Mapping the contours of faith in the land of separation: spiritual geographies for children

Abstract

According to Jean Piaget, children begin to develop a concept of an object, such as that it has sides that are not visible from the child's perspective or that it is likely to be where one saw it last, in early infancy. By the close of the prelinguistic phase at about 2 years old, the child has developed a mature object concept, one that comprehends the object as a continuing entity even when it is not visible. Many children's picture books demonstrate Piaget's concept of object permanence through narrative and image. This paper offers a close reading of three classics, Goodnight moon, Harold and the purple crayon and Where the wild things are, in an explanation of how children are able to develop faith in an invisible, omnipresent deity.

Keywords:

• Piaget
• Object permanence
• Invisible deity
• Spiritual formation
• Picture books

Notes

Corresponding author. John Brown University, Box 3036, 2000 West University Street, Siloam Springs, Arkansas 72761, USA. Email: [email protected]

When using source material that is not gender inclusive, as here Margaret Cook's 1954 translation of Piaget, I will violate current convention to represent the source text accurately, although in my own comments I will be gender inclusive.

Most children's picture books are not paginated. For source texts from such books, there will be no page numbers cited.