church?209
Many sociological questionnaires include items about belonging to particular churches or religions. Our questionnaire was not organised this way,210
so the question can only be measured indirectly. The most explicit question in

This circularity between faith and the church presents a strong isomorphism
with the SRT. Cf. JOVCHELOVITCH Sandra, Vivendo a vida com os outros: intersubjetividade, espao pblico e representaes sociais, in GUARESCHI Pedrinho A.
and JOVCHELOVITCH Sandra (Orgs.), Textos em representaes sociais, Petrpolis,
Editora Vozes, 1994, 63-85.
208

This simple question can be seen as a defense of a monolithic notion of Church.


Pinho tries bravely to legitimize the plurality of belongins to the Church: () os
caminhos da relao de cada pessoa com Deus no so mensurveis pelas simples
normas tradicionais de pertena comunidade eclesial. Esses pontos de referncia so
imprescondveis no processo de adeso f e de consciencializao e amadurecimento
crentes, mas no podem ser utilizados como dados que se possam manejar imediatamente () para definir a autenticidade da relao com o Mistrio de Deus. PINHO
Jos Eduardo Borges de, Comunidades eclesiais: as exigncias da integrao plural, in
Didaskalia, XLIII (2013) 1.2, 295-317, p. 301. Pinhos statements are valid de facto.
Either from a sociological and from a theological perspective. But they are projectually poor. There is a sociological diversity of the way believers belong to the Church;
theologically that diversity is legitimate. But all this is old news. The real question
should be what new normativity must be searched and what best practices should be
shared in order to achieve it.
209

210
The option to leave out this type of questions results from a deep ambiguity.
When 80% of Portuguese people declare themselves catholic, they are converging on
an identical response, with different signification. Either in sociological or theological
terms. Esta desvinculao [towards the catholic Church], em graus e modalidades
diversificadas, afeta globalmente o pluriverso dos que se autorrepresentam como catlicos. Enquanto cultura, o catolicismo continua muitos presente () No entanto,
a estratificao da populao catlica, a partir da prtica dominical e do seu eprfil
de inscrio nas comunidades, permitiu descobrir uma eclesiosfera onde graus diferentes de implicao na Igreja catlica se afirmam. Entre os catlicos nucleares e as
pertenas mais perifricas, desdobram-se planos diversos de uma identidade catlica
descompactada. TEIXEIRA Alfredo, A eclesiosfera catlica: pertena diferenciada, in
Didaskalia, XLIII (2013) 1.2, 115-205, p. 205.

91

this field asks the respondents if they belong to any type of group or religious
association (Table 110).
Table 110: Associationism cross-referenced with Catechesis attendance. God representations.
Wave 1

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Total

163

136

122

421

% within
19,0%
Cluster

58,1%

70,5%

33,3%

Count

98

51

845

% within
81,0%
Cluster

41,9%

29,5%

66,7%

Count

234

173

1266

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

Count
No
Association
Sim

Total

696

859

% within
100,0%
Cluster

We can observe a strong relationship between religious association (Spearmans rho=0,446) and catechism attendance. Among the respondents of cluster 1, the participation in religiously inspired groups exceeds four-fifths. It is
probable that this sample is over-representing this group.
The religious associationism variable permits the verification of an active
participation but leaves out the multiplicity of other forms of belonging to the
Church. What other data can help us say something about the relationship
between the respondents and the Church?
Previously, we have studied the relevant experiences that lead to faith.
Some of them, like the pastoral proposals of the Church (the most common in
cluster 1) can also be understood as a signal of belonging to the Church. When
an adolescent or young person participates in these pastoral proposals, he does
it because he feels part of the Church. These proposals are made to those
within. These pastoral proposals work inside the circular system that we
have previously identified. Who opts to belong to the church, participates in
these activities, which reinforce and deepen their faith and their feeling of Ecclesial belonging. In the list of important experiences some respondents shared
the following examples: sources of faith (with 9,98%), intense moments
(with 8,58%) and people (with 18,1%). Most of these people are kin
(with a serious religious belonging) or are involved in some Church ministry.
The same happens about influential people. Previously, we have analysed this influence as a unidirectional process from the social network to the
92

subject. The family and the Church (including the whole gamut of ministries
and platforms) were most invoked by the respondents of cluster 1 (more than
95%) and recognising these partners as relevant, allows the subject to feel as
part of the Church.
When questioned about their acts and attitudes related to the experience
of faith, an elevated percentage of reported acts have a strong ecclesial connotation. Piety, with 38,65% of the expressed answers is always an ecclesial
experience. It is followed by Participation in Church proposals (with 9%)
and a role assumed in several Church ministries (with 6,08%).
Another information collected was the quality of the relation with the
catechist (Table 111).
As expected, the quality of the relationship between the catechist and the
student in cluster 1 is very good and deteriorates in the other clusters. The
most realistic interpretation suggests a causality between the quality of the
relationship and the frequency of attendance. When the relationship with the
catechist is good, continued attendance tends to be the case. Independently of
these interpretations, it should be retained that, for the adolescents of cluster 3
there is the possibility of a free, reliable and appreciated relationship with an
adult who appears in the name of the church and offers frequent interactions.
How can we interpret this data? What does it say about the ecclesial identity of the respondents?
The group of belonging/group of reference binomial can give us some
clues. In a group of belonging, the subjects have direct relationships with other elements of the group. Groups of reference are those in which the subject,
without direct interactions, reviews his opinions, values and goal. A group
or collective that individuals use as a standard or frame of reference when
selecting and appraising their abilities, attitudes, or beliefs; includes groups
that individuals identify with and admire and categories of non-interacting individuals.211 This binomial is most used in the theory of group dynamics produced in the South of Europe212 while Anglo-Saxon theorists prefer to speak of
groups of reference and primary and secondary groups.213

211

FORSYTH Donelson R., Group dynamics, Belmont, Wadsworth, 2010, p. 44.

212

Cf. MUCCHIELLI Roger, La dinamica del gruppo, Leumann, LDC, 1994.

213
Cf. LEVINE John M. and MORELAND Richard L., Small groups: an overview,
in LEVINE John M. and MORELAND Richard L. (Edited by), Small groups. Key
readings, New York - Hove, Psychology Press, 2006, 1-10.

93

Table 111: Cross-reference of relation with the catechist and Clusters. God representations.
Wave 1

2
Relation with
catechist
3

Total

Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Total

Count

30

66

90

186

% within
Cluster_
catequese

3,5%

28,6%

53,3%

14,8%

Count

25

% within
Cluster_
catequese

0,9%

3,5%

5,3%

2,0%

Count

% within
Cluster_
catequese

0,5%

1,3%

0,0%

0,6%

Count

65

22

16

103

% within
Cluster_
catequese

7,6%

9,5%

9,5%

8,2%

Count

304

76

28

408

% within
Cluster_
catequese

35,6%

32,9%

16,6%

32,6%

Count

442

56

26

524

% within
Cluster_
catequese

51,8%

24,2%

15,4%

41,8%

Count

853

231

169

1253

% within
Cluster_
catequese

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

100,0%

Using this binomial, the Church works for the respondents as a group of
belonging and not just as a group of reference. Besides values and ideas, the
Church is experienced in face-to-face interactions, with a reasonably structured network of people. This attention to the role of closeness in ecclesial
experiences and the feeling of belonging214 has gained relevance in recent years
214

94

Cf. STROOPE Samuel, How culture shapes community Bible belief, theolog-

because of congregation studies, an area of investigation developed in the


United States to study local communities.215 As with our respondents, the density of the religious social network is, at the same time both the consequence
and the cause of religious identity.216 But even a sociological approach does
not reduce ecclesial belonging to social embeddedness or to the presence of
this or that social structure; there is a growing number of authors who recognise the specific role of culture, the values which circulate within a group:
Rather than being viewed as competing perspectives, structures and culture
are better understood as interactive factors.217
Besides these sociological ideas, we can go further and try to understand
what ecclesial model is in play. Gallo suggests that we can find three main
models in the Church. He elaborates his distinctions from the concept and
practice of salvation, the defining feature of the Church.218 The first model
Noahs Ark, understands the Church as the exclusive carrier of salvation.
Salvation is understood as triple dualism. It is a dualist understanding of salvation as anthropology (which splits man between soul and body), as cosmology (supposing a schism between the world and heaven), and as the subject
(which is preferentially individual, leaving in the shadow the communitarian
dimension). This ecclesial model accentuates the spiritual, the individual and
the ultra-earthly. The Church assumes itself as an institution that carries
and guarantees the ways to assure access to the salvation of souls: liturgical
practices and piety. There is a logical consistency in the external and internal
activity of the Church. The objective is always the same (the saving of souls)
and the methods to do it are identical (the sacraments). So, in relation to those
from outside, the objective is to sacramentalise, and in relation to those
ical unity, and a sense of belonging in religious congregations, in The Sociological
Quarterly, 52 (2011), 568-592, pp. 569-571 about the relevance of the concept of
belonging.
Cf. CHAVES Mark, Congregations in America, Cambridge - London, Harvard
University Press, 2004.
215

Cf. LEWIS Valerie A., MacGREGOR Carol Ann and PUTNAM Robert D., Religion, networks, and neighborliness: the impact of religious social networks on civic
engagement, in Social Science research, 42 (2013), 331-346.
216

STROOPE Samuel and BAKER Joseph O., Structural and cultural sources of
community in American congregations, in Social Science research, 45 (2014), 1-17,
p. 6.
217

218
Cf. GALLO Luis A., Una pastorale per la salvezza, in ANTHONY Francis-Vincent et al. (Coordinatori dellopera), Pastorale Giovanile. Sfide, prospettive ed esperienze, Leumann, ElleDiCi, 2003, 87-96.

