This Discussion will serve as the first of your interactions with the text and your
classmates and will assist you in thinking through one of the prevailing worldviews in
American culture. Christian Smith calls this “moralistic therapeutic deism." After watching
the presentation titled Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, respond to the following prompt:
Do you think Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is an accurate reflection of society today?
What are relevant examples you can provide that support your conclusion?
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
I want to talk to you over the next few minutes about the concept of moralistic therapeutic D ism. I
know there's a lot in that and hopefully you don't to me outright away hearing that I want to explain this
to you. This is a concept that came out of a book from 2005, so a few years ago. But it was research
done with adolescence that Christian Smith and Denton coauthors, they wrote on this topic of really
what was the prevailing worldview or even religion of adolescence at that time within the US. And so
the research was done over about a four year period and was published in a book called soul searching.
It's fascinating to read, kind of towards the end of the book as they explain the concept of moralistic,
therapeutic theism. So let me read their words to you. They say, we advance our thesis somewhat
tentatively as less than a conclusive fact, but more than mere conjecture. We suggest that the de facto
dominant religion among contemporary US teenagers is what we might well call moralistic, therapeutic
D ism. The creed of this religion is codified from what emerged from our interviews. Sounds something
like this. And so I'm gonna read you, there are five kinds of descriptions of moralistic therapeutic DSM.
And then we're going to talk about the concept moralism, moralistic, therapeutic in theism as well. The
five aspects they say a God exists who created in orders the world, in watches over human life on Earth.
That's the first basically mindset they'd say, encapsulated in this idea of moralistic, therapeutic theism,
The second God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by
most world religions. Three, the central goal of life is to be happy and to be free or to be happy and to
feel good about oneself. For God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God
is needed to resolve a problem. Then five good people go to heaven when they die. Now think about
those concepts, the authors would say, no one is necessarily going to use that term to say this is the
religion that I hold to. And yet those five descriptors are really what these adolescents were saying.
Now, lest you would say, well, that was quite a few years ago and, and adolescence are different. Now
my suggestion to you is, where do we think those adolescence got that worldview or that religion? They
most likely were shaped by their parents and the generation before them. And then if you really think
about it, who is shaping our next-generation, it's really those who came up with this type of an
understanding. Let's talk to the moralistic, therapeutic, theism. Those three terms or those three words
themselves, moralistic. What do we mean by that, or what did the authors mean by that? They mean
that central to life, living the good life is to be happy and to be a good moral person. Really, the goal in
life is being fulfilled. That someone needs to be liked by others. That really the goal in life would be to be
true to oneself, and the goal in life was to be moral. Now, part of that you would say you might be able
to agree with the question though, becomes, where is Scripture and that whose definition of morrow
are we using? This seems like a very subjective understanding of moralism. The second concept,
therapeutic, The away that the authors describe that they would say central is the feeling of being good
or happy or secure or at peace. This isn't a concept about repentance or holiness, or obedience to the
Word of God. It's really about having an inner peace or an inner happiness. That is the prevailing
mindset of many of the adolescence that they interviewed. The beliefs or the connection between what
is important within one's life. Maybe what the Word of God would say is an authority in one's life was
missing and a lot of the interviews that they had. And then finally the concept of de ism D as him as a
concept. You might be familiar with this idea that God is kind of absent, absent t, God as some would
describe that. Well, you see that in those five definitions are those five statements about moralistic,
therapeutic D ism that God, He's there at times, but not always there. And really he's only there when
we need him to get out of trouble. Some of the interviews that they did with these adolescence talked
about, you know, God is there kind of watching over what's happening, but he's really not involved in
our daily lives. He may be there from time to time, but he might not be there. There's an uncertainty of
that. So as you think about this concept of moralistic therapeutic D, as I'm, I want to challenge you to
think about where some of that thinking has crept into your life perhaps. Are we just seeking to be
moral by our own standards? Are we just seeking to be happy? Do we just look to God to come and help
us when maybe we're having a difficult day, but we don't really have interests and God being involved in
all the aspects of our lives. I think unfortunately, we see this permeating a lot of our thinking at many
levels that we might not even realize from time to time. So the challenge is to think through these
concepts. Think about how they're affecting our lives and the lives of others in the lives that we're
influencing. And then ultimately come back to a biblical understanding of who God is and what he'd
require of us.
THEO 104
DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Your threads and replies will build off of the previous module’s Discussion, as well as include
content from the most recent module. Think of the Discussions in this course as a continued
conversation spanning all 4 of the modules that have Discussions assigned. The following 4
areas will be discussed throughout the course.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (Module 3: Week 3)
These Discussions are designed to help you think through the impact your theological
understanding has on your everyday life. Your worldview will be taken into consideration as it
relates to how you engage with society.
Your thread and all replies must be substantial and thoughtful in nature. Again, these interactions
are meant to mimic conversation. Conversations include statements as well as questions.
Remember not only to engage with the provided prompts, but to engage with your classmates as
well. Substantive answers will reveal signs of active listening and application of content. Limit
the length of your posts to 300–400 words each.
In addition to answering all prompts, you are expected to interact with other participants and
probe their thinking. Refer to course readings and videos and engage with biblical texts before
responding. You are required to check the postings in the Discussions frequently and to
participate consistently while engaging thoughtfully in these Discussions.
Post-First: This course utilizes the Post-First feature in all Discussions. This means you will
only be able to read and interact with your classmates’ threads after you have submitted your
thread in response to the provided prompt.
Running Head: MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM 1
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
Name
Professor
Course
Date
MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM 2
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
Christian Smith identifies the concept of moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD) to describe
common beliefs among U.S. youths. The phrase captures three moralistic elements that
emphasize being nice or good. It implies that living a happy and good life requires being moral
(Smith & Denton, 2005). The element of therapeutic involves feeling at peace, happy or good.
The last aspect of deism involves acknowledging God’s existence to meet individuals’ needs.
Based on the definition of these concepts, I think moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD) is an
accurate reflection of society today.
MTD is an accurate reflection of society based on the core belief that the primary goal of
life is to be happy and feel good about oneself. This is evidenced in most people striving to
adhere to moralistic, therapeutic deism to justify their behaviors, life choices, and actions. This
life standard also aligns with the core belief that God wants people to be nice, good, and fair to
each other, as the Bible and many religions teach.
Most people today lack perfect knowledge and understanding of Biblical concepts, and
the young generation is continuously leaning towards factual Christian beliefs to justify their
actions (Smith & Denton, 2005). For example, the trend toward spiritual but not religious
(believing in God but not church) because they believe God wants people to be nice and fair to
each other according to Biblical teachings. They believe that God exists, but He is partly
involved in running peoples' lives based on the MDT principle that God does not need to be
particularly engaged in one's life apart from when He is needed to resolve a problem (Smith &
Denton, 2005). For example, based on this belief, some people live a worldly life and get
deathbed conversion when facing terminal illnesses. Catholicism has a last sacrament (extreme
MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM 3
unction) that involves bringing the terminally ill closer to God. A priest anoints them with oil
and recites a prayer to invoke God's mercy in resolving the problem of death.
MTD principles are common to Millennials since most people perceive God as an
alternative. They do not know Him but can seek Him when broken (Smith & Denton, 2005).
That God will still come and get them from problems. According to MTD belief, the essential
thing that aligns with God is to be nice, good, and tolerate others, which results in a heavenly
reward from God.
MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM 4
References
Smith, C. & Denton, L. M. (2005). Soul searching: the religious and spiritual lives of American
teenagers. Oxford University Press
