Doing theology with children: A childist reading of the childhood metaphor in 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels

Grobbelaar, Jan

doi:10.4102/hts.v76i4.5637

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Childist or child-centred, perspectives are today additionally raised in various research fields demonstrating tendencies that could potentially affect various practices. For example within South African theology, childist-inspired research has addressed different theological issues such as New Testament studies (Grobbelaar 2020), how to listen to and include the voices of young people when doing theology (Grobbelaar 2019;Johannisen, Yates & Van Wyk 2019), how to stop the silencing of matters of sexuality by mutual sexual emancipation (Koch, Yates & Kitching 2019) and studies on necessary epistemological shifts when doing theology with children (De Beer & Yates 2019). From other disciplinary research contexts, matters such as access to citizenship for young people whose lives have been uprooted through migration are addressed (Josefsson 2019), and in the field of education it has been theoretically explored how children's moral agency in times of the Anthropocene can be understood as a form of moral authorship where children form their own narratives to interpret their lives and how this can be facilitated in education (Sporre, Lotz-Sisitka & Osbeck forthcoming).…”

Section: Childist Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young people – citizens in times of climate change? A childist approach to human responsibility

Sporre

2021

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

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The matters of climate change are presently of concern existentially and ethically to the children and the youth. Worldwide school strikes in 2018–2019 and the Fridays for Future movement demonstrate how the young citizens assume socio-political responsibility. However, what possibilities do children and young people actually have to influence global discourse? Are adequate thought structures in place for them to be taken seriously in matters of concern to them? Given that children and youth engage with the issues of climate change, with a concern for their own future and that of our planet, the aim of this article was to take a child-centred ethical perspective and to theoretically explore conditions for intentional inclusion of children and their ethical concerns. In such a critical exploration, aspects of identity politics and intersectionality are reviewed. Empirical results from an interview study with children aged between 10 to 12 years are presented demonstrating that climate changes are of existential and ethical importance to them. Thereafter, a ‘childist’ perspective is introduced and discussed. The interviews were carried out during 2019 in eight schools in South Africa and Sweden. The children were individually interviewed with a method allowing for open responses. The schools in both countries were located in areas where a lack of water had been experienced. In this article, a theoretical framework is developed based on the ethical recognition of a commonly shared human responsibility and using the concept of ‘empowered inclusion’. It recognises children in their own right and identifies vulnerability and interdependence as being foundational to human existence.Contribution: In present times, as the concern for their own future, that of future generations and that of the planet is becoming an integral part of the identities of children and youth, both existentially and ethically, this article brings to this special issue a discussion of conditions for a child-centred view on human responsibility.

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Section: Childist Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young people – citizens in times of climate change? A childist approach to human responsibility

Sporre

2021

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

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“…Garroway argues, 'Embracing a definition such as this that focuses on children and not the particular methods or steps used to find them allows the field to include a wider range of scholarship ' (2020: 6). It is this wide range of scholarship, distinct but related to readings of New Testament texts with and alongside children (Briggs 2017;Grobbelaar 2020) that this essay primarily seeks to explore.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children in the New Testament

Allen

2024

Currents in Biblical Research

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This article situates recent scholarship related to children and metaphors of childhood within a global context. It attends to the importance of childist criticism, located primarily in Europe and the United States, in the growth of study of children in the New Testament in recent decades, while attending to parallel work on the role of children in the New Testament, particularly in relation to contextualized readings, in the global South. Specific attention is given to the use of language in defining children and childhood both within and outside the biblical context; overviews of biblical childhood; and the roles and representations of children in New Testament texts. The essay concludes by looking forward to future opportunities for research and collaboration.

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Children’s narrative identity formation: Towards a childist narrative theology of praxis

Botha,

Yates,

Kotzé

2024

HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies

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This article explores children’s narrative identity formation and the impact of adult–child relationships on shaping a child’s narrative. The formation of identity in all children is vulnerable to a culture of ‘adultism’, wherein the authority wielded by adults can potentially subject children to abuse and neglect. Consequently, adultism has the aptitude to hinder the constructive development of a life-affirming identity in children. The primary objective of this article is to develop a childist narrative theology of praxis methodology, aimed at raising consciousness and educating adults on both life-denying and life-giving ways of engaging in the process of children’s narrative identity formation.To achieve this goal, the methodology is developed by adapting Denise Ackermann’s ‘feminist theology of praxis’ to focus specifically on children. The application of feminist theory principles is deemed relevant to the social standing of children as it aligns with the broader goal of liberating oppressed groups, whether women or children. Additionally, John Wall’s work is employed to elucidate the terms ‘childist’ and ‘childism’ as interpretive frameworks. Positioned within the scientific domain of Practical Theology, this study seeks to transform conditions that impede human flourishing into opportunities for positive change.The research objectives determine that a literature review will be suitable to gather essential information for the formulation of a childist narrative theology of praxis. This review, characterised as explorative and descriptive, is conducted within the field of Practical Theology.Contribution: The significance of this study is underscored by its exploration and description of the pastoral functions of consciousness, awareness-raising, and education concerning adult–child relations. By scrutinising these pastoral functions, the emphasis is placed on the proactive, preventive, and universal aspects of pastoral care in the context of children, thereby contributing valuable insights to the discourse.

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Doing theology with children: A childist reading of the childhood metaphor in 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels

Cited by 3 publications

References 14 publications

Young people – citizens in times of climate change? A childist approach to human responsibility

Young people – citizens in times of climate change? A childist approach to human responsibility

Children in the New Testament

Children’s narrative identity formation: Towards a childist narrative theology of praxis

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