95

inside, the objective is to guarantee the loyalty and spiritual benefit of the
frequency of the sacraments.
Vatican II consecrated the second model, the church as communion, mainly in Lumen Gentium. This model, very careful with the existential and personalistic sensibility, understands the church as an experience of communion,
born from the Trinity, which is communion and offers everyone a broad experience of communion. Salvation is communion. With God and others. The
pastoral action associated with this model is more complex. For the exterior,
efforts are made to ecumenical commitment and the conversion of peoples still
not evangelised. Internally, it privileges the effort to increase the communion
between members of the Church in all dimensions of existence.
The third model emphasizes the social-economic dimension of salvation.
Inspired by Gaudium et Spes, the documents of Medellin and Puebla, as well as
the Churchs social doctrine. The Church is at the service of a salvation project
that is worried about the totality of the human condition, which does not leave
aside social dimensions, politics and economics. Obviously, this presentation
is schematic. It does not aim to compare different ecclesiologies systematically.
But this schematization is useful because it makes it easier to distinguish popular perceptions of different church models.
That said, it seems clear that the most widespread ecclesiastical model is
the communional model. The concern with relationships, the anchoring of values in positive psychology, the attention given to the existential and personal
sensibility makes it easy to arrive at this conclusion. But, on the negative side,
we have the absence of missionary zeal, the fragile indicators of the sharing of
faith, and the omission of the socio-economic dimension.
We also find some manifestations that could be echoes of the old Noahs
Ark model. When the sharing of faith of some respondents consists in invitations (some more successful than others) and participation in cult acts.
2.3.7. Intrapersonal effects
Some of the effects of faith happen within the self of the respondent. When
asked about acts and attitudes related to their faith, a group of respondents
(Chapter 5, 1.8 fourth group) underlined the intrapersonal impact of the faith
experience. They referred to different topics but shared the link between a
strong, assertive self and the faith experience. In God representations. Wave
2, when asked to identify gestures in connection to their faith 41% chose
Hope and Optimism (with 16% of rejection).

96

The presence of a strong and optimist self is probably connected with the
idea that God is love. We saw, when analysing the data from God representations. Wave 2 under the perspective of the central core theory, that
love was always present in the central core of the three persons of the Trinity.
Besides love, several relational dimensions are present in the central core. This
suggests that between the desire of a relational fulfilment (the dream of the
existential and personalist sensibility) and the dominant image of God, there is
an essential convergence. The respondents feel God as Someone who offers an
elevated relational quality.
There is, in the human sciences, a large bibliography that positively correlates indicators of quality of life and religious experience. But Schweitzer
proposes an explicitly religious reading for this type of phenomenon. Reflecting on the challenges that postmodern culture puts to adolescents and those
with whom they want to do religious education, he realises the impossibility
of the usual approaches to arrive at a healthy identity. He defends that true
identity is grounded in the relationship to God. () it is, in fact, a relationship
[with God] that constitutes this identity at its most basic level.219
It is important, overall, not to make too many conclusions specifically at
the interpersonal level. Explicit references to the intrapersonal impact of faith
are rare.
3. Conclusive remarks
At the end of this seventh chapter of theological evaluation, it is possible
to make a balance.
About each of the persons of the Trinity, there are several different social
representations. They are not divergent or incompatible theologies, but the
differences are real. Each representation uses a combination of objectification
and anchorage that makes it different. We saw the merits and limitations of
each of the representations. We verified the presence of some forms of cognitive polyphasia. We could also confirm the widespread poverty of the representations of the Holy Spirit. Weak is also the underlying Trinitarian theology of the identified representations.
After this reading done from the perspective of dogmatic theology, we
tried one approach more concerned with the practical theology. We started
by doing a survey of the faith experiences considered most important by respondents. The accomplished picture does not present many surprises, giving
219
SCHWEITZER Friedrich, The postmodern life cycle. Challenges for the Church
and Theology, St Louis, Chalice Press, 2004, p. 61.

97

prominence to the usual pastoral proposals of the Church and the family and
ecclesial socialization network. We were surprised by the small weight given to
the media. Next, we identified the partners of faith, the people and ministries
that, according to the self-report of respondents, most influenced their faith.
The family and the usual ministries in the parish network take the lead. We
also found that the experience of faith has consequences. The idea that faith
creates or inspires a renewed moral conduct is very strong. Associated with this
behavior are the weekly attendance to Mass, personal prayer, and the sense
of ecclesial belonging. The glaring absences are the responses associated with
sharing of faith and the sacrament of confession. In many Western countries,
this sacrament is in a profound crisis, recognized by all ecclesial agents. However, surprising is the almost total omission of references to sharing of faith.
Globally, some remarks have to be made. The first is that these adolescents developed a theology different from the one passed to them by the catechism and the catechists. The way the respondents articulate their faith has
some weaknesses when compared to the normative framework of the Christian faith. A simplistic explanation attributes this to weaknesses in the processes of faith education. The fact that both the respondents theology and
that made by the adults and Church leaders have weaknesses, especially about
pneumatology and Trinity, suggests that we should be seeking for more inclusive explanations.
It is possible that the adolescents are doing, with their reduced resources,
what the Church has always done: inculturation. The faithful try to express
the received faith in accordance to the relevant categories, available in the
cultural and existential context. We have seen the fragility of the expressions
used by the respondents. We have identified the ambiguity of several of the anchorages used. But that does not mean that we are dealing with an unsolvable
dogmatic problem. It is legitimate the hypothesis suggesting that the Trinitarian christocentrims is substantially respected, even if the actual expressions
used are feeble.

98

Chapter 8
Conclusion: a critical appraisal of research procedures and
results

At the end of this long journey, it is time to make a status report, draw
up a list of possible and relevant conclusions. To what extent the objectives of
this project were achieved? What answers can we give to the chosen research
questions?
1. Faith Theology
We have started asking about the meaning of believing in God. This expression gives title to this research project. It is a well-known expression, part
of the commonly used vocabulary, inside and outside of the Church. However,
soon in Chapter I, we realized that, at the theological level, the expression has
a denser meaning. Behind such a simple expression, much is going on.
Based on the biblical data, we found the pillars of what should be a theology of faith. Faith is trust, surrender and obedience to the God, who reveals
Himself in history. This confidence makes sense because God is able to support
such trust. Faith always has a double dimension of entrusted relationship and
assent to the true image of God. NT introduces an explicitly Christological
tone. Jesus of Nazareth is an essential point of reference about the contents to
be believed in faith and also about His faith. The way He gives himself boldly
to the Father becomes normative for the church.
The richness and plurality of understandings and practices contained in
Scripture led to serious debates in Church history. Cardinal Dulles has identified seven models, still valid, to understand faith. They are not mutually
exclusive but express different accents: the doctrinal correctness, the priority
of God granting the gift of faith, the trust of the individual believer, the role of
experience and affection, obedience to God who reveals himself, the praxis of
the subject molded by faith, its personal dimension.
CCC does a presentation of faith that has become consensual. It integrates the biblical references, the theological tradition and, especially, the Dei
Verbum synthesis. The two human subjects of the faith structure the CCCs
presentation: credo and credimus. The text begins with the individual subject.
It underlines the intense cooperation and contemporaneity of fides qua and
fides quae.
The distinct marks of the Christian God are able to legitimize the superlative degree of confidence in the faith. Faith is an experience of trust as any
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other, but the presence of the one God as a partner in this relationship brings
to faith a particular and unique colouring. Also, because it is Him who is at the
origin of this relationship. Revealing Himself, He invites us into intimacy with
Him. Moreover, He is the one sustaining the very possibility of faith.
Another specific mark of the Christian faith (too often ignored) is its Trinitarian character. Faith consists in believing in the triune God who revealed
Himself fully in Jesus through the Spirit. But also the relational dimension of
faith takes place in a Trinitarian horizon. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us
sons in the Son and puts us in communion with the Father. It is always the
triune God who has the priority in the faith process.
Faith is always a gift. But the human response is a real answer, which actively involves all of our capabilities. And so faith becomes also a human task.
This dignity attributed to human action helps to understand the link between human intelligence and rationality, with the revealed faith. There is little
room for the concept of a blind faith. The God of Jesus does not ask the
obedience of decapitated men, of men deprived of their intelligence. He asks
loving surrender of live and whole men who want to see God (paraphrasing
Irenaeus of Lion). In this perspective, our intelligence, motivations, and mediations for faith, have their place and dignity.
All this helps to understand the link between faith and salvation. Salvation
is more than some loose gifts that God would offer to those that obey Him,
reducing the faith to a commercial transaction. Being faith the entrance in
the Trinitarian communion, it brings with it a transformation of thought and
action of the believing subject. It brings a qualitative leap in the capabilities of
those trusting God. And this is salvation. That although only in the eschatological horizon would be resolved, is real right now.
Faith also has an ecclesial subject. Being our contemporary culture so
intensely marked by individualism, this communitarian aspect may seem unintuitive. The Church is the place of personal faith. It is through the Church and
its mediations that, factually, each subject can get to know something about
Gods revelation. It is also in the community that we can learn, purify and
increase the attitude of trust in God.
This faith that is lived and learned in the concrete Church is expressed differently in different ecclesial situations. This pluriformity should not be confused with relativism. Faith is also plural to the extent that is dynamic, that is
educable. Ideally, every believer should reach a mature adult faith.

