Children in New Religions

Children in New Religions

Author: Susan J. Palmer

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9780813526195

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The late 1960s and early 1970s constituted a remarkable period for spiritual experimentation and for the proliferation of new religious groups. Now the children born into these religions have come of age. While their parents made the decision as adults to embrace alternative religious practices, the children have been raised with a very different orientation toward the larger society. While they take their religious communities for granted, many of these children gaze with curiosity at the surrounding secular world which their parents, not they, chose to reject. The contributors to this volume examine children from many different alternative religious movements worldwide, including The Family, Hare Krishna, Wiccans, and Pagans, Messianic Communities, and the Rajneesh (Osho) Movement. The essays explore two general questions: 1) What impact does the presence of children have on a new religion's lifestyle and chance of surviving into the future? 2) Is child abuse more likely to occur in unconventional religions, or are children born into them, the 'new' religions have grown up and have become an important and rapidly changing social force that we cannot reasonably dismiss or wisely ignore


The Study of Children in Religions

The Study of Children in Religions

Author: Susan B. Ridgely

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0814777473

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Research in religious studies has traditionally focused on adult subjects since working with children presents significantly more challenges to the researcher, such as getting the research protocol passed by the Internal Review Board, obtaining permission from parents and schools, and figuring out how to make sense of young worldviews. The Study of Children in Religions provides scholars with a comprehensive source to assist them in addressing many of the issues that often stop researchers from pursuing projects involving children. This handbook offers a broad range of methodological and conceptual models for scholars interested in conducting work with children. It not only illuminates some of the legal and ethical issues involved in working with youth and provides guidance in getting IRB approval, but also presents specific case studies from scholars who have engaged in child-centered research and here offer the fruits of their experience. Cases include those that use interviews and drawings to work with children in contemporary settings, as well as more historically focused endeavors to use material culture—such as Sunday school projects or religious board games—to study children’s religious lives in past eras. The Study of Children in Religions offers concrete help to those who wish to conduct research on children and religion but are unsure of how to get started or how to frame their research.


The Study of Children in Religions

The Study of Children in Religions

Author: Susan B. Ridgely

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2011-09

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0814777465

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Research in religious studies has traditionally focused on adult subjects since working with children presents significantly more challenges to the researcher, such as getting the research protocol passed by the Internal Review Board, obtaining permission from parents and schools, and figuring out how to make sense of young worldviews. The Study of Children in Religions provides scholars with a comprehensive source to assist them in addressing many of the issues that often stop researchers from pursuing projects involving children. This handbook offers a broad range of methodological and conceptual models for scholars interested in conducting work with children. It not only illuminates some of the legal and ethical issues involved in working with youth and provides guidance in getting IRB approval, but also presents specific case studies from scholars who have engaged in child-centred research and here offer the fruits of their experience.Cases include those that use interviews and drawings to work with children in contemporary settings, as well as more historically focused endeavours to use material cultureosuch as Sunday school projects or religious board gamesoto study children's religious lives in past eras. The Study of Children in Religions offers concrete help to those who wish to conduct research on children and religion but are unsure of how to get started or how to frame their research. Contributors: Priscilla Alderson, Sally Anderson, Jennifer Beste, Chris Boyatzis, Ann Braude, Pia Christensen, Cindy Dell Clark, Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, Moira Hinderer, Zohreh Kermani, Ruqayya Khan, Phillipa Koch, Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Rebecca Sachs Norris, Sarah Pike, Susan B. Ridgely, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., and Diane Wolf Susan B. Ridgely is Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and the author of When I Was a Child: Children's Interpretations of First Communion.


