Kathryn Kraft et al. on Children, Religion, and Development

Kathryn Kraft (ed.), Children, Religion and Development: Perspectives on Spirituality and Practice, Routledge Studies in Religion (London: Routledge, 2026).

Many thanks to Tim Davy for drawing attention to the above open access volume, to which he has contributed a chapter.

Here is the abstract of the book:

‘Drawing from teachings and practices of diverse and distinct religious traditions, this volume takes a unique approach to exploring spiritual aspects of child development which may apply universally to children of all backgrounds. Research with children demonstrates how spirituality is a universal trait, an innate aspect of humanity, which may be and indeed often is nurtured within religious traditions. Though spirituality is not inherently religious in nature, its connection to religion has proven near impossible for scholars to sever. Nonetheless, spirituality is an integral aspect of human development with universal relevance. Child spirituality has been linked to aspects of well-being including prosocial coping skills, avoidance of risky behaviours, confidence-building, forging of meaningful affective ties, development of generosity, mental health and psychosocial well-being. While each chapter brings a unique religious perspective, it offers insight, case studies and practical applications that help nurture children’s development regardless of the child’s own religious tradition – in other words, the starting point is religion but the ending point is a shared vision for the well-being of children. With contributions from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Ghana, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK, Australia, Canada and the USA, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of religion, theology, development studies and humanitarian studies.’

The book can be downloaded as a pdf or an epub from here.

Melissa B. Kruger on Praying for your Children

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (November 2025) it’s 5 Things to Pray for Your Kids: Prayers That Change Things for the Next Generation – helping you pray for your children ‘in line with God’s Word, aligning your heart with his purposes for them’ – which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Chris and Melissa Swain on Discipling Children

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (May 2024) it’s Write it on Their Hearts: Practical Help for Discipling Your Kids by Chris Swain with Melissa Swain, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

The Good Childhood Report

The Children’s Society recently published ‘The Good Childhood Report’ for 2023.

Their key findings are as follows:

• Almost a third of the children aged 10 to 17 who completed our annual survey this year were unhappy with at least one of the ten specific areas of their lives that we ask about.

• The majority (74%) of children who completed our annual survey felt positive about their own futures, but less than four in ten felt positive about the future of the country and the world.

• More children (aged 10 to 17) who completed our annual survey were unhappy with school (14.5%), a larger proportion than for the other nine aspects of life included in the Good Childhood Index.

• Children aged 10 to 17 who completed our annual survey who worried about how much money their family had were more likely to be unhappy than those without financial worries with all the different aspects of life that they were asked about, and particularly with their home, money and things they own, and the amount of choice they have.

• When asked about a list of seven issues relevant for the future, having enough money was the item that more children and young people worried about, followed by finding a job and getting good grades at school.

• When asked about a set of nine societal issues, rising prices was the top worry among children completing the survey this year, followed by the environment.

More information is available here, the full report is available as a pdf here, a summary with recommendations is available as a pdf here, and a youth summary is available as a pdf here.

Centre for Public Christianity (November 2020)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted two ‘Life and Faith’ podcasts, related to the current US elections: one (here) with Krish Kandiah on ‘the joys and challenges of caring for children in great need’, and one (here) in which ‘a poet, a philosopher, a jazz musician, and a couple in their fiftieth year of marriage explore the counterintuitive idea that freedom requires constraints’.

Currents in Biblical Research 17, 2 (February 2019)

The latest Currents in Biblical Research recently arrived, with titles and abstracts of the main articles as below.

Julie Faith Parker

Children in the Hebrew Bible and Childist Interpretation

This article traces the rise of research on children in the Hebrew Bible (HB). While early contributions to the field provided foundational insights, this area of scholarship has gained significant ground over the last ten years. This article begins by reviewing seminal points for studying children in the HB. I explain why this study is critical for our understanding of the Bible, and clarify how we discern who is a child in the text and the ancient world. Since the word ‘childist’ is still new to many in the academy, I discuss the origin of this term, define it, and urge its adoption. Most of the article assesses scholarship on children in the HB, with an emphasis on publications that have emerged recently as well as works forthcoming (at the time of publication). The conclusion sketches some of the many areas in this scholarly field that are ripe for further exploration.

Kris Sonek

The Abraham Narratives in Genesis 12–25

This article attempts to trace the development of exegesis of Genesis 12–25 in scholarly works published since 2000. Five types of studies are introduced and briefly evaluated: (1) commentaries on the biblical pericopes in question; (2) works discussing the historical formation of the Abraham narratives; (3) synchronic and theological studies; (4) reception studies; and (5) other detailed studies of Genesis 12–25. The article presents a wide range of methodological approaches, and aims to delineate current trends in the study of Genesis 12–25.

