Abstract
The title “Bridging Theory and Practice in Children's Spirituality: New Directions for Education, Ministry, and Discipleship” clearly spells out the content of this book. The author's goal behind this book was to examine the spiritual formation of children in order to bridge the gaps, examine the practices, and refine the practice to better fit today's society of children.
This book was an easy read to understand the history behind the theories and practices of the spiritual formation of children and religion dated back to the 1940's to the present day. This book was not intended to condemn the different time periods but rather identify the strengths and weaknesses between the “philosophy, function, methods, and outcomes” of the spiritual formation of children (p. 33). The author presents the differences as building blocks rather than assuming that one period in history is better than another.
The chapters of the book were divided into five sections addressing the foundations for engaging children's spirituality, the environments that shape a child's spirituality, the importance of story in a child's spirituality, nurturing children's spirituality through different methods, and the future of children's spirituality. Each section was clearly defined and separate from the other sections. The topic of children's spirituality connected the sections, yet the sections did not slowly transition into one another fluently.
The first section of the book, chapters 1–4, explored the five theological traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist) and how they align with spiritual practices, beliefs about children and ministry. In comparing the five theological views, the author identifies two theological issues that need further study and two ministry implications that all churches need to adopt. The topics of diversity and children with disabilities were discussed in context to spiritual practices.
The second section of the book, chapters 5–8, explores the environments that shape a child's spirituality. The author noted how times have drastically changed in terms of family structure and dynamics, omnipresent technology, religious practices at home and church and how those changes influence childhood faith formation. The authors recommend that instead of just looking for a program or curriculum for children's church ministry, the church needs to take on a holistic approach to faith forming to “promote growth in faith and discipleship from birth- high school years - a faith that provides a foundation for adult faith” (p. 88). Several roadblocks were identified that often stump spiritual formation such as: “the changing face of the family, cultural influencers, church ministry that unintentionally divides generations in the family, and parents and adults not being confident in their own faith knowledge” (p. 102–106). The role of faith in terms of a child's resilience in experiencing grief, loss, and trauma and how that plays a part in a children's faith formation was examined.
The third section of the book, including chapters 9–11 suggests that stories are to be used as the spiritual formation to teach children. In the Bible, God uses stories to get to the “heart of his creation” (p. 147). God speaks to us through stories so we should use those stories to teach children. “As children engage with God's story, they come to know him in a way that produces faithful following and adherence to his Word” (p. 160). As adults who are teaching and training children, as we share God's stories with an open heart, we might be surprised by the things we can learn from children as little theologians.
The fourth section of the book, including chapters 12–15, the author questions whether the church really cares if children can think and believe for themselves or rather the church is consumed with the task of indoctrinating the children. The author raises questions on whether the children's ministry curriculum addresses high order thinking skills based on Bloom's Taxonomy and challenges the reader to think about if the children's curriculum in a church is “instructing children what to think or rather how to think biblically” (p. 188). The authors state in chapter 13 that they believe there is a gap in Christian literature that addresses diversity, justice, and equity. Chapter 14 discusses how children learn from play and reflection. Five P's (play, power, projection and pray, and pronounce) were developed to guide a child's spiritual direction toward spiritual transformation. The concept of a spiritual playground is a space for children to develop spiritually.
The final section of the book includes one chapter that points out the importance for the need for more research and a deeper understanding of the field of children spirituality along with the issues impacting children and ministry such as “developmental theory, theological foundations, and significant and intentional methodology” (p. 247).
The weakness of this book is that the chapter sections don't gradually transition but rather come to a complete stop. Smoother section transitions could give the readers an easier read and help the readers understand how all the sections tie together around the topic of children's spirituality. I admire the last chapter where the authors identify and encourage more research to be completed in terms of children's spirituality based upon our changing society. Our society is drastically changing and the need for church ministries to stay in the loop and adapt to the changes is an important issue in meeting the needs of society.
The contributors to this book come from a wide range of disciplines which integrated theory, child development, best practices in teaching children, and biblical and spiritual principles. The combination worked well in achieving the goal of bridging theory and practice in understanding children's spirituality. The authors wrote the book for the disciplines of education, ministry, and discipleship which embraced the audience's knowledge and skill area.
As a professor in education at a Christian Liberal Arts College, I hope to use chapters in this book to ignite deeper discussion about educational practices, Christian principles and practice, diversity, and inclusion related to developing children spirituality.