Book Review: Into All the World: An Orthodox Theology of Mission

Abstract

how such children were perceived, understood, and treated, when their primary hope was often seen as a life with perfect hearing in the hereafter. But this history and legacy in turn cast light on "contemporary representations of childhood innocence, religiosity, Christian education, the mother-child bond and childhood death scenes" (159).In such a context, the stakes are high indeed. Another contributor, Emily Manktelow, argues that "examining religious childhoods can have a wide-ranging impact on our understanding of history" (43). Although this assertion is not developed in her chapter, there is a significant confirmation of this belief in Grace Bateman's fascinating study of confirmation (chap. 10), which concludes: "Studying childhood can thus be helpful for understanding a society more generally" (208). The overall impression of the volume as a whole is that ignoring children, childhood, and religion in this period, and probably to the present day, is likely to impede accurate historical description and analysis.It is a commendable and enlightening volume, and my copy is full of underlining and notes, particularly in passages that describe actual incidents or conversations. The illustrations are especially welcome. My sense is that there is much more to come. I certainly hope so. This feels like the opening of the floodgates.