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But the level of magisterial and theological reflection on the specifications


that should configure this adult faith is deficient. As deficient is the clarity
about the routes that lead to an adult faith. There is still a static, idealized, vision of faith. Much of the theology that has been done insists in describing an
ideal and timeless situation, in which the subject is an adult believer, stable and
motivated. The situation we are interested in studying (teenagers) becomes,
to that ideal situation, atypical. This problem has not received a sustained
response from dogmatic theology. It would be only a matter of pastoral,
which should provide for some mediation between the normative ideal and the
actual situation. However, this mentality is based on a logical-deductive way
of doing theology.
There would be a first level, given by the sources of faith. Independent
of this, there is the concrete situation where, by a process of downgrade, the
dogmatic truth is applied to the situation. Hermeneutics awareness of recent
decades and the growth of practical theology dignity should have overcome
such situations. There is still a long way to go. These limitations in theological
thought about the journey of faith make unfeasible a study of the faith reality
of our teenagers using a top-down approach. To overcome this verticalism, it
will be necessary to give ample space to the experience (albeit fragmentary and
linguistically poorly articulated) of the adolescents and put it in an intelligent
dialogue with the Church heritage of consolidated faith.
Along the reflection on faith, we have found that faith leads to believe
in specific contents about God. Some of Gods characteristics were already
explained. But it became necessary to dwell over a few pages to systematize
what is the Christian view of God. God is another expression in the public
domain that has a plurality of meanings. The term Trinitarian Christocentrism is entirely appropriate to describe the dominant theological orientation.
The God we believe is the triune God, where the distinction of persons does
not destroy unity and communion. And where Jesus of Nazareth, his person,
his gestures and words, are the normative instance. It is from Jesus that we can
understand who the Father is. And it is from Jesus that we receive the Spirit.
And it is the Spirit that allows us to accept, in faith, the normative experience
of Jesus and enter into communion with the Father.
We have chosen, as does the CCC, to address the Trinity in a declarative way. Introducing, in sequence, the three divine Persons in their relevant
features. We decided to put aside a more investigative, more speculative,
strategy on how to understand the immanent Trinity. Asking how God is believed, in what God are we believing, will have Trinitarian faith as an answer.
But this faith in God, who is Trinity, is not optional. It is, at the same time,
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larger and simpler than theological speculation. This theological option was
decisive when choosing the instruments to observe and analyze the empirical
reality.
It has become a commonplace among theologians the wailing about the
attention deficit surrounding the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. These are two
distinct deficits, but they share some causes. Theological reflection has been
trying to bridge the gaps. However, persists, in much pastoral practice, a generic idea of God, where the Trinity is a true but useless and irrelevant dogma.
2. The contributions from the empirical research produced by human
sciences
At the end of chapter I, we got a theoretical idea of how faith should be,
its contents and processes. We have identified some limitations, but the global
picture seemed rather coherent. We have decided to place those faith notions
on hold, and moved our attention to what empirical research has been saying
about God and the faith in Him.
There is, in many geographical and cultural contexts, a large scientific production about the question of God. However, rarely the investigated object
coincides with what we saw in Chapter I. There is also no great consistency
between the different studies at the epistemological level.
We have opted to present the status quaestionis using four analytic levels:
ideological-cultural, societal, interpersonal and intrapersonal.
The ideological-cultural level does not have, in the Portuguese reality,
many empirically grounded studies. The relevant insights for our research are
taken from history. We suggest that the political regimes of the last century
have left, on the question of God, ideological and cultural traces in our society.
The First Republic (1910-1926) left the mark of an intense conflict between
the elites (political, cultural, economical) and the question of God. More than
the traditional anti-clericalism, centuries old in Portugal, the Republicans conducted an atheistic policy, linking the modernization of country and society to
the abandonment of religious ideas and experiences (connoted with underdevelopment). The Estado Novo (1926-1974) sought to correct the dysfunctions of the previous regime. It is part of a wider European political movement
of authoritarian populism. Establishes good relations with the Church and
conveys an authoritarian image of God, functional to the smooth functioning
of society. The democratic regime (1974- ...) maintains good relations with the
Church and introduces a pluralistic culture. Pluralism allows to overcome the
authoritarian image of God but leads to a certain tinge of relativism. Tolerance
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and a prudent agnosticism make difficult the public communication about


God. Recently, also the new atheism winds have arrived. They defend a militant atheism and rather intolerant towards different opinions.
At the societal level, the situation is quite different. There is a large availability of data, but the amount of interpretative research is reduced, in Portugal. The research design of these European surveys has a very nave theology,
with not enough self-reflection. A large part of the interpretation done follows
the paradigm of classical secularization theory. It is a very popular theory
that, in many authors, becomes ideological. It is common the confusion and
overlap between descriptive and prescriptive. Much of its success comes from
its deterministic nature and being politically attuned to the Enlightenment utopias. Some CST variants seek to be aware of data and accept the falsifiability
principle. The Rational Choice Theory does not find many supporters in the
European context. More interesting are those theories that try to make room
for local history and culture. They can explain with greater sophistication the
large variety of existing profiles in the sociology of religion.
We also had the opportunity to review the latest data available for Portugal. We found a religious profile that combines religious self-identification,
the belief in a good God, and ritual practices of the Eucharist and frequent
personal prayer. The size of the samples available does not allow for solid
conclusions about the younger cohorts. Nor about the groups more committed
to the Church
At the interpersonal level, we have a different situation. There is a huge
growth of scientific production. However, almost all is centered in the Anglo-Saxon area. There is some epistemological debate, but the popularity of
the positivist-naturalist paradigm leads to reduced attention to the cultural
and specifically religious variables. The demand for scientific rigor has led to
a systematic use of different existing psychological theories to investigate the
perception and relationship with God. However, the specifics of each theological system have stayed in the shade in favor of a generic and universal idea
of God. The National Study of Youth and Religion stands out from the landscape for overcoming this theological oblivion and for the size of the study.
And leads to a strong conclusion: the validity of a study on these issues is not
exportable to other contexts, ignoring the social, cultural and religious specificities of the populations.
The intrapersonal level has witnessed a series of spectacular developments
in recent years, due to the availability of new technologies. But the epistemological support is feeble. Without denying the validity of the data discovered in
neurobiology, it is important to remember that the whole is greater than the
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sum of its parts. The attempt to interpret complex phenomena like religion
by atomization is naive. Even more than the previous level, the cultural and
religious variability is neglected.
Upon reaching the end of this very long chapter, we wondered about the
findings. And they seem few and minor after so many pages written. We chose
to use a very broad criterion when deciding to make this status quaestionis.
Somewhat contrary to the efforts made in Chapter I (which sought to determine with greater theological precision what the faith was and who was the
God in whom we believe), in this second chapter, we lowered the threshold
and included research that relates, even minimally, to the theme of God.
This has highlighted the ambiguity of many human science investigations.
Within the various scientific communities (because, in this case, as in quite a
few other, we find that the scientific production tends to be very insular) the
God object is investigated from various perspectives, but there are different
understandings of the same object. The discrepancy sharpens up when there is
a divergence, or even an incompatibility between the ideological assumptions
of the investigator and the convictions of the subjects under investigation. This
remark does not intend to devalue all the research done. Even if this immense
body of research does not assign to the God object the same contents and
meanings that the CCC does, it has its own legitimacy. But it is evident, in
much of the scientific production, a serious shortcoming in the epistemology.
On the positive side, we found some good practices. There are scientific projects that respect the dignity of individuals and recognize their capacity for
agency. There are lines of inquiry respecting the priority of the populations
under study and refusing to impose a pre-established agenda by the researcher.
Suffice it to mention the project of the cultural psychology of religion of Belsen, or in a wider line, the NSYR led by Smith.
We believe it would be possible, using the scientific assumptions from
those two examples and the methodologies they suggest, to achieve the objectives of our research respecting, at the same time, the normative instance of
faith, which was made explicit in Chapter I. But even so, we have chosen to
follow a different road.
3. The option for Social Representations Theory
SRT appears like a good idea to investigate the faith experience of Portuguese adolescents. There are some difficulties. There is no tradition of using
SRT with religious topics. The great variety and methodological pluralism that
makes SRT so proud, can be interpreted as fragmentation and inconsistency.
Investigating mainly the processes of representation played by the social sub104

