research in childhood studies. However, according to Cooey (2010:1), only a ‘[f]ew scholars attend to the value, status, and role of children in religious contexts as bearers of an emerging religious agency’. This situation brought to the fore the question: Which intentionally driven initiatives from within the academic domains of religion and theology were undertaken during the 21st century? This question is addressed in the following section.
Academic initiatives from within theology and religious studies
Although not totally absent in theological thinking before the 21st century (cf. Anderson & Johnson 1994; Bailey 1995; Clark 1994; Cray 1995; De Villiers 1979; Du Plessis 1989; Estes 1991; Faber Van der Meulen 1996; Francis 1996; Pais 1991; Prest 1992; Scalise 1994; Stockton 1983; Strange 1996; Sturm 1992; Van Aarde 1991; Weber 1979), it seems as if children and childhood were marginalised topics in serious theologically thinking for most of the time. Until very recently, interest and inquiry in this area was seen as of importance only for those people involved in ministry to children and families, for example pastoral counsellors and religious and Christian educators (cf. ed. Bunge 2001:3–4).
In a 2001 issue of the journal Interpretation, Dawn DeVries (2001:162) stated: ‘[U]ntil very recently, the field of systematic theology in the twentieth century has been largely silent on the question of children’.
Miller-McLemore (2003) even pronounced that:
‘[r]eal’ theology in the last century focussed on adults. After Horace Bushnell, well known for his mid-nineteenth-century theology of childhood, the door slammed shut on children as a respectable topic. (p. xxii)
Although the implications of the theology of Karl Barth and Karl Rahner for our view of children and childhood are discussed in the book The child in Christian thought edited by Marcia Bunge (2001:386–445), the actual attention they give to children is minimal and is rather an illustration of how unimportant children were in serious theological reflection in the 20th century. In 2006, Marcia Bunge (2006a, cf. ed. 2001:3, 2004:43) came to the following conclusion:
Despite the rising concern for and curiosity about children, scholars of religion, theologians, and ethicists across religious lines have had little to say about children, and they have had little to contribute to the growing political and academic debates about children or our obligations to them. Many have not treated childhood as a topic meriting serious attention. (p. 551)
Six years later, Bunge (2012b) expressed this view again by stating the following:
I am also an historical theologian, and I have noticed in the fields of theology and ethics there is little serious theological reflection directly on children or parenting.
Many theologians and ethicists have treated the subject of children as ‘beneath’ the serious theologian and as a subject only for religious educators or youth pastors. Few contemporary theologians and ethicists have devoted their attention to child-related issues. (p. 4)
With specific reference to the biblical scholars, Bunge (eds. Bunge, Fretheim & Gaventa 2008) is of the opinion that they neglected the themes of children and childhood. She also wrote the following:
[T]hey have rarely focused their attention directly on references to children and childhood and uses of child-related terms in the Bible. Furthermore, they have not explored how attention to children might shed light on other significant aspects of biblical texts. (p. xv)
If this is true of the situation during the 20th century, the following question needs to be asked: Did anything changed during the 21st century?
Some developments in the 21st century A growing awareness
It seems that, since the beginning of the 21st century, the influence of the international developments around the scholarly study of children and childhood in other scientific domains has started to influence research in theology and religious studies. A new trend of interest in children began to emerge from within theology and religious studies.
Academic societies
A growing number of academic societies in theological and religious studies, for example the American Academy of Religion (AAR), The American Historical Association, the Society of Church History and the Society of Christian Ethics, began including papers and discussions about children and childhood in their national meetings (Bunge 2006a:559).
In 2002, the AAR started a new programme unit on Childhood Studies and Religion (Bunge 2006a:559). According to their web site, they have the following aim:
The aim of this group is to investigate the complex and multifaceted relations between religion and childhood, in all their historical, cultural, ethnographic, psychological, ethical, theological, spiritual, gender, class, ethnicity, race, and other dimensions.9 (n.p.)
The group has the following goals:
Providing a forum for focused interdisciplinary and interreligious dialogue about the diverse relationships between children and religion.
Heightening academic interest in childhood studies in all fields represented in the AAR.
Preparing scholars in religious studies to contribute to wider academic discussions about children and childhoods.
9. http://childhoodreligion.com/
Enriching teaching in all areas of religious studies to include attention to children’s agency and diversity.
