How Many Gods in Heaven? Young Children and Religious Plurality — Results of a Qualitative Study

Abstract

Multireligious contexts are considered a routine challenge for growing children today, yet very little is known empirically about how children deal with religious diffferences. Studies by developmentalists like David Elkind, fijifty years ago, have not been followed up and more recent research on young children and religion has tended to centre on other questions. The article that follows is based on a study of 140 children (mean age 4.9 years) interviewed in the context of kindergartens in Germany. After describing their research procedures, the authors present results regarding knowledge, experience, attitudes, and linguistic skills in the context of diffferent religions. Throughout the article, special emphasis is laid on the issue of God, or diffferent Gods, as perceived by the children. The authors conclude by suggesting a number of educational consequences.

Religion in Childhood and Adolescence: How should it be studied? A Critical Review of Problems and Challenges in Methodology and Research

“…Of special interest here are more refined interview techniques that make use of images and objects to support interview conversations and to go beyond exclusively verbal and cognitive expressions. Pictures drawn by children allow for a wider range of expression, situations of playing and special role plays related to topics of research might go even further in the direction of including non-verbal dimensions (as an example from my own work see Dubiski, Maull & Schweitzer, 2012). Phenomenological methods have been used in order to gain insights into the religious meaning, for example, of outfits and accessories preferred by adolescents (for examples and a discussion cf.…”

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“…• 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.…”

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