8.  Crafting an interpersonal faith inside a plurality of vision

Globalization has made today’s world increasingly into a single place where we are all exposed to a wide variety of worldviews, cultures, ideologies and religions.  In such a world all ideologies, religions and cultures tend to become relativized.  Nothing is true no-matter-what anymore.  More and more we are faced with the fact that there is more than one kind of normal in the world.  The otherness of others is in our face all the time.  In such a world it is hard to escape the notion that we all make our philosophy of life or our religion what it is, that what we believe is strictly up to us, and that there is no longer any overarching system of truth out there to appeal to.  

Emerging adults are keenly aware of this situation.  Rather than search for a worldview that we can all share, the thing that concerns them most is the quality of their character.  What counts for them is the ability to make their own choices and to live by them, the willingness to take responsibility for themselves, and the commitment to live honest and authentic lives.  They have by and large exchanged the certainty of knowing for the integrity of questioning.  They have come to believe what they believe without the pretension that what they believe is the only truth.  They show respect for the fact that others may have a faith that differs from theirs.   They develop an ultra-tolerant interpersonal faith, which says that whatever you believe, above all it must not hurt others or make them feel put down.  The faith they do profess to have is a kind of open spirituality in which they pick and choose what to believe.  What to live out of and what to live for are private, individual matters.  In the words of one emerging adult, they have become a congregation of one.