1st Edition
Children’s Spirituality and Traditions Theoretical and Practical Considerations
Introduction: Beyond traditions, but not without them
Elaine Champagne
I. Reflecting on Children’s Spiritual Experiences and Traditions
1. The role of culture and traditions in how young children’s identities are constructed
Tony Eaude
2. Cultivating Christians: North American family cultures and religious identity formation
Karen-Marie Yust
3. The strings on David’s Harp: religious ritual as a container for spirituality
Sandy Sasso Eisenberg
4. Silenced by performativity: The child’s right to a spiritual voice in an age of neoliberal educational imperatives
Brendan Hyde
5. Navigating the spaces of children’s spiritual experiences: influences of tradition(s), multidisciplinarity and perceptions
Kate Adams
II. Children’s Spirituality and Traditions in Action
6. Finding connections between spirituality and play for early childhood education
Jennifer Mata-McMahon
7. The study of the Persian mystical fable’s capacity to be rewritten as spiritual literature for children in the light of the theory of relational consciousness
Samira Qayyoumi and Zahra Jalaeifar
8. Alternative religion kids: spiritual and cultural identity among children and youth involved with new religious movements
Jessica Pratezina
9. Enlivening thinking and speech in search of spiritual identity: the role of ‘speech formation’ in Steiner’s Waldorf education
Yoko Okumoto
Biography
Elaine Champagne holds the Religion, Spirituality and Health Chair at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences (Laval University). Her research in practical theology focuses on spiritual care in pediatric contexts. Her recent projects examine relational dynamics, agency, vulnerability, and the hope of children in the context of serious illness.
