REA2023 Centering Children's Agency in Spiritual/Religious Education Practices
Channel: Religious Education Association
Date: 15/07/2023

Innovations in Children's Spiritual Nurture

Karen-Marie Yust (Union Presbyterian Seminary)
Erin Reibel

Conventional wisdom and antiquated stage development theories have had a negative effect on children’s spirituality. This paper looks at two innovative spiritual practices (Holy Listening, Embodied Prayer) that instead promote children’s agency and embodied engagement in multi-layered meaning-making. It traces both the ways in which children respond to higher levels of trust in their ability to reflect on spiritual ideas and experiences, as well as the changes in understanding and practice that adult facilitators experience as they learn new ways to support children’s spiritual development.

Engaging Childist Biblical Interpretation to Enhance Child-Centered Bible Lessons with Children

Russell William Dalton (Brite Divinity School)

Many children’s Bible lessons, even those that are intended to be child-oriented, are consciously or unconsciously designed in ways that serve adult agendas for children rather than granting children full agency over the study. This paper will argue that by engaging the emerging fields of childism and childist interpretation of the Bible (an approach that focuses on the agency and actions of children in biblical texts) religious educators can better facilitate and guide children in Bible study driven and directed by the children themselves.

Facilitated by Karen-Marie Yust (Union Presbyterian Seminary).