Children, adults and spirituality: what's the connection?

Ota, Cathy and Erricker, Jane and Erricker, Clive (1999) Children, adults and spirituality: what's the connection? Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre. ISBN 9780906165300

Preview

Text RERC2-022-1.pdf Available under License CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution. Download (214kB) | Preview

Abstract

We begin this Paper by repeating the question in the title, asking what is the connection between adults, children and spirituality. The connection is narrative. Narrative is how the connection between children, adults and spirituality is both established and maintained. Jean François Lyotard in Le Différend says that narrative has a privilege in the way it assembles diversity. It is a genre that seems to be able to admit all others. Everything, says Marx, has a "his–story" (1983: 228). There is an affinity between the people and the narrative. The popular form of language is the small, de-ritualised narrative. To paraphrase Lyotard, people like to tell stories and, in particular, they like to tell stories about themselves. This is how we as people - as children and adults – express our similarities with other people, and our differences from others. These stories that people tell about their lives and experiences are Lyotard’s "small narratives", the little stories which challenge and define the meta-narratives – the grand stories of ideology and moral prescription.

Item Type:	Book
Additional Information:	Series: RERC Second Series Occasional Papers;22.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Experience (Religion)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
Divisions:	Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre > Second Series of Occasional Papers
Depositing User:	John Dalling
Date Deposited:	05 Nov 2014 16:12
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2024 13:50
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/417

Administrator Actions (login required)

Edit Item - Repository Staff Only