Pathic knowing, lived sensibility and phenomenological reflections on children’s spirituality

ABSTRACT

Pathic knowledge is a form of non-cognitive knowledge emanating from the body and the felt sense of being in the world. This paper re-interprets one particular phenomenological reflection from the author’s original research (that set out to determine some characteristics of children’s spirituality) through the lens of pathic knowing. While the reflection considered was, in the original research, gleaned from hermeneutic phenomenological insight, this paper re-interprets that reflection through the lens of pathic knowing via four modalities – actional knowing, situational knowing, relational knowing and corporeal knowing – to present a more robust phenomenological reflection on this life expression, shedding new light upon the role of the body as a legitimate way of knowing in children’s spirituality.

KEYWORDS:

• Pathic knowing
• hermeneutic phenomenology
• children’s spirituality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. van Manen (2014) maintains that editing or re-writing a phenomenological text is not falsifying an account, but rather assisting readers to arrive at a more plausible description of human experience. Editing or honing an anecdote, while ensuring that the phenomenological content does not change, helps to orient the reader to the lived experience of the phenomenon.

2. Hay and Nye (2006) maintain that each child has a particular style, or way, in which they express their spirituality. They refer to this as the ‘signature’ phenomenon, noting that this is unique for each child, and indeed, for each person. The practical implication here is that one needs to ‘attend to each child’s personal style if one is to “hear” their spirituality at all’ (98).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brendan Hyde

Brendan Hyde, PhD, is the Academic Dean at BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education, and a Senior Research Fellow at Federation University Australia. He has research interests in hermeneutic phenomenology, and how the Godly Play approach to religious education nurtures spirituality in children. He is the author of Children and Spirituality: Searching for Meaning and Connectedness published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.