Children Vicariously Bearing the Future of the Faiths

Abstract

This article assesses the role of children in perpetuating the chain of memory of the faiths in Europe. Drawing on indepth interviews with parents/guardians and fifty-two children on the religious socialization of Roman Catholic, Muslim, and non-religious children in Malta, it argues that Roman Catholic children are now the bearers of “vicarious religion” of communities that have become “unchurched,” while Muslim children steady the “precarious” memory of Islam in Europe. The article explores how children propel adults’ religious practices, keeping parents and grandparents connected to the faiths, churches, and mosques. Given the moral panic regarding voluntary childlessness as a threat to the perpetuation of the faiths, the vital role children play in the chain of religious memory is acknowledged.