jects, SRT can be accused of social constructionism and denying the ontological truth to the objects under scrutiny (God, in our case). There is the suspicion
that SRT does not fulfill the requirements of true science. If we identify or
reduce science to the assumptions of the positivist-naturalist paradigm, this
objection is quite serious. There is another more subjective difficulty. It comes
from the complex nature of social representations. It is not easy to build, from
SRT, a linear narrative, easily discernible. SRT accepts the complexity of the
contemporary world and presents the contents of social representations, the
social and communicative processes involved in their production and dissemination. It is tempting to search for a theory that provides a more basic description, more marketable.
Despite all these difficulties, this third chapter offered us a synthesis where
the merits of SRT are patent. As a useful category within social psychology
and as a tool to analyze the faith experience, SRT proved to be a praiseworthy option. The SRT has gained credibility as a theoretical tool able to frame
a series of social phenomena. Its expansion on several continents has brought
with it an increase in the quantity and quality of scientific production. It is
now an established tradition that can overcome some of the epistemological
and methodological aporias of other competing models.
When we begin to consider the possibility of using the SRT to study the
empirical experience of faith, the strong isomorphism between the architecture of social representations and the theological understanding of faith stands
out. The SRT aims to study the formation process of common sense and not
of scientific knowledge. The faith lived by the believers, the sensus fidei fidelium, are conceptually nearer to common sense than to the scientific rigour of
academic theology. SRT defends that representations are socially generated.
And the same idea is conveyed by faith theology when defends the notion that
the ecclesial community is a necessary mediation to faith. At the same time,
the communicational praxis of the Church, inaugurated by Jesus Himself, expresses the faith contents with processes similar to those of objectivation (in its
different shapes) and anchorage.
These merits make legitimate the use of SRT. However, that is not the
same as an obligatory option. What lead us to choose SRT was the ecclesial
and social context surrounding the adolescents. They live in a complex and
plural society. Where faith is a choice among many other life choices. Where
what is learned in a Church context is denied in other contexts. SRT offers the
possibility to cope with this multivocality and with the different configurations
that the Church can assume. Church, in these adolescents context, is not the
Pope leading a billion Catholics. It is the family in all its interactions. It is the
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Sunday school and the youth group. SRT has the advantage of offering a theoretical frame capable of integrating all this plurality and richness.
At the end of these three chapters, we have a clear notion of what we want
to investigate. We know theologically what faith is, and we have a scientific
theory that will help us to observe that faith.
4. Making choices about the research design
Having defined the two theoretical landmarks that guide our investigation,
it was necessary to do some choices about research design. Making choices is
always required. The alternative is the loss of clearness in the objectives. Some
of these choices were motivated (not to say, forced) by the context.
The grid suggested by van der Ven, about the research purposes, forces
any research done in Portugal to be exploratory. There is not enough data to
seriously try some kind of hypothesis testing. It was necessary to make some
ground work, giving voice to the subjects, let emerge their experiences, vocabulary and even contradictions. The possibility of starting from pre-existing theoretical assumptions was not acceptable. Those theoretical assumptions were
generated in different social, cultural, and religious contexts. To use them as
a starting point would, apodictically, impose on reality a previously prepared
grid without any legitimacy. The SRT can work quite well in the exploratory
option although it could also have been used to test hypotheses.
The choice of an exploratory-explanatory design would always be more
expensive, but it was successful. We opted for an exploratory-explanatory design because it seemed capable to generate some hypothesis (though not to test
them).
Starting with this exploratory-explanatory option, it was possible to narrow the research aims to four research questions. We tried and managed to
find answers to these four questions. It was possible to see what were the different social representations of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, what were the
respective contents and the cognitive processes involved in their production
and what is its structure. It was possible to identify which social contexts (in
this case, ecclesial) were involved. It was possible to detect and interpret some
cases of cognitive polyphasia, and we were able to make a theological interpretation of these representations.
One important option when designing this research was the choice of triangulation. There is a broad consensus on the merits of using triangulation.
Ideally, the more levels of triangulation, more qualified will be the data and
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more consistent its interpretation. But this desire is confronted with economic
constraints: space, financial costs, time management.
We activated triangulation with data and analysis. On the data level, we
used several triangulation layers. We gathered data from the adolescents, from
the catechetical process (through the catechisms and the catechists SRs), and
from the public sphere. With the adolescents, we have used two distinct and
complementary instruments. With Gods representations. Wave 1 we tried
to include respondents with a different catechetical profile from the one of our
target audience. We have created two subsamples with respondents that never
attended catechesis and attended half of the curriculum.
For the analysis, we used mainly the Alceste method, complemented by
Similitude Analysis. These are some of the available tools when trying to do a
quantitative analysis of non-structured data. It is an emerging field but not sufficiently stabilized. It is obvious that some big enterprises are investing strongly in this area, but they use methods and algorithms not accessible to the public
nor to the scientific community. In the field of quantitative analysis of structured data (mainstream statistic) we have a set of standards and good practices
commonly accepted. In the quantitative analysis of non-structured data, we
have not achieved such maturity. The option of using Alceste and SA was easy.
They have, in their fields, a consolidated reputation. These two methods responded quite well to the available data. The cases where this did not happen
could be explained by the absence of specifically social representations.
We also used , in addition, other methods: qualitative analysis on specific
issues and specific methods to determine the internal structure of SRs.
5. The available data
Now we will summarize the conclusions about the data and its consistency. We will talk about the contents later.
Our main questionnaire was God representations. Wave 1. It is the longest, with many questions. And it was also the largest, with 1266 valid answers. Initially, we pointed out to respondents between 16 and 20 years. However, the groups that we got in touch with often included some young people
with 15 and 21 years. A preliminary analysis showed that this departure from
the originally planned age was not significantly changing the results, and we
have decided to include them as well. This helped increase the sample size.
From the contacts made, we detected that not all respondents corresponded to the profile (completed the catechetical curriculum). As data collection
went on, we subjected the sample to a cluster analysis that offered us the distri107

bution into three distinct clusters, based on the attendance years in catechesis.
The actual distribution into three groups did not result from predetermined
criteria but was a mere statistical analysis. When we saw that the three clusters
had an appropriate size, we decided that it would not be necessary to search
for respondents with a particular profile regarding catechesis attendance. Since
we are not in a hypothesis testing design, the two smaller clusters should not
be seen as control groups. They are only useful groups to detect if some processes are specific to the intensive attendance or if they are transverse.
Statistical analysis of the usual measures of religious practice has shown
that cluster 1 (those attending catechesis for ten years) is quite different from
the picture drawn by the large international surveys. And it also showed that
there are differences between the three clusters. The identification of correlations produced some significant combinations but with relatively small absolute values.
About God and Jesus the analysis of the three clusters with Alceste and SA presented no difficulty. About the Holy Spirit, the quantity of
texts produced was smaller. In cluster 3 the quantity of texts produced was
remarkably smaller. And that forced some data-tweaking in order to achieve
functional Alceste analysis.
The questions surrounding the faith process and the contents about God
were qualitatively analysed with Atlas.ti.
The second questionnaire administered to adolescents (God representations. Wave 2) was configured using data generated in the previous survey.
Only with this iteration was possible to use some new analysis techniques. As
far as content and relationship established with the three divine persons there
was continuity with the previous questionnaire. The lower production about
the Holy Spirit remained. It was possible by analyzing the J curve to detect
the internal structure of representations. Again, the data concerning the Holy
Spirit, expressed some deficiencies. And this absence suggests the hypothesis
that, at least for some groups of respondents, there is no social representation
of the Holy Spirit.
Research about the catechetical level was made studying the catechism
and through a questionnaire administered to the catechists. This questionnaire
was very similar to the one proposed to the adolescents. The analysis made
to this questionnaire (Gods representations. Catechists) was not thorough.
We limited ourselves to obtain the necessary and sufficient elements to have a
point of comparison with the adolescents.

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Investigation about the public sphere and the representations it carries


about God was made analyzing two corpora, representatives of popular culture (synopses of movies) and of a more classical and official culture, (analysis
of a dictionary). The choice of these two corpora is very risky. Are they really
representative of the Portuguese public sphere? There is a tradition within the
research of SRs considering this type of corpus as particularly representative.
The analysis of these two corpus gives results with aligned with those found by
analyzing the ideological and cultural level (Chapter 2).
6. From data to representations
After the analysis of the available data, we were able to determine and
characterize the different SRs found. One of the difficulties with Alceste is
the temptation to identify the classes with the SRs. The classes produced by
Alceste are the mathematical output of textual co-occurrences; a SR must be
conceptually coherent.
It was not difficult to identify the SRs of the three divine persons. This
identification was done only for the respondents from cluster 1. About God,
we have identified four representations
Belief & Doubt links God to the tension between belief and doubt.
Contemporary belief and doubt about Gods existence and the possibility of a
healthy relationship with Him. Trust & Relational Quality is characterized
by the quality of the relationship with God. The relationship with God is felt
like something good because He is the source of several profound positive experiences and feelings. Relations & Ritual values God as the source of good
experiences (like the former representation) but associates God with Christian
rituals (as liturgy and personal prayer). The fourth representation is The otherness of God. This representation stresses the strong asymmetry between
God and the believer.
About Jesus Christ, we identified three representations. The first is based
in the Christological titles. A set of titles describes jesus. Some come from the
biblical and theological traditions, and others come from the relational sensibility. The second is I like Jesus. Respondents associate Jesus to a collection
of good feelings towards Him. Jesus attitudes represents Him through His
attitudes. These attitudes are a reinterpretation of the historical Jesus, according to contemporary relational categories. These three representations of Jesus
are indeed different, but there is an underlying compatibility between them.
The three of them share some origin on the Jesus from the gospels and use the
contemporary categories of the relational field.
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About the Holy Spirit, we have identified three representations. The Spirit
is represented as Peace & Love and other positive virtues. It is not entirely
clear (for us and probably neither for the respondents) if the Spirit is seen as
a source of these healthy attitudes and experiences or is just a metaphor for
them. A second representation expresses the Spirit in relation to the Trinity.
And the third representation presents the Spirit in relation to Pentecost &
Church. He is associated with some sacraments and with the highly visual
phenomena of Pentecost.
Several of the objectivation processes were identified, namely metaphorization and personification. Several theories were used to anchorage the
representations: the individualistic positive psychology ideology, the old link
between religion and rituals, the secularization and atheism, the notion of the
divine as separated from the realms of men and, finally, what we have called
the flat land paradigm, the notion that all religions are basically the same.
We have also identified propagation as the most common communication
mode used by the respondents.
Accordingly to the research design we have chosen, it was not possible to
associate the representations to particular respondents. Alceste generated the
classes from the corpus, creating by the sum of the respondents texts. It would
be abusive to assign a specific class (or SR) to an individual respondent.
7. A theological reading of the social representations
Once we have determined the existing SRs, we proceeded in the last chapter to two levels of theological interpretation: one more dogmatic and the
other more practical.
The dogmatic interpretation tried to understand the merits and limitations
of the experience of faith made by adolescents as compared to the normative
framework set out in Chapter I. We started by evaluating the four representations of God.
Belief & Doubt presents the tension between faith and doubt, simultaneously as fides qua and fides quae. Doubt is not just a cognitive difficultly;
it is always connected to action. This double aspect of doubt is present in
this representation. The doubt expressed by the respondents is involuntary
doubt (according to CCC terminology). There seems to be some difficulty
in thinking theologically about doubt. The dialogical model proposed by Dei
Verbum shapes most of the revelation and faith contemporary theologies. It
tends to be somewhat static. Describes, with a proper biblical and anthropological basis, an ideal situation but is inattentive to the processes that lead to
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faith. Especially for those who are in a phase of profound psychological and
social transitions. A serious shortcoming of this representation is the absence
of references, express or implied, revealing the role of Jesus of Nazareth.
Trust & Relational quality is in tune with the biblical tradition by emphasizing the role of trust in God, and faith as a source of salvation. This
representation emphasizes the trusted relationship you have with God and describes the positive impact it has on personal existence. The relational quality
that these respondents value may seem too narrow to describe the salvation
offered by God. But if we accept a pedagogical perspective, the use of relational quality as a category to express God-given salvation can be seen as a step
in the right direction. This SR is strongly anchored in the ideology of positive
psychology. It is an ambiguous anchor. There are risks of individualism and
pelagianism.
The representation Relations & Ritual shares with Trust & Relational
quality the attention given to the relational quality but enriches it with the
ritual practices. This link between faith and ritual is common in our society.
Somehow, retrieves the old adage lex orandi, lex credendi, the circular connection between believed faith and celebrated-prayed faith. At the same time, this
representation allows a better binding between the personal and communal
dimensions of faith, between credo and credimus.
The fourth representation of God, The otherness of God, shares with
Relational Trust & Quality the quality of relationship with God but recognizes a fundamental asymmetry between God and the believer. This allows
overcoming some spiritual narcissism. In this representation, more than in all
others, the normative role of biblical revelation is recognized.
In the end of Chapter I, providing a summary of the contents of Christian faith, we found that we can only speak legitimately of God assuming Jesus Christ as a normative reference. But in these four representations of God,
references to Jesus are scarce. It is legitimate, but not demonstrated, the hypothesis according to which the detected representations of God incorporate a
Christological coloring, even if not explicitly.
Faith in Jesus is expressed with three different representations. The first,
The Christological titles, retrieves a long church tradition that describes
Jesus from a relevant set of titles. The titles chosen by the respondents have
a strong theological connotation and are not likely to reduce Jesus to an idol
of popular culture. Some of the titles are not part of the biblical tradition but
express, in contemporary relational categories, the Jesus action style, as described in the Gospels.
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I like Jesus, the second representation, emphasizes more the believers


