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The things they wonder about

Dana Delap applauds a book on how to talk to children about faith

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Understanding Children Understanding God
Ronni Lamont

SPCK £12.99 (978-0-281-05820-4)
Church Times Bookshop £11.70

“HOW OLD is God?” A church leader recently asked me how she should answer this profound question from a five-year-old; and Ronni Lamont’s book is written for anyone who struggles to find an answer to that sort of question — especially since any answer will reveal as much about the respond-ent as it will about the questioner.

As educators and guides of the children in our care, we are sowers of seeds. We cannot make them have faith, but we can understand what helps seeds to grow.

Lamont has a shrewd appreciation of the fact that, while negative attitudes exist toward religion in Britain today, there is a positive recognition of spirituality. Children, she suggests, have an innate sense of the spiritual, but lack the language to articulate spiritual experiences in religious terms.

There can thus be disparity between the expectation of adults in church, and the ability of children to communicate their experience of God. As she rightly says, adults can assess and understand liturgy designed for children, but the opposite is not always true.

The first part of the book focuses on child-development in its broadest sense. Models of intellectual, personal, and social development are covered, although educationists might find the lack of detailed critique frustrating.

The second part describes the vital part played by story-telling in the development of faith, and suggests ways in which we can value and answer children’s most intimate and important questions about it.

Quotations from children about their experience of God, sprinkled liberally throughout the book, are helpfully interpreted, and show something of the processes going on inside the mind and heart of the child. Among other insights, they help explain why children ask a question without listening to the answer.

Questions at the end of each chapter help the reader to reflect on and assimilate the information. These often focus more on the reader’s insecurities, expectations, and weaknesses than on the children in their care. This makes the readers think critically about their own practice, without judgement, but in a real spirit of learning.

Lamont demonstrates that, in general, school offers a closed system of learning, with specific learning outcomes. Church should provide something different. If we offer the Christian faith openly, we allow children to work out their own spirituality rather than have to accept the version offered by us, their teachers. This gives them a rare and valuable opportunity to explore subjects that we, as adults, find it hard to engage with, even in a Christian environment — sadness, loneliness, the existence of God, why bad things happen, and so on.

This short but stimulating book shows how children develop, and therefore how we can better help them grow in faith. It should be on the bookshelves of every church leader, and form part of the basic training of all volunteers who work closely with children.

Dana Delap is a member of the Liturgical Commission.

To order this book, email the details to Church Times Bookshop (please mention "Church Times Bookshop price")



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