The Emergence of Spirituality in Adolescence
From The United Synagogue Review, Fall 1999
Adolescence was once viewed as a time of great turmoil and stress; nevertheless, contemporary views now perceive more continuity with earlier development. Interestingly, one area in which striking change does occur is in the area of spirituality.
Adolescence can be seen as a bridge -- a time of looking both ahead and behind. Of course, adolescents do not often recognize what they are experiencing as an awakening of their spirituality. Rather, they are more in touch with beginning to struggle to find meaning and purpose in life. Their cognitive abilities allow them to ask questions about the future, and their moral reasoning moves them toward perceiving that there are overriding values, as well as many more gray areas than they saw in their pre-teen years. Adolescents are entering a search that will continue throughout their lives, as they author their identity through their deeds.
What are the questions that emerge during this time? According to Parker Palmer and Rachael Kessler, in articles focusing on the issue of spirituality in public education, these questions include the following: How does my life have meaning and purpose? What gifts do I have that the world wants and needs? To what or whom do I feel most deeply connected? How can I rise above my fears and doubts? How do I deal with the suffering of my family, my friends, others in the world, myself? What or whom is it that awakens or touches the spirit within me? Each of these "big ideas" -- purpose, gifts, connection, fears, suffering, and personal spirit -- takes on added meaning when a Jewish context is added to secular developmental considerations.
Initially, adolescents have a hard time putting into words their beliefs about these and related "transcendent" ideas. Often, it is easier for them to relate to real or fictional stories of others’ experiences. Rachael Kessler and Rabbi Harold Kushner note that for some teenagers, it is helpful to think in terms of seeming opposites, such as dreams and limitations; self-reliance and service; truth and dishonesty; human rights and oppression or genocide. There is also strong consensus that adults and peer leaders play a critical role in guiding adolescents to reflect on matters of the spirit, because this is missing from much of their daily lives. Among the interesting questions adolescents can be guided to think, speak, and write about, as well as convey artistically, are: When or with whom are you at your best, and what does that feel like? What is lying dormant within you, waiting for a chance to flower? How does the Divine express itself in everyone, in the world around us, in you?
The more adolescents are able to reflect on these kinds of questions, with adult guidance and peer support, the more in touch with their own spirituality they will become. Below are some related activities that can be used in support of, or in preparation for, engaging adolescents in spiritual reflection.
Adolescents can be asked to list the people and experiences who have affected "who they are now" and discuss how this influence manifests itself in their current lives. As a follow up, students can be asked to indicate who they think some of the influences will be in the future, both the near and the not-so-near future. Various choices can be discussed in the context of those influences and their potential impact (for example, in choosing peers, deciding whether to become involved in religious functions or social issues, or choosing a college).
In this regard, you can stress the fact that the adolescent has some degree of control on the influences s/he is exposed to. We have also stressed the importance of attending to the contexts in which adolescents find themselves. Their growing needs for independence from parents and increasing reliance on peer norm-setting will be a key concept here. How do our Jewish institutions allow for these ends? How much latitude are adolescents given in planning and running their own activities? Can they begin to take leadership roles in Jewish communal activities? Are they invited to participate in a meaningful way in synagogue leadership and committees? Do they have the opportunity to take part in the service? Is there room for teens to become involved in working with younger students in the Hebrew School? Are there social activities for them, perhaps in conjunction with other activities?
Social action can be another important outlet for creating contexts for positive identity development. Many synagogues already have a number of congregation?wide social action projects. Are adolescents encouraged to participate in these, or better yet, to plan their own parallel activities? Are these activities recognized and reinforced by congregational leaders? Adding to these activities a discussion of the relation of social action to Jewish and personal values can make the activity all the more meaningful.
An interesting application of adolescents’ ability to "think big about big ideas" can be a discussion about God. They can discuss their own conceptualization of God and compare and contrast this with various Jewish approaches. To help personalize this, they can imagine the world and particularly their own lives without God. A discussion of how they can move toward bringing God into their world can help point toward the future.
The authors are associated with the Jewish Identity Project at the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University.
