By Bryan Stone
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Boston University School of Theology
How do persons come to faith in our time? How do they adopt a religious faith as their own? Or does the faith adopt them?! Is it a journey? Or is it more like a sudden conversion? Are friends and relatives most important to the process? Do clergy, priests, and religious leaders matter? Are books, television, or films significant factors? What sorts of values, practices, and lifestyles tend to change for those who newly come to faith? What, if any, are the substantial differences in how one comes to faith among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and persons of other religious traditions?
The “Finding Faith Today” Project is a nationwide research project sponsored by Boston University that attempts to answer these and other questions. An initial study was conducted on Christian populations in the United Kingdom over twenty years ago, but surprisingly little research has been done since then. Finding Faith Today is an expansion and follow-up of that study and it also has a comparative interfaith component that seeks to learn from those who become adherents of all major religious traditions in the U.S.
Finding Faith Today surveys adults (aged 18 and over) who have recently (in the last 10 years or so) adopted a religious tradition as their own, even if that happens to be a “return” to faith from an earlier commitment in their lives or an adult “activation” of a faith into which they were born. If you are interested in sharing your own journey to Sikhism, please visit the Finding Faith Today website at www.bu.edu/cpt/fft and take the survey. Or perhaps you know someone who fits this profile and to whom you might send this information. All responses will be kept completely anonymous and confidential. The survey holds great promise for learning about how people come to religious faith and practice in our time – and will be helpful to scholars, religious leaders, and faith communities throughout the U.S.