Religion In Children's Literature: Introduction (1989)

Religion In Children's Literature:Introduction Frank P. Riga The claim that all important questions are religious questions seems, on the surface, exaggerated. Yet the Call for Papers on religion in children's literature has met with a considerable response, both in quantity and in variety of approach. Among the authors dealt with, moreover, even an occasional non-believer surfaced. Perhaps such a response should not be surprising given the general interest in religious questions manifest in American society. Much evidence implies, however, that Americans are materialistic and secular, and recent pop-psychologies argue for the primacy of the autonomous self. If there are answers to the questions that give life meaning, such psychologies say they are found within homocentric parameters. Despite this, and despite the rumored death of God, the interest in religion and, no doubt what is more important, the search for religious faith continue. And like all important societal concerns, these find their way into children's literature. As the following papers demonstrate, the subject of religion in children's books involves us, not only in specific questions and themes, but in the social and critical perspectives of which children's books are a part. The recent televangelist scandals provide an almost staged background for the first essay in the Special Section. In "The 'Born Again' Phenomenon in Children's Books," Karen I. Adams discusses the preoccupation with religious fundamentalism within the context of the "new realism" in young adult books. While the new realism of the 1970s and 80s has allowed for the presentation of such formerly taboo subjects as sex and drugs, it has likewise allowed for a more realistic portrayal of religious matters, including "failures, flaws, and hucksters." Books like M.E. Kerr's Little Little and Cynthia Rylant's A Fine White Dust reflect contemporary evangelism in which, among other things, religion has become "big business" garnering "big bucks." Despite this hoopla and hypocrisy, the resurgence of interest in religion touches on a recurring concern of young people, who try to come to terms with their religious impulses in a secular, sometimes anti-religious, environment. That Katherine Paterson was the daughter of missionaries and a former missionary herself, however, attests to the fact that young people's religious concerns can grow as naturally out of life as any other human need. Rylant, too, reassures us, I think, when she questions the God of terror and hell fire: "after all, would you want people loving you if the only reason they did so was because of fear?" That religious considerations in children's books are not simply a personal matter is disclosed in Joan DelFattore's concise review of the Mozert case in Tennessee. This paper demonstrates how religious concerns and children's literature come together, but the question is not how such preoccupations find their way into children's books, but rather, having found their way into the literature, how certain segments of society react to them. Here, under the stress of a First Amendment challenge, believers' rights come into conflict with public education. The pluralism involved indicates, of course, the lack of cultural unanimity that, on the one hand, leads to conflict and, on the other, seems necessary for the various forms of individual freedom so highly prized in our times. Specifically, DelFattore gives a lucid and comprehensive analysis of the issues involved, not only in this celebrated litigation, but in virtually all fundamentalist challenges to modern children's books. Regardless of how we react to those challenges—and the specter of censorship, by either religious or secular interests, seems always ready to materialize—they force us, by their insistent focus, to question how books influence readers. As the third essay in the Special Section reminds us, the religious implications of children's books have long been a serious social concern. Here, Alan Rauch studies the relationship of science and religion in early nineteenth-century science textbooks. As Rauch argues, an examination of these textbooks reveals a growing tension between science and religion that was neither apparent nor threatening. Since "science must explain the world through physical laws and religion by supernatural causes," the covert split between the two was latent in...