personal relationship with Jesus. It is similar to the representation of God Relational Trust & Quality. Both emphasize the strong personal relationship
between the believer and the divine person. The contents dimension seems
absent. Jesus does not have a defined face. The centrality of the action seems
to be on the side of the subject. A faith without an object (or an object with
diffuse forms) can easily become a mere psychological experience. A more
benign interpretation, based on the necessary link between fides qua and fides
quae is possible. Even in todays subjectivist culture, this link remains active.
In this representation, even if respondents choose not to express their views
about who is the Christ they believe, there is a set of latent content.
The third representation, Jesus attitudes, corrects the deficit in the previous representation and underlines the praxis of Jesus. Believing in Jesus is,
for these respondents, to make memory of His saving action for humanity.
Concerning representations of the Holy Spirit, we already detected some
difficulties. Respondents produced less dense answers than about God and
Jesus. This suggests that they are also affected by the pneumatological deficit
that many theologians denounced.
The first representation presents the Spirit as Peace & Love, as a series
of positive feelings, largely anchored in positive psychology. Once again, we
can make two distinct interpretations. The first, more critical and superficial,
says that this representation instrumentalizes the Spirit and reduces it to a symbol of personal well-being. But a second line of interpretation, more sophisticated, will say that this representation shows the Spirit as a source of openness
and love. It is true that, in the texts produced by the respondents, there is no
explicit awareness of the Spirit as a source of self-transcendence. But it is possible that, even so, respondents are to realize that the Spirit is noticeable through
the typical attitudes of the new life in the Spirit.
The second representation (The Spirit and the Trinity) shows the Spirit
in his relationship with the Father and the Son. We saw in Chapter I, how
problematic can be the forgetting of the Trinity. This representation, by explicitly taking the Trinity as a theme, seems to offer an interesting potential.
But that is not the case. The representation is a mere repetition of the traditional formulations concerning the Trinity, with a strict parallelism between
the divine persons. There is no reference to the link between the believer and
the Trinity.
The third representation (Pentecost & Church) associates the Holy Spirit to the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, and to the phenomenology
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of Pentecost. The relationship between present day experiences of the Spirit


(in the sacraments) and the theophany of the original Pentecost is interesting.
After having recalled the interpretation given to each of the representations, we addressed some associated theological issues. The first is the role
of Trinitarian faith. We have detected the existence of a problem. There is a
minority of respondents who draws a perfect parallelism between the three
divine persons. However, beyond this assumed denial of the Trinity, there is
an effective oblivion. This forgetfulness is born from the erasure of the Holy
Spirit. If respondents produce less content about the Spirit, and this content
is inarticulate, any Trinitarian theology will have consistency problems. But
beyond this problem (which could result from semantic difficulties and not
properly theological distortions) there is a real alienation in relation to the
Trinity. The research design we choose opted to avoid direct questions about
the Trinity because that could lead to merely reified answers, influenced by
an effect of social desirability. And even so, something similar happened in
the The Spirit and the Trinity representation. However, the theme of the
Trinity did not appear significantly. It is possible to suggest that there is still
an implicit Trinitarian theology. The image of God is very much influenced by
the action of Jesus. There is a parallel between the believers relationship with
the Father and Jesus. The Spirit is also associated with the theme of salvation,
as the Father and the Son.
Another theological topic where we oscillate between explicit and implicit
poles is the theology of faith. This whole project questioned teenagers about
their experience of faith. But they have not produced many references to a theology of faith. We found that respondents believe this way or that, they have
this or that kind of relationship with God. But it is not clear how they think
about their own experience of faith. If they think about it, at all. The classic
connections, more or less tense, between faith as Gods gift and as a human
task or between faith and reason do not appear as a concern to the respondents. Another issue that does not arise is the dynamic character of faith. We
have seen how one of the representations of God takes doubt as a relevant
experience. But an articulated reflection on the journey of faith in which they
are involved does not appear.
The second part of the theological interpretation focuses on the praxis involved in the faith process of the respondents. We started by making a survey
of the relevant faith experiences. We found an interesting and rich combination, where traditional pastoral proposals of the Church (catechesis, religion
teaching in the school, youth ministry ...) articulate with a strong social network. Also present are the sources of faith, the perceived quality of life that
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faith brings, intense spiritual moments. With low reference levels are Myself
and the media. This absence of the media may seem strange. This absence
collides with the widespread belief that the media are omnipotent in shaping
attitudes. We saw, analyzing the public sphere, as they propose an image of
God very different from the one proposed by the Church. In a sense, the message of the media is conspicuous by its absence on the subject of faith in God.
Respondents are choosing other forms of legitimizing their SRs, dismissing the
media. But how is this done? The research design chosen does not give a clear
answer.
A second important topic is the faith partners. What people are seen as relevant to the identity of faith? The data are very clear and show a dense social
network. The family, in its various settings and ecclesial ministries (catechesis,
priests, youth ministry) appear as the most mentioned.
The third topic has to do with the consequences of faith. It is a complicated issue. More than 10% do not answer to this issue. The available answers turn around the moral conduct inspired by faith, the sharing of the faith,
the ritual actions (Sunday Mass, confession quite irregular, frequent personal
prayer), and sense of belonging to the Church. Special attention deserves the
issue of sharing of faith. In the ecclesial discourse of the last decades, the task
of sharing the faith is something innate to faith and not something reserved for
particular ministries. The data show that for more than 50% of respondents,
the sharing of faith is not felt as a relevant component of faith. When we add
to this scenario the predominance of the propagation mode in the communication of the SRs, we have a group with little interest or ability to communicate
the faith outside the short range relations.
8. Global questions
After summarizing the work done in this research project, it is time to deal
with some global questions.
8.1. The contemporary synthesis of the faith: advantages and limits
There is continuity between the revelation theology present in Dei Verbum
and the synthesis offered by the CCC. Faith is the human response to Gods
revelation of Himself. Revelation and Faith take place in a relational horizon.
To believe is to respond with trust and obedience to God, who fully revealed
Himself in Christ.
This view alows for a convenient articulation between the contents of faith
with the act of believing, personal experience of faith with his church-com114

munity context. The synthesis offered by DV and CCC has become widely
accepted today in the Church. The only difficulty we encountered was its static
and non-procedural nature. This model describes an ideal situation and presents it as normative. But has some difficulties explaining how to evolve from
a situation of non-faith, or initial faith, to the described ideal. In the current
situation, we have ecclesial appeals to move towards adult faith and the faith
itineraries terminology is widespread. But this more itinerant dimension of
faith is not thought theologically. We get the feeling that dogmatic theologians
expect that the catechists will solve it by a mere didactical operation. Another
difficulty is the contemporary presence of faith and doubt.
Coming across expressions and faith experiences that do not coincide with
the proposed ideal, we become aware that there is no theological evaluation
capacity. And we realize that pastoral agents, catechisms, and catechists, are
silent about specific paths to follow in order to reach the adult faith.
8.2. The use of Social Representations Theory: advantages and limits
This paper chose the theory of social representations as the theoretical
instrument from which to make the observation of the faith experience done
by the adolescents. At the end of the path, is a matter of honesty, try an evaluation of the merits of this option.
Theology is always the study of faith documents: biblical, magisterial, legal, historical, contemporary To study them, theology has always had the
humility and wisdom to ally with other knowledge to achieve, in a faith horizon, a more meaningful understanding of the documents. In each subject and
each context, theology makes partnerships with other scientific theories to
achieve its goal. What other knowledge may be useful for theology in its effort
of reading the documents? In principle, the answer should be that all sciences
and theories can partner with theology. In fact, a little caution is essential. The
use of non-falsifiable theories is not particularly useful as it allows (or induces)
theology to become an ideological discourse. The use of ideologically loaded
theories brings with it the risk of colonizing theology with their ideologies,
making theology a host for a parasitic ideology. More positively, there are
some characteristics that theology should value in its partnerships. The first
is respect and the adequacy between the chosen documents and the internal
dynamics of the theory. Trying to measure a colored object with a range of
gray filters is always possible but is problematic. The second feature is to value
the structural compatibility between theory and faith.

