Intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in children’s literature

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of spirituality, religion and gender in contemporary children’s books published in the United States. Background for the discussion includes a history of religion in children’s literature and the history of women’s roles in the Christian tradition. Representative works of realistic fiction – historical and contemporary – and one work of science fiction are discussed.

Keywords:

• Children’s literature
• Gender
• Religion
• Spirituality

Notes

* Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Peabody Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA. Email: [email protected]

• Bristow, having difficulty reconciling Paul’s apparently contradictory views about women, undertook to translate the Pauline passages regarding women’s roles as they are rendered in contemporary English back to koine Greek. What he found, consistently, was that the words which Paul chose to use in these passages had vastly different implications in the original Greek than those conveyed by the English; that the English words imply ideas of subordination and oppression that Paul deliberately avoided. According to Bristow, one of the greatest ironies of Christian history is that ‘the words of Paul [as translated] instead of communicating a clear message calling for sexual equality, have become the primary source of authority for the depredation of women’ (p. xii).

• Traditional patriarchal Pauline scholarship deals variously with these seeming contradictions: by ignoring them; by questioning Paul’s authorship of certain letters (usually on other grounds); or simply by pointing to cultural influences of the day. Likewise, there is a range of views among feminist theologians about Paul. Some excoriate him as a hopeless misogynist and deny the authority of his writings altogether; some see him as a man caught in unresolved conflicts; others see him a man of limited theological understanding in the area. In neither mainstream camp have I found evidence of the kind of work Bristow had done or knowledge of Bristow’s work.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann M. Trousdale *

* Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Peabody Hall, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA. Email: [email protected]