Abstract

For over two decades the authors of this chapter have explored the nexus between religious faith and family relationships in the American Families of Faith research project. Generativity, one of the most optimistic and hope-filled concepts in the social sciences, has been of particular interest to them. The need for meaningful theory on generativity and religion suggests the need for conceptual frameworks to guide research. Therefore, this chapter briefly overviews recent, relevant empirical work on religious generativity (intergenerational transmission) and then takes a deep conceptual dive into the theory of generative devotion that is grounded in more than 150 published empirical studies from the American Families of Faith project.