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We can conclude that SRT avoids the identified risks and offers good credentials in the characteristics that recommend a theory as a partner for theology. There is a degree of isomorphism between the experience of faith and
the internal architecture of the SRs. SRT respects the principle of agency of the
subjects and articulates well the role of individuals and groups in the development and sharing of representations. It offers an analytic framework capable
to respect the role of minority views in pluralistic societies.
Is SRT a perfect theory? Obviously, not. But for the purpose of this research project, SRT appeared as appropriate. The greatest difficulty comes
from SRTs methodological pluralism. The achieved results are falsifiable, but
the consensus about the quality levels is still very fluid.
8.3. The unsolved questions
It is a duty of intellectual honesty to recognize that the work done leaves
some issues unresolved. But these unsolved issues should be seen as new areas
for further research.
8.3.1. The role of the families
We have opted for a triangulation strategy in the phase of data gathering.
But we have left out the family influence. The respondents claim that family is
one of the strongest realities influencing their faith identity. But the research
design we have used, did not investigate the family contributions.
8.3.2. Between explicit and implicit statements
A second group of questions has to do with the theological interpretations.
About several topics (representations of the divine persons, about the Trinity, about the relation fides qua fides quae) we had difficulties in choosing
the correct interpretation. A stricter interpretation, based solely on the ideas
explicitly presented, describes the experience of faith of the respondents as seriously deficient in several of those aspects. But given the semantic difficulties
of the population, their theological illiteracy, a more inclusive interpretation
appeared as legitimate. In this second line of interpretation, we can recover
ideas and contents only implicitly expressed, and the theological evaluation
is not so negative. The issue is serious, and sympathy or political correctness
should not make the choice between the two interpretations. The reasons for
the hypothesis of a more inclusive interpretation are valid. But it would be
important to get a more accurate picture of reality. To know precisely if what
we called the implicit contents are really there. Another not pursued possibility
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to choose between competing interpretations was the presence of polyphasia.


The chosen research design did not allowed for the testing of such possibility.
8.3.3. Transforming the received catechesis
A third issue that deserves attention is how teenagers process the representations proposed by the catechetical level. We have seen as catechists and
catechisms have unmatched representations. We have seen that the representations of teenagers are themselves sui generis, different from the representations
proposed by catechisms and catechists. But it would be useful to have a more
accurate observation to see how these changes are negotiated.
8.3.4. The role of the media
A fourth issue has to do with the role of the media. From the data collected
in the public sphere, we find that the media conveys conflicting representations
in relation to those proposed by the catechetical level and by the adolescents.
The effective taboo about God leads to the elimination of God as a social object. The SRT explains how, through group interactions (church, family), you
can still create autonomous SRs. But how do teens deal with the pressure of
the media? In non-ecclesial spaces, can they keep the representations that we
have identified? Or is there occurrence of mute zones of representation?
8.3.5. Faith trajectories
A fifth question is born of the awareness adolescents have of their own
faith journey. We have seen how teenagers, unlike what happens with the catechists, are not capable of a second-order discourse about their faith, about its
evolution, growth and change. At least in one of the representations of God,
there were references to the subject of doubt. But they are able to perceive
faith as a dynamic reality? Or faith is seen as a state where there is no room
for projectuality?
8.4. The merits of empirical theology
Behind this research project is the conviction on the merits and advantages
of an empirical approach to theological praxis. Without denying the merits of
a philosophical view of reality, it must be said that, too often, the close partnership between philosophy and theology (or between theology and literary
knowledge) has provided cover for a naive, inaccurate and easy to manipulate
view on the reality surrounding us.

117

Developing a theological discourse (whether as a scientific reflection, either as faith proposal) without knowing the reality in which we are operating
is an idle effort and a betrayal of the evangelizing mission.
In a complex, fragmented and contradictory context as we live in the West,
an articulate and consistent understanding of reality is essential for evangelization. The world of adolescent believers, so little known, so subject to hasty
and serving interpretations, requires an increased commitment to knowledge.
In Part I of this project we realized the gaps that exist in Portugal in the areas
related to the topics that interest us. This further reinforces the need for convergence between theological reading and empirical research. It was possible
to make an empirical investigation seriously and not manipulated. And this
is confirmed by the use that can be given to the data and their interpretation
by other sciences and other ideological assumptions. It was possible to use a
sound theology to parameterize correctly what was under investigation and to
interpret the obtained data.
An approach such as the one followed in this work is not the only possibility for empirical theology. However, empirical theology offered an empirical
and theological reading that we could not have gotten otherwise.
From here, from this happy relationship between serious empirical knowledge and theological reading (or from other similar and, hopefully, more
skilled efforts), a proper understanding of the faith experience of adolescents
who attended catechesis is possible. Only from here it is possible to can talk,
think, and operate a renewed praxis in order to more effective and efficient
evangelization.
9. The day after
As van der Ven suggests, the empirical approach is concerned with describing and explaiming hermeneutic-communicative praxis as it occurs in reality. However, it is also concerned with examining and modifying this praxis
with a view to transcending its limits and moving towards and eschatological
perspective220 The parameters we set to this research project were focused
on the empirical description and theological interpretation. We felt that a
transformative research would be excessive. But, at the end of the work, it is
possible to list some challenges to the Church praxis in Portugal.
The unsolved questions that we have identified in 8.3 are already a challenge for the future. But now it is important to broaden our horizons to the
ecclesial practice that is not restricted to scientific research.
220

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van der VEN Johannes A., Practical Theology: an empirical approach, p. 77.

9.1. A healthy theology


The most urgent challenge is certainly the recovery of the role of the Holy
Spirit and the Trinitarian framework of the question of God. This urgency is
not born from the desire for doctrinal conformity; it is the condition of possibility for a Christian life of high quality. For too long, dogmatic, pastoral,
and spirituality lived in isolated islands. At the level of academic reflection,
the consciousness to overcome these fractures was already reached. The need
for a Trinitarian perspective on the Christian life is assumed. But the pastoral
practice of the Church, in its many declinations, continues to ignore these
challenges.
A Christocentric theology that is really Trinitarian (the perspective favored
by the GDC) should be closely linked to soteriology. We have seen as catechists
and adolescents were expressing the God-given salvation using some categories available in the contemporary cultural market. We have detected some of
the limits and difficulties of such attempts. It would be important to overcome
blockages and support honest attempts to express today the transforming gift
of God, with languages that respect the criterion of double fidelity.
An absent expression of this God-given salvation is the social dimension.
The economical, political, and ecological consequences of christian faith are
often forgotten. They are not denied but are considered, at best, as an interesting optional, useful to other geographical contexts.
9.2. A redundant network of evangelizers
We have seen as the respondents more committed with the Churchs faith
developed their social representations of God in the context of a dense ecclesial
network, where family and ministries complement each other.
The dominant model in catechesis works based on the role of catechists
and benevolence (or, at least, non-opposition) of the family and social context.
But it is easy to see that neither the socio-cultural context nor the families are
so attuned to the catechists as they were in the past.
In recent years has gained a certain popularity the concept of intergenerational catechesis, where the family has a decisive role. But it is also easy to see
that linking the success of the catechetical process to family commitment is,
strategically, a particularly risky operation.
The bottlenecking of pastoral strategies, initially motivated by their evangelizing potential, risks becoming a source of exclusion. Without denying the
potential merits of the catechists (or other ecclesial ministries) or family, it
119

seems preferable to choose a redundant strategy that is not dependent on just


one factor for the success of the evangelization. More than a disjunction between catechists and family, it seemed preferable and needed a conjunction.
Which should also include the peers, who, according to the self-report of respondents, are quite absent.
9.3 A catechesis with a renewed quality
This research had an exploratory-explanatory character. It was not an
evaluation of existing catechetical process. It is evident that the data collected
can be used in the evaluation. But now it is important to point out the urgency
to enable consistent assessment procedures in catechesis. Without it, is not
possible to improve practices.
The cycle project, execution, evaluation, reproject is only possible when
the project design can be evaluated. There are no systematic evaluation processes of the Portuguese catechesis, in any level of ecclesial responsibility. Not
only by a lack of political will to evaluate (and change) but because the design
of the project does not support any kind of serious evaluation.
Another important aspect to improve the catechetical ecosystem would be
a strong commitment to catechists formation. There is a national curriculum
to guide their formation and training. And most dioceses are generous implementing the initial levels of formation. But it is common to find a relevant
percentage (20 to 40%?) of catechists witout any kind of formal training. The
need for a better catechists formation has become a common place: averybody
agrees with it. But some defend it assuming that they lack a solid theology.
Others insist in a better training because of the didactical limitations of the avarega catechist. We would suggest that a better formation would be able to heal
the split between content and didactical procedure. Another suggestion would
be a formation that allowed the catechist to become a better theologian. A
theologian capable of building bridges between the normative depositum fidei
and contemporary contexts. A catechist-theologian capable of dialogue with
adolescents social representations of God. This could be expressed using the
term inculturizing attitude.221

221
The decalogue for inculturation suggested by Anthony in the 1990s is still valid
for the Portuguese context. Cf. ANTHONY Francis-Vincent, Ecclesial praxis of inculturation. Toward an empirical-theological theory of inculturizing faith, pp. 291-292.

120

9.4. Outside the fold

We have detected that in the different social representations held by the


adolescents the notion of sharing the faith was not present. The Church in
Portugal offered a serious proposal of catechesis but forgot the first announcement, the proposal of the Gospel to those outside of the faith. The Churchs
traditional practice operates within the fold of those who, by choice or socialization, are already, near the Church and faith.
It is urgent to go in search of the sheep living outside the fold, those who
do not know the Gospel. And who are the majority. The absence of missionary
awareness by adolescents expresses the extent to which this omission is internalized in Portugal.
9.5 A new communication paradigm
There is a growing awareness in the Church leaderships that the way
Church communicates is decisive to the quality of evangelization. This recognition accepts that communication happens in many platforms at the same
time. It is much more than just try to influence the agenda of the big media. SRT could be a useful tool to project a new communicative praxis to the
Church. Somehow, the task at hands would be to share social representations
compatible with the normative framework of the faith. There is no academic
tradition of thinking SRs projectually. SRT has been used only as a tool to
observe and interpret reality. One of the reasons for this is the respect held
by the agency of individuals and communities. Unlike many other theories or
strategies that sees people as passive recipients of hetero-directed plans, SRT
accepts that people, individually or in group, are actively involved in the creating, transforming, and sharing social representations. But even so, it would
be possible to think a new praxis where those involved in ministry shape their
communication praxis searching for objectivation accessible to their listeners
and use anchorages with a dense meaning for the community.

