| Abstract
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In recent years, the relationship between spirituality and youth has become a defining concept in religious discourse, and yet has also become so confused and vague that clarity is still required. Over the last two decades, any number of vast empirical surveys on the spirituality of adolescents has been undertaken in German-speaking Europe. These surveys were mostly quantitative, resulting in what Elmhorst calls: “God as semantic blank space”, demonstrating that young people are unable to talk about their spirituality. The most recent survey (2010 to 2012), commissioned by the Protestant Church of Westphalia, was conducted in the opposite fashion: Adolescents were first asked about their faith (using a qualitative survey, incorporating methods such as symbols, collages, interviews, etc.) and the young people’s concepts were then utilized for a subsequent quantitative survey. Following a short introduction outlining the problem, this article will then be subdivided into four more points: (1) The theoretical background of the research, (2) the methodology and the design of analysis and a summary of the central results, (3) a presentation of the consequences of the results for the current scholarly debate and (4) a reflection on the methodology and the conceptual approach. In recent years, the relationship between spirituality and youth has become a defining concept in religious discourse, and yet has also become so confused and vague that clarity is still required. Over the last two decades, any number of vast empirical surveys on the spirituality of adolescents has been undertaken in German-speaking Europe. These surveys were mostly quantitative, resulting in what Elmhorst calls: “God as semantic blank space”, demonstrating that young people are unable to talk about their spirituality. The most recent survey (2010 to 2012), commissioned by the Protestant Church of Westphalia, was conducted in the opposite fashion: Adolescents were first asked about their faith (using a qualitative survey, incorporating methods such as symbols, collages, interviews, etc.) and the young people’s concepts were then utilized for a subsequent quantitative survey. Following a short introduction outlining the problem, this article will then be subdivided into four more points: (1) The theoretical background of the research, (2) the methodology and the design of analysis and a summary of the central results, (3) a presentation of the consequences of the results for the current scholarly debate and (4) a reflection on the methodology and the conceptual approach.
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