Brandon D. Smith

What Christ Does, God Does: Surveying Recent Scholarship on Christological Monotheism

Wilhelm Bousset’s Kyrios Christos, which argued that ‘high’ Christology developed in the early church due to influences from Hellenism, was and still is a pivotal book in studies on early Christology. Martin Hengel, however, rebutted Bousset’s sharp distinction with his own important insight – that early ‘high’ Christology actually developed out of Christians’ Palestinian-Jewish heritage, wherein the church confessed and worshiped Jesus as divine alongside the one God of Israel. This article will survey the torchbearers of this debate, particularly noting the major ideas and contributors to the ongoing conversation about the ‘Jewishness’ and modes of divinity in early Christology.

Karl L. Armstrong

The End of Acts and the Jewish Response: Condemnation, Tragedy, or Hope?

This article examines recent and historic views relating to the interpretation of Acts 28.26-27 (=Isa. 6.9-10) and the response of the Jews at the end of Acts. Among the conflicting views, scholars (with some overlap) fall into one of three general categories that suggest some degree of Jewish condemnation, tragedy or hope. Recent trends demonstrate a more hopeful prognosis than prior assessments with regards to Luke’s attitude towards the Jews. This trend is supported by recent studies regarding the wisdom background for the text of Isa. 6.9-10 in light of the growing recognition of and appreciation for an increasingly Jewish portrait of Paul in Acts.

The Bible in Transmission (Spring 2017) on Children, the Bible and Spirituality

The latest issue of The Bible in Transmission, from Bible Society, is available online here, offering a collection of articles on ‘Children, the Bible and Spirituality’.

I have taken the ‘tasters’ of articles below from Steve Holmes’ editorial.

Steve Holmes

Editorial

Rebecca Nye

Spirituality as a natural part of childhood

Rebecca Nye opens our issue with a discussion of children’s spirituality, founded on her years of work observing children and listening to their explanations of their own lives. She defines ‘spirituality’ as ‘God’s ways of being with us, and our ways of being with God’. We do not need to create spirituality in our children, she argues. God is already with them and if we are attentive to what they say we will discover that they have ways of being with God. She describes childhood as a ‘highly blessed’ stage of life, offering evidence to suggest that significant experience of God is more common in childhood than in our adult years. Nye identities three spiritual needs of our children: to be deeply listened to when they articulate their spiritual questions and experiences; to be respected; and to have space for spirituality (in every sense of the word ‘space’).

Anne Richards

Children in the Bible

Anne Richards takes us to the Bible and what it has to tell us. God calls children to growth and development, she argues, even from the womb; because of this God wants every child to live. God calls and commissions children to minister, and adults need to respect and honour that. God values and blesses children. Richards shows us that these biblical truths about God’s attitude to children bring with them ethical demands about how we act and react. Her biblical exegesis leads to the same conclusions as Nye’s scientific observations: we nurture our children best when we respect and make space for God’s prior presence and activity in their lives.

Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh

Read your Bible... if you want to grow

Anna-Clara Thomasson-Rosingh picks up these same themes as she writes about using the Bible with children. She contrasts a closed-down method of adults instructing children to understand Bible passages as the adult understands them with a willingness to ask open questions and learn together. She commends practices such as ‘Godly Play’ which invite such openness; her perspective reflects a quotation Rebecca Nye offered: ‘the only teacher in the room is Christ’ (Sofia Cavalletti). Thomasson-Rosingh’s perspective finally depends on faith: faith that Christ is present, teaching, when we encounter scripture together; faith that scripture will teach and form both us and our children even when we don’t have good answers for their (or our) questions; faith that the Holy Spirit can use even their (and our) confusion or resistance to grow us into the likeness of Christ. As she says, ‘If scripture is really inspired and inspiring then grown-ups do not have to defend either the Bible or God.’

Claire Smith

Tea towels and  togas: Bringing the Bible to life for every child in every primary school

Claire Smith writes about Open the Book, a project now run by Bible Society that demonstrates just these values in the context of primary school assemblies. Adults and children engage Bible stories together in creative ways, and everyone involved grows in their understanding of the scriptures. This is a huge good news story: thousands of volunteers in thousands of schools reaching hundreds of thousands of children regularly with the Bible and creating new mission opportunities for local churches. The ambition is larger, though: to bring the Bible to life in every primary school in England and Wales.

