1. redeem somebody/something - to make somebody/something seem less bad The excellent acting wasn't enough to redeem a weak plot. The only redeeming feature of the job (= good thing about it) is the salary. She seems to have no redeeming qualities (= good aspects of her character) at all. 2. redeem yourself - to do something to improve the opinion that people have of you, especially after you have done something bad He has a chance to redeem himself after last week's mistakes. 3. redeem somebody (in Christianity) - to save somebody from the power of evil Jesus Christ came to redeem us from sin. 4. redeem something - to pay the full sum of money that you owe somebody / to pay a debt. I don't have enough money to redeem the loan. 5. redeem something - to exchange something such as shares or vouchers for money or goods This voucher can be redeemed at any of our branches. 6. redeem something - to get back a valuable object from somebody by paying them back the money you borrowed from them in exchange for the object. He was able to redeem his watch from the pawnshop. 7. redeem a pledge/promise (formal) - to do what you have promised that you will do Please see http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/redeem. As you can see, only the third meaning of "redeem" above is connected to Christianity. So despite being a non-Christian, you can master the word "redeem". Coming back to the sentence, it appears that the writer is comparing the past (an earlier time) to the present (today). Children today are exposed to too much adult reality (which the writer appears to think is something bad/negative) sometimes without any redemptive beauty of an earlier time. Maybe the writer is saying that sometimes adult reality is potrayed too harshly without any beauty (of an earlier time) to redeem (or make up) for it. So in this sentence, we are probably looking at the first meaning.