moralistic therapeutic deism

English

Alternative forms

• Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
• MTD (initialism)

Etymology

2005 neologism (coined by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton in Soul searching: the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, Oxford University Press, 2005).

Noun

moralistic therapeutic deism (uncountable)

1. A diffuse notion of theism and morality, which need not be tied to any particular religious creed, found to be common among early 21st century American teenagers.
   • 'Moralistic Therapeutic Deism' indicates the young people's view is that religion is 'good for you' in so far as it provides people with a moral framework (Sara Savage, Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Making sense of Generation Y: the world view of 15- to 25-year-olds, 2006, p. 50)