Trevor Cooling

Children’s spiritual development in school

‘Every primary school’ covers a multitude of communities, varying hugely in size, context, cultural mix and the range of religious backgrounds of the pupils. Trevor Cooling writes about the nation’s schools, secondary as well as primary, and the statutory duty they have to promote the ‘spiritual development’ of their pupils. In particular, he looks at how ‘Christian-ethos schools’ (what the media would report as ‘faith schools’) seek to be both faithful to their church foundation and also responsible to the multi-faith pupil intake they receive. He describes three very different schools that are successfully negotiating this challenge in their own contexts, and two innovative approaches to delivering subjects as diverse as hockey skills and geology within a Christian ethos.

Olwyn Mark

Passing on faith in the home

Because modern British schools receive pupils of all faiths and none, Cooling notes that ‘Christians can no longer expect the school to undertake the nurture of their child’s Christian faith.’This recognition demonstrates the importance of family and church contexts for the development of children’s faith. Olwyn Mark recently wrote a report, Passing on Faith, for the think tank Theos, in which she explores how faith is transmitted at home. She returns to this subject in our next article. The Bible clearly pictures and demands that the great stories of God’s saving work will be passed from parents to children in the home, but this is not happening in many Christian homes. Where it is, parents are fearful both of failure and of success – concerned that their children will be mocked or bullied at school for their beliefs.

That said, the evidence is clear that young people’s faith-identity is largely determined by their home life. Secular parents generally produce secular children. Christian young people are overwhelmingly likely to have grown up in a Christian home. Faith will be passed on most successfully, Olwyn Mark argues, through rituals, repeated embodied practices that instantiate beliefs and values. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the quality of the general home environment is also important: stable, happy, loving families more often lead to children embracing the faith of their parents.

Lucy Moore

Being a church for people of all ages: The messy model

There is also evidence that children will remain committed to Christianity if they experience church as something that belongs to them, not just to the adults. In our final piece, Lucy Moore writes about the astonishing growth of Messy Church, suggesting that what has made the model so successful is a commitment to being church for all ages together, rather than an adult church with children’s activities, or a children’s club with adults as spectators. In Messy Church we also see the creative shared exploration of scripture that our first three articles recommended. Moore also suggests that an orientation towards celebration and a focus on Jesus are crucial parts of the mix. Like Open the Book, Messy Church is a significant success story of our time.

Paul Williams

News from Bible Society

Theos Report on Passing on Faith

The latest report from Theos has recently been published:

Olwyn Mark, Passing on Faith (London: Theos, 2016).

Here’s the summary blurb:

‘What do parents think about passing on their faith – their beliefs (or lack of them) about God – to their children? How seriously do they take it? And what difference do they make?

‘Conducted in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, Passing on Faith examines these questions through new polling research and a detailed study of academic research into the subject. British parents, the polling shows, are generally not too bothered about whether their children go on to share their beliefs, although that varies – significantly – depending on the faith of the parents in question, with atheist, agnostic, Christian, and other religious parents having some very different views.

‘The academic literature, in contrast with this, is clear about the impact parents can have. In the first instance, insights from psychology show that children have a natural propensity towards ‘belief’ of some kind. Building on that, and examining and assimilating the findings of 54 published studies, Olwyn Mark shows that the family and the home is incomparably important when it comes to passing on faith.

‘The role and faith commitment of both parents, and the integrity, consistency and unity of parents’ beliefs, practices and relationships are all shown to be key influencers on whether believing children become believing adults.

‘Ultimately, for all the effects that cultural pressures or evangelistic measures will have on determining the next generation of believers (and non-believers), parents and home life will consistently have a resounding impact on the passing on of faith.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Credo Magazine 5, 3 (2015)

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the theme of ‘Let the Children Come to Jesus’.

Matthew Barrett writes in the Editorial:

‘Having in mind the importance of teaching our children the core doctrines of the faith, this issue of Credo Magazine brings together some outstanding contributors to teach both parents and those in ministry alike how to better approach children so that they know God in a saving way.’

The magazine is available to read here, from where a 4.4 MB pdf of the whole issue can also be downloaded.

Lausanne Movement on Children and the Gospel

The current topic focus from the Lausanne Movement on the issues raised in The Cape Town Commitment is children. There is a summarising piece by Naomi Frizzell – ‘Children and the Gospel: Evangelizing the 4/14 Window’, which introduces several articles and responses exploring the topic.

