What style of evangelization is most effective in preaching to young adults about matters of faith? Is it a persuasive rhetorical approach that gently prods and influences? Or is it a “Socratic style” that abruptly breaks apart the status quo?
These were the questions that Dillon Pamnani, Franciscan University student intern at St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison, and Brian Honsberger, executive director of St. Paul’s, teamed up to answer in a survey of some 40 young adults in their 20s and 30s. In March, Pamnani made a presentation on both persuasive styles to the young adult group at St. Paul’s and distributed a survey to compare the evangelization techniques.
In working together to prepare the study, Honsberger, as an evangelist and youth minister, wanted to make sure they had “a rigorous study, experiment, and test of different techniques to understand how young adults think.” Honsberger also serves as the diocesan director of mission and technology integration.
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Pamnani needed to complete a senior thesis that combined psychology and theology. He recently graduated from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.
The result of their work was a thorough 30-page statistical analysis of the findings put together by Pamnani.
“What we hypothesized ended up coming true in the data,” Pamnani said. “The Socratic methodology showed an advantage in perception change.”
To Pamnani, the analysis was a refreshing outcome, which he hopes can inspire young people to think more deeply about issues like: “What does the Church teach?” “Why does it teach these things?” and “What are the grounds on which the popes have spoken throughout the centuries about these issues?”
Then young adults “can extrapolate a political or economic belief from Catholic teaching, rather than having some presuppositions,” that are learned in social media or headlines. It is an important discovery in a time when “no one is reading,” Pamnani said.
The Socratic method, Honsberger explained, challenges people to think in a bold new way — “to not think like everybody else.”
“Socrates would break paradigms by asking questions that made people think bigger. And Jesus was a Socratic teacher, and so were all rabbis in the 1st Century,” said Honsberger, who is the administrator for the Certificate in Catholic Evangelization offered by Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology in South Orange and St. Paul’s.
The rhetorical approach, Honsberger said, is a system of working within the paradigm in which “everyone thinks and lives.” It is “very gentle” and doesn’t ask people to make a big leap, but to make a minor adjustment. That shift might have a negligible effect today, but over the course of many years, it may have a substantial impact, he explained.
Honsberger said it is not the technique that concerns him as much as the effectiveness and how to adapt to the needs of the people. And the results of this study are worth examining further.
“Our little experience could inform parishes, catechists [with] a new approach for evangelization and ministry,” Honsberger said. “I feel like at the end of this, it’s more of a question. We discovered this and now ask, ‘How do I as a minister adapt?'”
Working with Honsberger has helped Pamnani see how he could combine his academic interests in business, psychology, and theology. He would like to further the study, using statistical evidence to support their research.
“We’re at a point generationally, especially my generation, where people are so hungry for this — that once they’re exposed, a lot can happen,” Pamnani said.
Colette M. Liddy is a correspondent for Beacon NJ, the news site of the Paterson Diocese.
