Religion in Forming Adulthood. The Catholic Perspective

Abstract

Looking for the role of religion in forming adulthood is expressed in discovering factors fostering the development of a person. Amid them, religion is more and more often mentioned, as it fulfills the need of finding the source and sense of existence and acting. In Christianity, this final point of reference is personal God, who in Jesus Christ realizes the intention of humanity salvation. This means that Christian religion has the individual and communal shape that is transferred on its social impact dimensions and in each of them it has own way of realizing in the faith. The individual dimension is connected with the dynamism of the faith confessed and described in a concept of religious development, or the development of faith. The social dimension is seen in the references to other people in the shape of interpersonal relationships and in the references to social groups and institutions. Analysis of the research material gathered among the students of Biblical Correspondence Course (narrations of graduates, demographic data of participants and statistical calculations) depicts that there is the need for religious education among grown-up, which providing the true knowledge will support particular persons and groups in building the life style.