Martin Luther on Changing Nappies

I’ve been reading a fair bit on the theme of vocation/calling in recent months. From a historical perspective, Martin Luther rightly gets drawn into the discussion, and one thing that comes up quite a bit are some his comments about changing nappies. I thought I’d track down the full discussion – in his The Estate of Marriage (1522) – for my own edification, and here is the pertinent part, which (I think) makes for wonderful reading:

‘Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.

‘What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “O God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight...

‘Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.’

Evangelical Alliance on the Family

The latest report in the 21st Century Evangelicals Series from the Evangelical Alliance UK is devoted to the family.

The full report – How’s the Family? – is available as a pdf here.

According to the Press Release, results of the survey include:

• Christian evangelicals are far less likely to live in single-parent households – four per cent, compared with 12 per cent nationally

• There are 1.7 single females in evangelical congregations for every man. This figure rises in the over-55s to three women to every man. This is reflected in the amount of women marrying non-Christians: 23 per cent compared to 13 per cent of men.

• Counter-cultural trends exist. For example two thirds are married compared to 49 per cent of the population. The number divorced is half that of the UK average.

• Secrets to the success of sustainable marriage of Christians are probably found in their preparations for marriage – over half had had formal preparation such as a course run at their local church.

• 29 per cent had sought help in their marriage, with the top three reasons being: communication difficulties, infidelity, and sexual problems.

• Nearly 10 per cent of people said they had received physical abuse and seven per cent said they had given it. These figures compare with 25 per cent of women across Europe saying they had experienced domestic violence at least once.

• While there is some evidence that many Christian parents hand down their faith commitment to the next generation, the report estimates that only 50 per cent of children brought up by Christian parents become adult believers. Thankfully the Church is enriched by significant numbers who come to faith as adults, including 11 per cent of the married couples in our sample who both came to faith after their marriage.

Tim Keller on Family

QIdeas reposts a short piece by Tim Keller – ‘Three Ways With Families’ – in which he writes about the declining interest in family in secularism alongside the idolatry of the family in traditional religion.

He draws fairly heavily on one of my favourite pieces from Stanley Hauerwas, which reminds us that Christians ‘do not place their hope in their children, but rather their children are a sign of their hope... that God has not abandoned this world’ (Hauerwas, Community of Character, 191).

Keller writes:

‘The gospel-based community practices a view of family that is contrary both to the cultural idols of secular and traditional societies. The gospel frees singles from the shame of being unmarried they find in conservative cultures. Their truest identity is in Christ and their assured future hope is the kingdom of God. Even bearing children, in the Christian view, is merely nurturing more lives for the family of God. That can be done in other ways than the biological. On the other hand, the gospel gives us the hope and strength for the sacrifices of marriage and parenthood that is lacking in liberal cultures. Christians grasp that they were only brought to life because of Jesus’ radical sacrifice of his independence and power. We know that children are only brought to life and self-sufficiency if their parents sacrifice much of their independence and power. In light of the cross, it is the least we can do.’

Tim Keller on the Gospel and the Family

The Redeemer City to City blog carries a post by Tim Keller on the family, which includes a reference to one of my all-time favourite bits of Stanley Hauerwas – where he writes about having children being an expression of confidence that God has not abandoned the world...

Aside from that, towards the end he (Keller, that is) writes:

‘The gospel-based community practices a view of family that is contrary both to the cultural idols of secular and traditional societies. The gospel frees singles from the shame of being unmarried they find in conservative cultures. Their truest identity is in Christ and their assured future hope is the kingdom of God. Even bearing children, in the Christian view, is merely nurturing more lives for the family of God. That can be done in other ways than the biological. On the other hand, the gospel gives us the hope and strength for the sacrifices of marriage and parenthood that is lacking in liberal cultures. Christians grasp that they were only brought to life because of Jesus’ radical sacrifice of his independence and power. We know that children are only brought to life and self-sufficiency if their parents sacrifice much of their independence and power. In light of the cross, it is the least we can do.’

Sherif Girgis et al. on Marriage

Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan T. Anderson, ‘What is Marriage?’, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34, (Winter 2010), 245-87.