Lending the voice of the academy to current questions of public policy and child advocacy.10 (n.p.)
Another initiative was the establishment in 2008 of a programme unit on Children in the Biblical World as part of the work of The Society of Biblical Literature (Bunge 2011:17). According to their website11, this programme unit explores the child characters in the Bible and the lives of children in the ancient world. It also attends to how children in the post-biblical world were affected by biblical texts.
At the biannual conference of the International Society of Empirical Research in Theology in 2012, children and religion received much attention. It was held at Nijmegen with the theme ‘The concept of religion: Defining and measuring contemporary beliefs and practices’12. One of the keynotes, delivered by Friedrich Schweitzer of the University of Tübingen, focussed on the theme ‘Religious development: Concept and method in studying religion in childhood and adolescence’. A few of the collegial sessions also focussed on aspects of the relationship between children and religion. Some of the themes discussed were the following:
Spirituality and school leadership in private Catholic schools in South Africa.
Religiousness from late childhood to adolescence – the image of God amongst Finnish 6th, 8th and 9th graders.
Assessing pupil attitudes toward religious diversity: the distinctive contribution of church-related schools.
Measuring the contribution of Anglican schools to students’ religious, personal and social values.
10. http://childhoodreligion.com/
11. https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramUnits.aspx?MeetingId=25 12. http://www.isert.info/earlierconferences/2012-nijmegen/
Measuring the contribution of independent Christian schools to students’ religious, personal and social values.
Storytelling in school-organisations.13 (n.p.)
Empirical research on theology and children is sorely needed. Hopefully, more and more theologians, and not only from the discipline of practical theology, will accept the challenge to do empirical research on children.
Research projects
Several research projects on religion, theology and children were also initiated. At Emory University, the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion started a project on ‘The child in law, religion and society’. This project is described as follows:
[It is a]n interdisciplinary exploration of children, with focus on birth, naming, and growth; children’s rights and rites; education and formation; child abuse, poverty, and homelessness; juvenile delinquency, violence, public policy responses, and reforms.14 (n.p.)
In the series ‘Emory University Studies in Law and Religion’, a book was published in 2011 under the editorship of Timothy P. Jackson with the title The best love of the child: Being loved and being taught to love as the first human right. It is described as follows:
This volume offers a comparative analysis of the ‘best interest of the child’ principle in law and the ‘best love of the child’ principle in theology and the social sciences, with an argument that the first right of the child is the right to be loved and to learn to love others.15 (n.p.)
13. http://www.isert.info/earlierconferences/2012-nijmegen/
14. http://cslr.law.emory.edu/research/the-child-in-law-religion-and-society/
15. http://cslr.law.emory.edu/publications/publication/title/the-best-love-of-the-child-in-theological- ethical-and-legal-perspectives/
Another important research project also focussing on children and religion, and based at Valparaiso University, is ‘The child in religion and ethics’ project. According to their web site, the aim of this project is the following:
[T]o strengthen theological and ethical understandings of children and our obligations to them, thereby enabling theologians and ethicists to contribute more effectively to contemporary discourse on children within religious communities, the academy, and the public sphere.16 (n.p.)
The project was directed by Marcia J. Bunge, and under her leadership, at least two very important academic books were published: The child in Christian thought and The child in the Bible (cf. the section on academic books below).
Academic journals
This new academic interest in religion, theology and children and childhood is also reflected in the publication of more and more articles on these topics in academic journals (cf. Andersen et al. 2003; Berryman 2007; Blevins 2008; Csinos 2007; Frambach 2005; Knoetze 2015;
Mountain 2011; Noval 2013; Orsi 2002; Salvesen 2006; Thatcher 2006;
Traina 2001; Wall 2004, 2007). Some journals dedicated whole issues to these topics, for example Theology Today 56(4), 200017; Interpretation 55(2), 200118; Conservative Judaism 53(4), 2001; Christian Reflection, 200319; The Living Pulpit 12(4), 2003; Journal of Christian Education 47, 2004; Sewanee Theological Review 48(1), 2004; African Ecclesial Review
16. http://www.valpo.edu/childreligionethics/
17. http://ttj.sagepub.com/content/56/4.toc 18. http://int.sagepub.com/content/55/2.toc
19. http://www.baylor.edu/ifl/christianreflection/index.php?id=14742
46(2), 2004; Journal of Religion 86(4), 2006; Handelingen (1), 200820 and Handelingen (4), 201521. In 2010, a new free electronic journal, the Journal of Childhood and Religion, was launched. It ‘provides an interdisciplinary forum for scholars representing a wide range of research fields, interests, and perspectives that relate to children and religion’.22
Most of the articles published in these different journals are theoretically orientated and not based on empirical research. A search in the Journal of Empirical Theology23 for articles based on empirical research with children did not find many articles fitting this category.
