Read a Sept. 26, 2004, Indianapolis Star story about techniques congregations are using – from basketball to fire pits – to try to draw more teenagers to worship.

Read a Sept. 3, 2004, Associated Press story about Seventeen magazine starting a new section on faith.

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding is a nonprofit group that tries to help parents and other adults better understand youth culture.

Read the results of a national study funded by the John Templeton Foundation on spirituality in higher education conducted between 2003 and 2010. The study was conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California in Los Angeles and includes responses from thousands of undergraduates at diverse colleges and universities from around the U.S.

See summaries of research findings from the National Study of Youth and Religion, funded by the Lilly Endowment and based at the University of North Carolina. From July 2002 to March 2003, the researchers conducted a random nationwide telephone survey of 3,370 teenagers ages 13 to 17 and their parents, and followed that up with 267 […]

This 2004 survey of almost 1,400 youth ages 18 to 25 that included Christian, Muslim, Jewish youth and a mix of races and ethnicities – explored attitudes about faith, politics and volunteer service. It found a “strong and intimate” connection between religious faith and volunteerism. 56 percent of those surveyed volunteered in their community in […]

This 2002 survey from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, found that of the 65.6 percent who said they gave money to help victims of the attack, the average gift was about $134 and half gave small donations of $50 or less. Also, 8.3 percent said they donated time – an average of 17 […]

Marc Ellis is retired Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He has written about a Jewish theology of liberation and about the future of liberation theology. He wrote Practicing Exile: The Religious Odyssey of an American Jew.

Alexander Seinfeld is a rabbi and an expert on Judaism and the supernatural and has given talks on the subject of Judaism and ghosts, necromancy and astronomy. He is based in Baltimore.