Born Believers

Born Believers

Author: Justin L. Barrett

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-20

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1439196575

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Infants have a lot to make sense of in the world: Why does the sun shine and night fall; why do some objects move in response to words, while others won’t budge; who is it that looks over them and cares for them? How the developing brain grapples with these and other questions leads children, across cultures, to naturally develop a belief in a divine power of remarkably consistent traits––a god that is a powerful creator, knowing, immortal, and good—explains noted developmental psychologist and anthropologist Justin L. Barrett in this enlightening and provocative book. In short, we are all born believers. Belief begins in the brain. Under the sway of powerful internal and external influences, children understand their environments by imagining at least one creative and intelligent agent, a grand creator and controller that brings order and purpose to the world. Further, these beliefs in unseen super beings help organize children’s intuitions about morality and surprising life events, making life meaningful. Summarizing scientific experiments conducted with children across the globe, Professor Barrett illustrates the ways human beings have come to develop complex belief systems about God’s omniscience, the afterlife, and the immortality of deities. He shows how the science of childhood religiosity reveals, across humanity, a “natural religion,” the organization of those beliefs that humans gravitate to organically, and how it underlies all of the world’s major religions, uniting them under one common source. For believers and nonbelievers alike, Barrett offers a compelling argument for the human instinct for religion, as he guides all parents in how to effectively encourage children in developing a healthy constellation of beliefs about the world around them.


The Science of Children's Religious and Spiritual Development

The Science of Children's Religious and Spiritual Development

Author: Annette Mahoney

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-08-26

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 1108858023

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This Element provides a comprehensive yet concise account of scientific research on children's religious and spiritual (RS) development. After providing a historical sketch of definitional issues in the science of RS, the first section reviews basic descriptive information on children's RS development as well as wholistic theoretical models and measures of children's RS development. The second section covers evidence about links of child and parental RS to children's psychosocial adjustment, and highlights the need for more research that discriminates specific positive and negative manifestations of RS for children's development. The third section summarizes evidence about the robust influence of parents on their children's RS development and parents' perceptions of their role in this process. The fourth section focuses on cognitive-developmental research on children's cognitions about God/deities and prayer. The Element concludes with a synopsis of key themes and challenges that researchers face to advance the science of children's RS development.


Children and Childhood in World Religions

Children and Childhood in World Religions

Author: Don S. Browning

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2009-08-14

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 081354842X

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While children figure prominently in religious traditions, few books have directly explored the complex relationships between children and religion. This is the first book to examine the theme of children in major religions of the world. Each of six chapters, edited by world-class scholars, focuses on one religious tradition and includes an introduction and a selection of primary texts ranging from legal to liturgical and from the ancient to the contemporary. Through both the scholarly introductions and the primary sources, this comprehensive volume addresses a range of topics, from the sanctity of birth to a child's relationship to evil, showing that issues regarding children are central to understanding world religions and raising significant questions about our own conceptions of children today.


Childhood and Character

Childhood and Character

Author: Hugh Hartshorne

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-11

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9781331139874

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Excerpt from Childhood and Character: An Introduction to the Study of the Religious Life of Children This book is an effort to introduce teachers to the study of childhood religion at first hand. Its aim is increase not so much of information as of insight, by thoughtful observation and control of children. It is in no sense a substitute for boys and girls as objects of study, and it should be used as a way of learning rather than as something to be learned - a guide to the real facts, which are living children, not books. For some time there has been a widely felt need for a book that will unite the study of children with the study of society. The social point of view in religion, in psychology, in attitude toward youth, has not so far given birth to a text for the guidance of teachers. Most current text-books are too abstract, too general, too little interested in problems of religious development, too individualistic in their point of view, or too crowded with facts of lesser importance. They leave the student with an idea of the dissected body and mind of "the child," but without a notion of children living in the fellowship of a social whole which includes them as well as adults. Young and old together constitute society. The youthful ingredient of society in the religious aspect of its development is the subject of this volume. The chapters are arranged in the order in which it is felt it will be most useful to read them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.


Losing Our Religion

Losing Our Religion

Author: Christel Manning

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2015-11-20

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1479883204

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"The fastest growing religion in America is--none! Among adults under 30, those poised to be the parents of the next generation, fully one third are religiously unaffiliated. Yet these "Nones," especially parents, still face prejudice in a culture where religion is widely seen as good for your kids. What do Nones believe, and how do they negotiate tensions with those convinced that they ought to provide their children with a religious upbringing?"--Publisher description.