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172

General Index
Acknowledgements.................................................................................ii
Summary of contents.............................................................................iii
List of tables.......................................................................................... iv
List of figures........................................................................................ vii
List of tables Appendix A......................................................................ix
List of tables Appendix B........................................................................x
List of Tables Appendix C......................................................................x
List of figures Appendix A.....................................................................xi
List of Figures Appendix B.....................................................................xi
List of Figures Appendix C...................................................................xii
Abbreviations...................................................................................... xiv
Introduction.................................................................................................16
Motivation and Theme...........................................................................1
Method and Articulation........................................................................3
Part I: Believing in God: Theoretical Perspective............................................7
Chapter 1: Theological Approaches to Faith..................................................9
1. Faith in God: A biblical perspective........................................................9
1.1. Faith in the Old Testament............................................................10
1.1.1. Isaiah, the theologian of the faith...........................................11
1.1.2. Abraham: father of all believers..............................................11
1.1.3. Moses and the Exodus as a constitutive memory....................12
1.1.4. The challenges of the Exile.....................................................12
1.1.5. Faith and the wisdom seekers.................................................13
1.1.6. Key points on Old Testament theology of faith......................13
1.2. Faith in the New Testament..........................................................14
1.2.1. The synoptic gospels...............................................................14
1.2.2. The post-paschal community of the Acts................................15
1.2.3. Paul........................................................................................15
1.2.4. Johannine tradition................................................................17
1.2.5. Other authors from the New Testament.................................18
1.3. For a synthesis...............................................................................20
173

2. Understanding faith: the different theological models...........................21


2.1. Propositional model......................................................................21
2.2. Transcendental model...................................................................22
2.3. Fiduciary model............................................................................23
2.4. Affective-experiential model..........................................................24
2.5. Obediential model.........................................................................25
2.6. The praxis model..........................................................................25
2.7. Personalist model..........................................................................27
2.8. Relation between the different faith models...................................28
3. Contemporary Synthesis.......................................................................29
3.1. I believe.........................................................................................29
3.1.1. Fides qua and fides quae.........................................................29
3.1.2. Faith: a specific experience of God.........................................31
3.1.3. The Trinitarian framework of the faith experience.................32
3.1.4. Gift and task..........................................................................34
3.1.5. Intelligence and faith..............................................................35
3.1.6. Faith and salvation.................................................................38
3.2. We believe.....................................................................................40
3.2.1. The Church as place of personal faith....................................40
3.2.2. Faith in the factual Church.....................................................42
3.2.3 An educable faith....................................................................44
3.2.4. A dynamic faith......................................................................45
3.2.5 Towards a mature faith...........................................................46
3.2.6. Faith maturity and human maturity.......................................47
4. The Contents about God......................................................................50
4.1. God, the Father.............................................................................51
4.1.1. One God................................................................................51
4.1.2. God, the Father......................................................................53
4.1.3. God, the Creator....................................................................55
4.1.4. Omnipotent God....................................................................57
4.2. Jesus Christ...................................................................................58
4.2.1. Son of God.............................................................................58
4.2.2. Verbum caro factus est...........................................................59
174

4.2.3. He went around doing good...................................................60


4.2.4. Faithful until death.................................................................60
4.2.5. Risen......................................................................................61
4.3. Holy Spirit....................................................................................62
4.3.1. The Holy Spirits mission.......................................................63
4.3.2. Names and Symbols of the Spirit............................................63
4.3.3. The action of the Spirit...........................................................64
5. A synthesis about God and faith...........................................................65
Chapter 2: Human Sciences approach to the God question..........................69
1. Ideology and Culture............................................................................70
1.1. The First Republic.........................................................................70
1.2. Dictatorship: Estado Novo............................................................73
1.3. The democracy..............................................................................76
1.4. General trends on the ideological-cultural level.............................81
2. The societal level..................................................................................82
2.1. The available studies.....................................................................83
2.1.1. ICS 1995................................................................................83
2.1.2. European Social Survey..........................................................84
2.1.3. European Values Survey.........................................................84
2.1.4. International Social Survey Programme..................................85
2.1.5. Identidades religiosas em Portugal..........................................85
2.1.6. Other data sources.................................................................85
2.1.7. Census versus surveys.............................................................86
2.1.8. A global perspective...............................................................87
2.2. Theoretical interpretations............................................................90
2.2.1. Secularization theory: the classical trends...............................91
2.2.2. Secularization: the contestation..............................................94
2.2.3. Secularization in the Portuguese context.................................97
2.2.4. Rational Choice Theory.........................................................97
2.2.5. Giving space to history and culture........................................99
2.2.6. The end of the great narratives.............................................101
2.3. The available empirical data........................................................102
2.3.1. Religious self-identification..................................................103
175

2.3.2. Observable behaviours.........................................................103


2.3.3. Contents and beliefs.............................................................105
2.3.4. Pluralism and faith...............................................................106
2.3.5. Religious socialization..........................................................107
2.3.6. Religious trajectories............................................................108
2.3.7. Effects and motivation towards religion...............................109
2.3.8. Religion and Spirituality.......................................................110
2.3.9 The underlying constructs.....................................................110
2.4. General trends on the societal level.............................................112
3. The interpersonal level.......................................................................112
3.1. The recent developments.............................................................113
3.2. Epistemology...............................................................................114
3.2.1. The positivistic naturalist paradigm......................................115
3.2.2. The religious integration paradigm.......................................118
3.2.3. The hermeneutic paradigm...................................................120
3.3. God: images and concepts...........................................................123
3.4. Contributions from psychology of development..........................125
3.4.1. The early days......................................................................125
3.4.2. The search for a consistent narrative....................................126
3.4.3. James Fowler........................................................................126
3.4.4. Other structuralist approaches: religious judgement.............128
3.5. Attachment theory and the image of God....................................130
3.5.1. God as an attachment figure.................................................131
3.5.2. Individual differences...........................................................132
3.5.3. Critiques...............................................................................135
3.5.4. Gods images and concepts...................................................137
3.6. Studies on Adolescence................................................................138
3.6.1. Doubt in adolescence............................................................138
3.6.2. Influences on adolescents......................................................141
3.6.2.1. Parents..........................................................................141
3.6.2.2. Peers..............................................................................145
3.6.2.3. Other relational instances..............................................147
3.7. Interaction ritual chain................................................................148
176

3.8. Theological oriented research......................................................149


3.8.1. National Study of Youth and Religion.................................149
3.8.2. Theologically limited God images.........................................152
3.8.3. Theologically rich God images.............................................152
3.9. General trends on the interpersonal level.....................................154
4. Intrapersonal level..............................................................................154
4.1. Neurobiological interpretations...................................................155
4.2. Evolutionary psychology of religion............................................157
4.2.1. Evolutionary Psychology as a new paradigm........................157
4.2.2. Evolutionary Psychology and Religion.................................161
4.3. Cognitive Science of Religion......................................................162
4.3.1. Main ideas and authors........................................................163
4.3.2. CSR and theism....................................................................166
5. Summing up: an overview of the human sciences research about God....167
Chapter 3: Social representations theory....................................................171
1. The concept of social representation...................................................171
1.1. The ancestors of social representations........................................172
1.1.1. Modernity DNA...................................................................172
1.1.2. Towards a Social Psychology................................................173
1.2. A description of Social Representations.......................................174
1.2.1. Representations, triads, and time..........................................175
1.2.2. New ontologies and epistemologies......................................176
1.2.2.1. Ivana Markov..............................................................176
1.2.2.2. Wolfgang Wagner.........................................................178
1.2.3. Autentically social representations........................................181
1.3. Social representations neighbors: attitudes, social identity, and ideology.....................................................................................................182
1.3.1. Attitudes...............................................................................182
1.3.2. Social identity Approach......................................................184
1.3.3. Social representations and ideology......................................186
1.4. Consensual and reified thought...................................................187
2. Social representations formation processes.........................................188
2.1. From non-familiar to familiar.....................................................188
177

2.2. Socio-cognitive processes in the formation of SR.........................189


2.2.1. Anchorage process................................................................189
2.2.2. Anchorage, communication modes, and social networks......191
2.2.3. The pressure towards hegemony...........................................192
2.2.4. The impact of digital culture................................................193
2.2.5. Groups and representations..................................................195
2.2.6. Objectivation........................................................................196
3. Further developments.........................................................................198
3.1. The structural approach: Central core theory..............................199
3.2. Silent zones.................................................................................200
3.3. Themata......................................................................................201
3.4. Cognitive polyphasia...................................................................202
4. Methodology......................................................................................204
4.1. The indispensable role of theory..................................................204
4.2. Methods of research....................................................................205
4.2.1. Persons and objects..............................................................206
4.2.1.1. Experiments..................................................................206
4.2.1.2. Questionnaires..............................................................206
4.2.1.3 Word Association...........................................................207
4.2.2. People, groups, and objects..................................................207
4.2.2.1. Ethnography..................................................................208
4.2.2.2. Focus groups.................................................................208
4.2.2.3. Media analysis...............................................................208
4.2.3. Groups, history and representations.....................................209
4.3. Strategic methodologic options...................................................209
4.3.1. Triangulation.......................................................................209
4.3.2. The role of silences and absences..........................................210
5. Social representations adequacy to the study of faith..........................213
Part II: Believing in God: Empirical Perspective........................................215
Chapter 4: Research Design.......................................................................217
1. Research classification........................................................................218
1.1. Research purpose........................................................................218
1.2. Qualitative vs quantitative approach...........................................219
178

