{"title":"Excluded or Part of the Team? Investigating of the Role of Grandparents in Christian Faith Nurture, Using Discourse Analysis.","authors":"Sarah E Holmes","doi":"10.1007/s13644-022-00520-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Existing literature emphasised the spiritual value of grandparents in a child's faith nurture, but this was not reflected in contemporary understandings or practices of the Christian community.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The discourses surrounding the perceptions and practices of grandparents themselves, the local church and wider Christian society were investigated; uncovering the dynamics of cross-generational relationships and interactions with a child's spiritual journey.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Data was gathered from Christian media, resourcing organisations, denominational websites and focus group interviews with grandparents and church representatives, to reveal the discourses conveyed by individuals, institutions and the wider Christian community. Critical discourse analysis was used to investigate perceptions and implications.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Grandparents unanimously reported collective worth and purpose in their grandparent-grandchild relations. However, church representatives observed barriers and tensions regarding their involvement in faith nurture, citing a culture of privacy surrounding faith. Denominational websites and Christian media indicated that grandparents were not integral to church strategies, being rarely mentioned, resourced or empowered. The dominant discourses were of grandparents being passive agents with background involvement. Resourcing primarily conveyed romanticism and nostalgia rather than addressing contemporary family life. For some, these relationships facilitated discussions about faith, whilst others said their family's faith identity was unspoken. The grandparents were primarily motivated personally and independently of external bodies, often adopting a 'trial and error' mentality, suggesting a highly individual rather than collective approach to faith nurture of grandchildren. The local church rarely championed grandparents in this role, leading to grandparents being passive and feeling excluded. Many lacked confidence and were disengaged with faith nurture.</p><p><strong>Conclusions and implications: </strong>The value of grandparents needs better communicating, moving them from being minor contributors at the periphery of the team to being more actively and intentionally involved. This requires enhanced understanding at institutional and societal levels of grandparents' role, and improvement in the functionality and efficacy of interactions between grandparents and their grandchildren. Redressing of the power dynamics at play within congregations and society is required to bring grandparents more equally into the equation. A paradigm shift is required at all levels to equip, empower and include grandparents more fully. This would lead to improved Christian faith transmission.</p>","PeriodicalId":47205,"journal":{"name":"Review of Religious Research","volume":"64 4","pages":"829-851"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795936/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of Religious Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-022-00520-2","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Existing literature emphasised the spiritual value of grandparents in a child's faith nurture, but this was not reflected in contemporary understandings or practices of the Christian community.
Purpose: The discourses surrounding the perceptions and practices of grandparents themselves, the local church and wider Christian society were investigated; uncovering the dynamics of cross-generational relationships and interactions with a child's spiritual journey.
Methods: Data was gathered from Christian media, resourcing organisations, denominational websites and focus group interviews with grandparents and church representatives, to reveal the discourses conveyed by individuals, institutions and the wider Christian community. Critical discourse analysis was used to investigate perceptions and implications.
Results: Grandparents unanimously reported collective worth and purpose in their grandparent-grandchild relations. However, church representatives observed barriers and tensions regarding their involvement in faith nurture, citing a culture of privacy surrounding faith. Denominational websites and Christian media indicated that grandparents were not integral to church strategies, being rarely mentioned, resourced or empowered. The dominant discourses were of grandparents being passive agents with background involvement. Resourcing primarily conveyed romanticism and nostalgia rather than addressing contemporary family life. For some, these relationships facilitated discussions about faith, whilst others said their family's faith identity was unspoken. The grandparents were primarily motivated personally and independently of external bodies, often adopting a 'trial and error' mentality, suggesting a highly individual rather than collective approach to faith nurture of grandchildren. The local church rarely championed grandparents in this role, leading to grandparents being passive and feeling excluded. Many lacked confidence and were disengaged with faith nurture.
Conclusions and implications: The value of grandparents needs better communicating, moving them from being minor contributors at the periphery of the team to being more actively and intentionally involved. This requires enhanced understanding at institutional and societal levels of grandparents' role, and improvement in the functionality and efficacy of interactions between grandparents and their grandchildren. Redressing of the power dynamics at play within congregations and society is required to bring grandparents more equally into the equation. A paradigm shift is required at all levels to equip, empower and include grandparents more fully. This would lead to improved Christian faith transmission.
期刊介绍：
The Review of Religious Research (RRR) publishes empirical social science research on religion, primarily in sociology and social psychology and related fields of psychology, and scholarly literature reviews of research in these fields. RRR provides a forum for research across multiple disciplines and approaches, including research on the following topical areas: Clergy; Church programs; Comparative analyses of religious denominations and institutions; Denominational and congregational growth, decline, and vitality; Denominational and congregational conflict, competition, and cooperation; Ethnicity/race and religion; Generational and personal religious change; New religious movements; Personal spiritual and religious beliefs and practices; Religion and attitudes; Religion and family; Religion and gender, Religion and social behavior; Religion and well-being; and Research methodology. Among the characteristics that distinguish RRR from other academic journals on the study of religion are its applied focus and the opportunities it offers for academics and denomination-based researchers to share their findings with each other. RRR aims to facilitate the sharing and comparing of applied studies between denominational and academic researchers. RRR is the official quarterly journal of the Religious Research Association, Inc. RRR regularly publishes Original Articles, Research Notes, Review Articles, Applied Research Abstracts, and Book Reviews, and occasionally publishes articles on the Context of Religious Research. Applied Research Abstracts: This type of publication (previously called Denominational Research Reports) consists of a 350-550 word summary (without any references) of an applied research study in the form of a structured abstract, with the following section headings: Background, Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions and Implications, followed by 3-4 keywords. The author may included a footnote that states: (a) whether a complete report exists and how it can be obtained; (b) whether the raw data are available in electronic form and how they can be obtained if the authors wish to make them available to other researchers; and (c) whether the authors would like to collaborate with other researchers to further analyze the data and write a full report for possible journal publication as a peer-reviewed manuscript. Such abstracts should be submitted to the journal editor for consideration for publication. Book Reviews: Unsolicited book reviews are not accepted for publication in RRR. If you would like to review a book for the journal, contact the Book Review Editor, David Eagle, Ph.D. – david.eagle@duke.edu Context of Religious Research: This journal heading covers items about awards and announcements, memoriams, and articles about the research process (e.g., articles on research methods and statistics, and profiles of denominational research organizations), as well as invited addresses to the Religious Research Association. Unsolicited articles should be submitted to the journal editor for consideration for publication. Original Articles: These are scholarly and methodologically sophisticated research studies: see Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) Reseach Notes: These are scholarly and methodologically sophisticated research studies: see Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) Review Articles: Authors should send an email to the journal’s editor describing the nature and scope of a proposed literature review to see if it is suitable for publication in RRR. See Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) The journal’s editor is Kevin J. Flannelly, Ph.D. – kjflannelly@gmail.com
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