Children & Spiritual Identity

In recent years, the study of children and childhood has become a hot topic across a range of academic disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, literature, theology, and history. In this course, we’ll enter this lively conversation, giving special attention to children’s spiritual experiences and contributions to the life of the church.

The historical study of childhood began with Philippe Ariès’s ground-breaking work, L’Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (1960; published in English as Centuries of Childhood in 1962), which argued that the notion of childhood was “created” in the seventeenth century. Ariès’s controversial claim stimulated rich debate and introduced a whole new field of study that continues to develop. Until recently, such studies focused on adults: their conceptions of childhood, their sentiments toward children, and their child-rearing methods. Children themselves hovered anonymously at the edge of the frame. 

Today, historians talk about a new history of childhood—one that pays attention to the actions of children with adults and with each other, thus addressing a long-ignored defect in the historical record. This will be our approach in this course. Together, we will consider not so much what adults thought and wrote about children, but what we can discover about historical children themselves. Using a range of sources—including diaries, letters, catechisms, and accounts of children’s deaths—we will ask: How do we understand children’s spiritual identities, their religious activities and experiences, and their beliefs? How have they contributed to the life of the church?

This course covers the period 1600–1900, allowing us to focus on particular moments and events while also observing shifts and continuities across time. Our study will start in Britain, but we will also consider developments in Germany, the United States, and Canada. Finally, while the course’s framework is historical, there will be points of connection to children today, including our own identities as children of God.