1.3. Outcome of the research.............................................................220


1.4. Logic of the research...................................................................220
1.5. The research questions................................................................222
2. Triangulation: a humble option in the search for quality....................223
2.1. Order in a fashionable concept....................................................224
2.2. Triangulation: modes of use........................................................226
3. Triangulation of the data....................................................................227
3.1. The adolescents level..................................................................228
3.1.1. Gods Representations. Wave 1............................................229
3.1.2. Gods Representations. Wave 2............................................232
3.2. The catechetical level...................................................................233
3.2.1. The catechisms guide books.................................................233
3.2.2. Gods representations from the catechists.............................233
3.3. The public sphere level................................................................234
3.3.1. God in the dictionary...........................................................234
3.3.2. God in the movies................................................................234
4. Triangulation of the analysis..............................................................235
4.1. Quantitative statistic methods.....................................................235
4.2. Alceste method............................................................................235
4.2.1. The epistemic background....................................................236
4.2.2. The operations involved.......................................................237
4.2.3. Alceste strengths and weaknesses.........................................241
4.3. Similitude analysis.......................................................................242
4.3.1. The epistemic background....................................................242
4.3.2. The operations involved.......................................................243
4.3.3. Similitude Analysis advantages and limits.............................244
4.4. Evocations and the central core...................................................245
4.5. Qualitative data analysis.................................................................246
Chapter 5: Results of the empirical research...............................................247
1. Gods Representations. Wave 1..........................................................247
1.1. Socio-religious indicators............................................................247
1.2. About God..................................................................................252
1.2.1. Cluster 1: High Catechesis attendance..................................253
179

1.2.2. Cluster 2: Medium Catechesis Attendance............................257


1.2.3 Corpus 3: Low catechesis attendance....................................263
1.2.4. Qualitative analysis..............................................................269
1.2.4.1. The metaphors used......................................................270
1.2.4.2. Concepts found.............................................................274
1.2.4.3 Cognitive Polyphasia......................................................277
1.2.4.4. Compatibility between quantitative and qualitative analysis...............................................................................................278
1.3. About Jesus.................................................................................278
1.3.1. Cluster 1: High Catechesis Attendance.................................279
1.3.2. Cluster 2: Medium catechesis attendance.............................284
1.3.3. Cluster 3...............................................................................288
1.4. About the Holy Spirit..................................................................291
1.4.1. Cluster 1...............................................................................292
1.4.2. Cluster 2...............................................................................296
1.4.3. Cluster 3...............................................................................298
1.5. Trinitarian relations....................................................................302
1.6. Towards the faith: Important experiences...................................304
1.7. Influential people in the faith process..........................................306
1.8. Acts and attitudes related to the faith experience.........................309
1.9. Faith sharing...............................................................................312
1.9.1. A quantitative analysis of Q16.............................................313
1.9.2. The contents of Q16.............................................................316
1.10. Information sources..................................................................320
2. Gods Representations. Wave 2..........................................................324
2.1. Religious behaviours...................................................................324
2.2. The contents................................................................................329
2.2.1. About God...........................................................................329
2.2.2. About Jesus..........................................................................335
2.2.3. About the Holy Spirit...........................................................339
2.3. The structure...............................................................................340
2.3.1. About God...........................................................................341
2.3.2. About Jesus..........................................................................345
180

2.3.3. About the Holy Spirit...........................................................349


3. The Portuguese catechisms.................................................................352
4. The catechists representations of God................................................357
4.1. Socio-religious indicators............................................................358
4.2. About God..................................................................................359
4.2.1. Lexicometry.........................................................................359
4.2.2. Class 1: My feelings towards God........................................360
4.2.3. Class 5: Peace & Love..........................................................362
4.2.4. Class 2: God, my relationship partner..................................363
4.2.5. Class 3: The quality of faith.................................................364
4.2.6. Class 4: Faith and obedience................................................365
4.2.7. A global perspective.............................................................367
4.3. About Jesus.................................................................................367
4.3.1. Lexicometry.........................................................................367
4.3.2. Class 1: The historical Jesus and me.....................................368
4.3.3. Class 2: The example of Jesus...............................................369
4.3.4. Class 3: The Son of God.......................................................370
4.3.5. Class 4: The relationship with Jesus.....................................371
4.4. About the Holy Spirit..................................................................372
4.5. Important experiences to catechists faith....................................374
4.6. Influential people in the catechists faith process.........................375
4.7. Acts and attitudes related to the faith experience.........................377
4.8. Faith sharing...............................................................................378
5. The public sphere...............................................................................379
5.1. God in the dictionary..................................................................380
5.2. God in the movies.......................................................................381
6. Summing up the empirical results.......................................................383
Part III: Believing in God: Practical-theological perspectives......................385
Chapter 6: Social Representations: interpretation of the results..................387
1. Social representations as a legit analytical category............................387
2. The contents.......................................................................................389
2.1. Social representations of God......................................................389
2.1.1. Belief & Doubt.....................................................................389
181

2.1.2. Trust & Relational Quality..................................................391


2.1.3. Relations & Ritual...............................................................392
2.1.4. The otherness of God...........................................................394
2.2. Social representations of Jesus.....................................................396
2.2.1. Christological titles...............................................................396
2.2.2. I like Jesus............................................................................397
2.2.3. Jesus attitudes.......................................................................399
2.3. Social representations of the Holy Spirit......................................401
2.3.1. Peace & Love.......................................................................401
2.3.2. The Spirit and the Trinity.....................................................402
2.3.3. Pentecost & Church.............................................................403
2.4. The denial of the Trinity.............................................................404
3. Formation processes: Objectivation....................................................404
3.1. Selective construction..................................................................404
3.1.1. Dialogue with contemporary theological synthesis...............405
3.1.2. Confront with the corpus of adolescence catechisms............406
3.1.3. Confront with the catechists representations........................407
3.1.4. The accents...........................................................................407
3.2. Schematization............................................................................408
3.2.1. The schemas used in God representations.............................408
3.2.2. The schemas used in Jesus representations............................410
3.2.3. The schemas used in the Holy Spirit representations............412
3.3. Naturalization.............................................................................413
3.3.1. Personification......................................................................414
3.3.2. Metaphorization...................................................................415
4. Formation processes: Anchorage........................................................420
4.1. The available and used anchorages..............................................420
4.1.1. Positive psychology and individualism..................................420
4.1.2. Religion and rituals..............................................................422
4.1.3. Secularization and atheism...................................................423
4.1.4. A separated God...................................................................424
4.1.5. The flat land.........................................................................425
4.2. Communicative processes and anchorages...................................425
182

4.2.1. The preference for propagation............................................425


4.2.2. The missing link...................................................................427
5. Social representations and action........................................................430
6. Conclusions........................................................................................431
Chapter 7: Theological interpretation of the results...................................433
1. A Dogmatic-Theological appraisal.....................................................433
1.1. Believing in God..........................................................................434
1.1.1. Belief & Doubt.....................................................................434
1.1.2. Trust & Relational Quality..................................................437
1.1.3. Relations & Ritual...............................................................444
1.1.4. The otherness of God...........................................................447
1.2. Believing in Jesus.........................................................................449
1.2.1 The Christological titles.........................................................450
1.2.2. I like Jesus............................................................................452
1.2.3. Jesus attitudes.......................................................................454
1.3. Spirit representations...................................................................456
1.3.1. Peace & Love.......................................................................459
1.3.2. The Spirit and the Trinity.....................................................461
1.3.3. Pentecost & Church.............................................................463
1.4. A Trinitarian faith.......................................................................466
1.4.1. A frail notion of the Trinity..................................................466
1.4.2. An implicit Trinitarian theology...........................................467
1.4.3 Trinity, faith and action........................................................468
1.5. Explicit and implicit theology of faith.........................................469
2. Practical-theological analysis..............................................................471
2.1. Relevant faith experiences...........................................................471
2.1.1. Pastoral proposals of the Church..........................................472
2.1.2. People...................................................................................473
2.1.3. Faith sources........................................................................473
2.1.4. Salvation and life quality......................................................474
2.1.5. Intense moments...................................................................475
2.1.6. Myself..................................................................................476
2.1.7. Media...................................................................................476
183

2.1.8. For a global analysis of the relevant experiences of faith......479


2.2. Faith partners..............................................................................480
2.1.1. The role of the families.........................................................480
2.2.2. Church ministers in action....................................................481
2.2.3. Support actors......................................................................484
2.2.4. Faith sources........................................................................485
2.3. Faith outputs...............................................................................485
2.3.1. Morality and freedom in Christ............................................486
2.3.2. Faith sharing........................................................................489
2.3.3. Ritual: Mass attendance.......................................................492
2.3.4. Ritual: personal prayer.........................................................496
2.3.5. Ritual: Sacramental Confession............................................499
2.3.6. Church belonging.................................................................504
2.3.7. Intrapersonal effects.............................................................509
3. Conclusive remarks............................................................................510
Chapter 8: Conclusions: a critical appraisal of research procedures and results............................................................................................................513
1. Faith Theology...................................................................................513
2. The contributions from the empirical research produced by human sciences............................................................................................................516
3. The option for Social Representations Theory....................................518
4. Making choices about the research design..........................................519
5. The available data..............................................................................520
6. From data to representations..............................................................522
7. A theological reading of the social representations.............................523
8. Global questions.................................................................................527
8.1. The contemporary synthesis of the faith: advantages and limits..527
8.2. The use of Social Representations Theory: advantages and limits......
527
8.3. The unsolved questions...............................................................528
8.3.1. The role of the families.........................................................528
8.3.2. Between explicit and implicit statements..............................528
8.3.3. Transforming the received catechesis....................................529

184

8.3.4. The role of the media...........................................................529


8.3.5. Faith trajectories...................................................................529
8.4. The merits of empirical theology.................................................530
9. The day after......................................................................................530
9.1. A healthy theology......................................................................531
9.2. A redundant network of evangelizers..........................................531
9.3 A catechesis with a renewed quality.............................................532
9.4. Outside the fold..........................................................................532
9.5 A new communication paradigm..................................................533
Appendix A: Figures & Tables from Chapter 2..........................................535
Appendix B: Figures & Tables from Chapter 4..........................................549
Appendix C: Figures & Tables from Chapter 5..........................................557
Bibliography...............................................................................................593
General Index.............................................................................................637

185

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