The following two articles are the most relevant for the topic of this chapter:
• An article by Kay and Ray (2004) about the influence of age and gender in the forming of a child’s concept of God. They analysed the drawings of 135 children, aged between 4 and 11, in a Church of England primary school. Their conclusion was that the influence of gender should receive more attention in religious education.
• Another article by Dubiski, Maull and Schweitzer (2012) focuses on how children in a multi-religious context deal with the differences between religions. They interviewed 140 children (mean age 4.9 years) who attended kindergartens in Germany. They present their findings about aspects like the knowledge, experience and attitude of
20. http://www.handelingen.com/index.php/jaargangen/30-2008-jaargang-35/87-2008-1-theologiseren- met-kinderen
21. http://www.handelingen.com/index.php/jaargangen/2015/178-2015-4-theologiseren-met-kinderen
22. http://www.childhoodandreligion.com
23. http://www.brill.com/journal-empirical-theology
the children who are exposed to different religions in their context.
They gave special attention to how children perceived God, or rather different Gods.
Academic books
The growing interest in the religious and theological importance of children came also to the fore in the publication of a growing number of important academic books since the beginning of the 21st century.
Relevant chapters were also published in books which were not solely devoted to this topic (cf. Allen 2008; Blevins 2012; Brown 2012; Bunge 2004, 2006b, 2012a, 2012b; Campagnola 2004; Crabtree 2008; Dodd 2012;
Dorf 2012; Issler 2004; Jeyaraj 2009a, 2009b; Korneck 2012; Mercer 2006;
Shire 2006; Sisemore 2008; Stonehouse 2004; Wall 2012; Werpehowski 2012). In this section, the focus will be on books and not on individual chapters in a compilation.
Historically orientated publications
The most important stimulus for this trend was the publication in 2001 of The child in Christian thought, edited by Marcia Bunge. It offers the first major survey of the history of Christian thought on children.
Primarily, it examines the diversity of views regarding children and childhood expressed in the works of various theologians. In chronological sequence, it spans the New Testament Era right through to contemporary feminist thought. It includes essays on theologians like Chrysostom, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Simons, Wesley, Edwards, Schleiermacher, Bushnell, Barth and Rahner. In each chapter, the authors grapple with the question: What can this specific theologian contribute to a sound contemporary view of childhood? Various
themes and some quite controversial subjects come to the fore in these discussions. Some of them form a sort of a binding chord between the discussions. The most prominent amongst these is the notion of original sin. The various and sometimes quite opposite ways in which different theologians understood this doctrine in relationship to children emphasise how problematic this issue was through the ages.
In many ways, the discourse in this book lays a foundation for developing more meaningful Christian views of childhood for our time and for dealing with the accompanying challenges for ministry with children.
In 2009, a similar work with the title Children and the theologians:
Clearing the way for grace was published. In this work, Jerome Berryman guides us through the lives and writings of 25 theologians, grouped according to six historical periods. Each account examines what a particular theologian thought about children and the experiences upon which these views were based. A final chapter gives a cursory orientation to the contributions of six contemporary theologians of childhood:
Marcia Bunge, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Joyce Ann Mercer, David Jensen, Kristin Herzog and Martin Marty.
From this historical overview, Berryman identifies four traditions that have shaped our attitudes about children in the church. According to his analysis, Berryman (2009:8–9) labels the first three as high, low and indifferent views. The high view ‘respects children and what they can teach us about mature spirituality’. The low view ‘sees children as getting in the way of adults’. The indifferent view ‘pays them no mind for the moment because of other concerns’. The fourth view understands children
‘as a means of grace for the continuity of Christ’s presence in the church as a source of wonder and creativity’.
Berryman (2009:230) identifies himself with this last view and calls it a ‘sacramental view’ of children. In the last chapter of the book, he works out his proposal for a formal doctrine of children (Berryman 2009:227–256). With this publication, Berryman challenges theology and the church to revisit their theologies of childhood and to welcome children in their midst as God’s graceful way to change adults into heirs of God’s kingdom (Mt 18:1–5).
