The plight of today’s adolescents is often front-page news. How can the church begin to understand the root causes of this turmoil? What can be done?

In Hurt, Chap Clark writes that today’s adolescents operate within an environment in which adults have largely abdicated their responsibility to mold and shape teenagers’ everyday lives. As a result, the behaviors once associated with the adolescent fringe have become the norm in contemporary youth culture.

Clark applies a broad ethnomethodological approach to understanding contemporary adolescent life. He argues that the social and relational turmoil of the 1960s set in motion a chain of events that left many adults unable to cope with the demands of life. Adolescents were a prime casualty of this development. The rejection of adolescents by adults, Clark writes, "is the root of the fragmentation and calloused distancing that are the hallmarks of adolescent culture."

After examining the changing face of adolescence, Clark maps the landscape of everyday teen life–looking at the issues, problems, and challenges endemic to youth culture. A final section suggests a way out, offering strategies to stem the tide of abandonment running rampant in our culture.

This provocative and disturbing account of contemporary adolescent culture will be a valuable addition to college and seminary courses, and it can be read with profit by youth ministry workers, counselors, pastors, parents, and anyone concerned about the youth of today.

This book does a great job of framing the issues affecting adolescents. It provided me with some powerful insights. No wonder adolescents identify with the movies I have been making-the characters are on the same journey of trying to find hope and authenticity. This book is a great look inside the adolescent world, the world beneath the one exposed to adults.–Ralph Winter, movie producer, X-Men Trilogy, Fantastic Four, Star Trek series, and Cool It

For years my burden has been to enter the inside world of people with the passion of Christ. Clark has done it with adolescents. I predict Hurt will become the book to read for all who care about the spiritual development of teens.–Larry Crabb, New Way Ministries; author of Soul Talk