The Figure of the Child in Contemporary Evangelicalism

by Anna Strhan

Overview

What does it mean to grow up as an evangelical Christian today? What meanings does 'childhood' have for evangelical adults? How does this shape their engagements with children and with schools? And what does this mean for the everyday realities of children's lives? Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three contrasting evangelical churches in the UK, Anna Strhan reveals how attending to the significance of children within evangelicalism deepens understanding of evangelicals' hopes, fears and concerns, not only for children, but for wider British society. Developing a new, relational approach to the study of children and religion, Strhan invites the reader to consider both the complexities of children's agency and how the figure of the child shapes the hopes, fears, and imaginations of adults, within and beyond evangelicalism.

The Figure of the Child in Contemporary Evangelicalism explores the lived realities of how evangelical Christians engage with children across the spaces of church, school, home, and other informal educational spaces in a de-christianizing cultural context, how children experience these forms of engagement, and the meanings and significance of childhood. Providing insight into different churches' contemporary cultural and moral orientations, the book reveals how conservative evangelicals experience their understanding of childhood as increasingly countercultural, while charismatic and open evangelicals locate their work with children as a significant means of engaging with wider secular society. Setting out an approach that explores the relations between the figure of the child, children's experiences, and how adult religious subjectivities are formed in both imagined and practical relationships with children, this study situates childhood as an important area of study within the sociology of religion and examines how we should approach childhood within this field, both theoretically and methodologically.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198789611
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/26/2019
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Anna Strhan

Anna Strhan is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. She is the author of Aliens and Strangers? The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals (Oxford University Press, 2015), shortlisted for the BBC/BSA Ethnography Award 2016, and Levinas, Subjectivity, Education (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), and co-editor of Religion and the Global City (Bloomsbury, 2017) and The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Table of Contents

Introduction1. The Agency of Children and the Study of Religion2. Learning a Form of Life3. Parenthood: Anxiety, Authority, and Agency4. Building an Academy5. School Visitors6. Marking Times and Transitions7. Living with MessConclusionBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Strhan provides a novel, child-focused perspective on evangelicals, using captivating ethnographic description in an equally scholarly and accessible narrative. This book is fun to read; it also makes you think—a lovely combination." — Gail Murphy-Geiss, Colorado College, Sociology of Religion

"In this fascinating book, Dr Strhan both identifies a problem and goes a long way to solving it. The problem is the lack of attention to the child and childhood in the study of religion. The solution is a reflective and beautifully written ethnography of three very different evangelical churches. How do these churches envisage the child? And how do they turn their perceptions into action? This book will tell you. I recommend it very warmly." — Grace Davie, Professor of Sociology, University of Exeter

From the Publisher