Latter-Day Saint Young Adults’ Motivations for Religious Literacy

Abstract

This article explores 16 Latter-day Saint college students’ religiosocial motivations for reading sacred texts. Inductive analyses of semi-structured and verbal protocol interviews identified four motivations for reading sacred texts that grew out of participants’ lived experiences: They read because of pressure from family and friends, to have experiences with the divine, because reading sacred texts made them feel good, and to avoid the consequences they associated with not reading. Findings have implications for religious education research and instruction as they relate to studying the situated nature of motivations for literate practice and understanding young people’s lived experiences with sacred texts.