Abstract
The possible contribution of youth ministry to a Western and radically postmodern complex of youth cultures is explored in this paper. It consists of two parts. First, a cultural‐psychological analysis is presented of three problematic aspects of identity formation of contemporary youth against the background of a society craving for flexibility and perfection. The observation is made that the mental “playground” of young people— the field of opportunities in which they learn to grow into the person they are uniquely destined to become—has shrunk dramatically. The second part reflects on three paradigms for youth ministry, each with its own appraisal of the postmodern situation and evaluation of the role of religious education. It is demonstrated that a transparent (authentic and communicative) religious education can contribute to the clarification of the narrative identity of contemporary young people. In this essay special attention has been paid to the West European youth debate in Dutch and German literature; it is also rooted in my own narrative identity as a teacher, trainer, and minister in the field of religious education and youth ministry.
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