Trevin Wax links to what looks like an interesting, and likely controversial piece on marriage in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

The abstract reads as follows:

‘In the article, we argue that as a moral reality, marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together, and renewed by acts that constitute the behavioral part of the process of reproduction. We further argue that there are decisive principled as well as prudential reasons for the state to enshrine this understanding of marriage in its positive law, and to resist the call to recognize as marriages the sexual unions of same-sex partners. Besides making this positive argument for our position and raising several objections to the view that same-sex unions should be recognized, we address what we consider the strongest philosophical objections to our view of the nature of marriage, as well as more pragmatic concerns about the point or consequences of implementing it as a policy.’

Joe Carter on the Cultural Mandate

The latest online Comment issue from Cardus includes a nice piece on the cultural mandate (Genesis 1:28) by Joe Carter, noting the tendency to downplay the clear ‘making babies’ element when explaining it.

‘We may not be so elitist as to think that repairing cars or hemming pants is inferior to writing novels or creating sculptures. But we are likely to be made uneasy by the idea that the newly-married teenage mother has fulfilled the cultural mandate in a way that is more profound than the creation of War and Peace.’

Of course, he points out that Tolstoy also produced four children, showing that ‘we too should be able to reconcile the dual requirements of the cultural mandate’, and is careful to say that ‘not everyone is called to be a parent’, just as not everyone is called to be artist or an entrepreneur. Even so...

‘Once we view the cultural mandate from God's perspective, it becomes apparent that the production of folk culture pales in importance to the culture of producing folks.’

Krish Kandiah on From Bible Baddies to Storynory: 20 Ways to Engage Children with the Bible

Notes from a seminar at the London launch of Biblefresh (30 March 2010):

Krish began by saying that he was speaking mainly as a parent rather than a children’s worker, and had primary school children in mind for most of his suggestions… which were as follows…

20. We need to be enthusiastic about the Bible if we are to inspire young people to be enthusiastic about the Bible.

19. Make use of every available medium possible. Krish referred here to iPhone apps by Kore (providing a red-letter verse everyday) and one called Yahero (produced by the Canadian Bible Society), and the You Version.

18. Encourage children to read the Bible for themselves – help them be self-feeders. Krish mentioned The Toddler’s Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible (especially recommended), The Lion Graphic Bible, and The Bite-Size Bible.

17. Family Bible reading – so that kids see Mum and Dad engage with the Bible too. Here Krish mentioned Easter Unscrambled, The Real Christmas Tree (an Advent calendar), and referred to resources designed to be used when a family is on holiday.

16. Make our Bible teaching EPIC – an acronym from Leonard Sweet – Experiential (e.g., where we teach could be important), Participatory (allowing children to contribute to stories and ask questions), Image Rich (allowing the images of the Bible to speak), Connected (building a community, asking what the Bible means for the way we relate to each other).

15. Do a journey through the Old Testamernt by enacting some of the festivals, such as Passover and Tabernacles.

14. Play Biblical 20 questions – ‘I’m a person in the Bible, can you guess who I am?’ – and doing this when we’re out walking, as a normal part of life.

13. Listen to the Bible rather than read it – using multiple media such as The Bible Experience.

12. Do your exegetical homework – and seek to enskill others as well. Read books, such as: Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom; Mike Novelli, Shaped by the Story; Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet; Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to read the Bible for all its worth.

11. Make stop motion videos using a digital camera.

10. A book at bedtime – such as stories from Bob Hartman’s Bible Baddies, which don’t ‘Disneyfy’ the Bible.

9. Storynory – listen to Bible stories during car journeys; get involved in telling and recording Bible stories in 10-15 minutes for possible upload to the Biblefresh website.

8. Intertextual engagement of biblical worldview and Hollywood cinematography – help children read film through the Bible. Compare and contrast Finding Nemo with the Prodigal son; use Camp Rock to provoke discussion of moral dilemmas, or The Boy in Striped Pyjamas for the ideas it evokes about overcoming barriers.

7. All age obedience – underline the Bible is not just a text, but provokes action. If we can do that collectively as a church, so much the better.

6. Raise up peer Bible teachers – young people to teach the Bible.

5. Echo the story – Mike Novelli’s Bible storying scheme – telling the Bible stories, and then getting young people to retell the story, then going round the group and ask ing ‘What if?’ questions.

4. Photo storyboard – issue a challenge to come up with a three-picture storyboard of a parable. When people have to produce something in response to the Bible text, that helps them to think it through.

3. Memorise the Bible reading for a church service.

2. Create a voiceover video, getting kids involved in producing something.

1. Art project – referred to earlier in the day by Krish – an example of a local church getting involved with schools through leading assemblies on the parables of Jesus, combined with an art project and competition, displaying pieces in the church, and inviting parents to view the art.