The strengthening of “transitional” categories in the self categorization of religious young people

Abstract

My study is about changes of self-qualification of the religiosity of the youth. The situation of the youth changed in the 21st century and this drew with itself changes in the ways they see the world. These changes influenced religiosity, too. I have analysed the meanings of the notions used in creating categories of religious self-qualification. I have focused on the meaning of the expression of being “religious in my own way”. What do those using this category of self-qualification exactly mean by that and what are other groups they compare themselves to then? I suspect the existence of a growing rate of transitional categories of self-qualification together with a decline of more exact categories - even though the category of those “not religious” grew and became second biggest behind those of being “religious in my own way”. I hypothesized that the meanings of the notions used in religious self-qualification became blurred as these categories grew in quantity. To see more clearly, I used qualitative research and analysed the meaning of these notions in more detail in the group of those who self-qualified as being “religious in my own way”. The results have shown that youth in transitional categories tendto see themselves as “seekers”. They explained that their aim is to find the meaning of life. They subordinate their quest and their self-qualification to this aim.