Two other historical works, focussing on developments in early Christianity, were also published. The first one, When children became people: The birth of childhood in Early Christianity, was published in 2005. In this work, Bakke focuses on the growing awareness of children in Patristic thought and in the church’s developing doctrinal commitments. His research focussed primarily on answering the following two questions (Bakke 2005):
(1) What did Christians think about children and about the nature of children, and what qualities did they ascribe to children? (2) What did they say about the treatment of children, and how did they treat children de facto? (p. 9)
In the process of answering these two questions, he compares the Roman and Christian attitudes towards the practices of abortion, the abandonment of infants and child prostitution, the moral upbringing and education of children and the participation of children in liturgy and church life. With this comparison, he shows that Christianity brought about significant new understandings of childhood which had positively influenced the lives of children within Christian families and church life. He shows convincingly that the early church had a remarkably high regard of children in comparison to the surrounding Greco-Roman culture.
The above publication was followed in 2009 by the work of Cornelia Horn and John Martens titled Let the little children come to me Childhood
and children in Early Christianity. The authors explore a vast body of early Christian literature in different languages, including the New Testament, sermons, letters, theological treatises, poetry and pedagogical manuals. They state that the goal of their research was to start ‘telling the story of children through the first six centuries of the Christian era, with a particular focus on the life, experience, and perception of children within the Christian community’ (Horn & Martens 2009:ix).
The guiding question throughout the book is: How did Christianity change the lives of children in the ancient world? Different themes concerning the real world of children are addressed: family life, marriage, celibacy and asceticism, violence perpetrated against children, the role of gender in education, discipline, work in which they were involved, games they played, their place in the church and their experiences of martyrdom. This book brings to light various aspects of the lives of early Christian children and is a worthy companion of the abovementioned work by Bakke to open up the study of childhood and children in early Christianity.
Publications by the biblical sciences
The biblical sciences did not lag behind historical studies. Several publications saw the light since the beginning of the 21st century. A foundational work in this regard is The child in the Bible, published in 2008 under the editorship of Marcia Bunge, Terence Fretheim and Beverly Gaventa. The purpose of this anthology is to ‘provide a highly informed and focused study of biblical perspectives on children and childhood’ (eds.
Bunge et al. 2008:xviii). Divided into three sections, 18 biblical scholars foreground the presence of children or childhood in selected biblical texts and themes. It is accompanied with a very useful introduction by Bunge on the overall theme of the book. This study of the Bible through the lens
of the child guides the reader to gain more insight into the significant role that children played in the biblical texts.
Another publication to take note of, The children of Israel: Reading the Bible for the sake of our children by Danna Nolan Fewell, was published in 2003. This work explores how an imaginative reading of selected biblical texts might inspire adults to take their ethical responsibility towards children more seriously. Fewell introduces a new postmodern method of reading the Bible through the eyes and needs of the marginalised children in society. She describes this reading strategy as an interruption of the text, rather than the more traditional way of just
‘watching’ the text. ‘As a strategy of reading, interruption is a way of stopping and questioning the text – of recognizing that, ethically, something is amiss in what we are being told’ (Fewell 2003:33).
However, it is not only a strategy for reading. It is also a strategy for living. ‘To interrupt means to question the story being told, to imagine the story being told differently, and likewise, to question one’s life and to imagine life being lived differently’ (Fewell 2003:34). The challenge of this interruption is to start living and acting in a new way on behalf of the marginalised and forgotten children of this world. In the first chapter of this book, Fewell discusses her approach to scripture. In the next seven chapters, she demonstrates the use of this interrupting process. This is an unsettling work, and it challenges biblical scholars to develop a credible ethical way of reading the scriptures that can
However, it is not only a strategy for reading. It is also a strategy for living. ‘To interrupt means to question the story being told, to imagine the story being told differently, and likewise, to question one’s life and to imagine life being lived differently’ (Fewell 2003:34). The challenge of this interruption is to start living and acting in a new way on behalf of the marginalised and forgotten children of this world. In the first chapter of this book, Fewell discusses her approach to scripture. In the next seven chapters, she demonstrates the use of this interrupting process. This is an unsettling work, and it challenges biblical scholars to develop a credible ethical way of reading the scriptures that can