The religious imagination of children project: an initial research report

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article presents a report of ongoing research into children’s religious beliefs and practices. Three sources of research are put into conversation with each other: 1) new findings in cognitive and developmental psychologies; 2) original empirical research utilising interviews with children; and 3) theological understandings of childhood. The author makes the case that childhood imagination and cognition are more sophisticated than prevalent developmental paradigms have allowed (ones rooted in Freud and Piaget). Likewise, the author raises the possibility that children’s religious imaginations may be more sophisticated than often appreciated, potentially helping them navigate existential threats and challenges. Charles Taylor’s notion of a porous self provides a conceptual framework for considering the ways in which children’s religious imaginations may represent an openness to a sense of transcendence even in the midst of a general disenchantment of reality in secular societies.