Creating the condition for doubt. How might questioning and critical thinking inspire children’s spiritual development?

ABSTRACT

Doubt, in much of Kierkegaard’s writing, is the inspiration for faith. Illustrating doubt in terms of the suspension of totality, the negation of certainty, and subsequent reflection, Fear and Trembling, and Philosophical Fragments, both authored pseudonymously by Kierkegaard, consider how individuals might learn on the strength of their own personal contingency within the remits of pre-existing structures and systems. After exploring Kierkegaard’s ideas in these texts, this article considers how the four dimensions of Hay and Nye’s concept of relational consciousness might provide the conditions for questioning and critical thinking, which form a part of doubt. Drawing on examples from practice, it is proposed that children’s spiritual development might include doubt in order to effect change in the lives of learning individuals and on a wider scale.

KEYWORDS:

• Kierkegaard
• doubt
• condition
• learning
• critical pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This story is an adapted extract from Wills (2020) Learning beyond the objective in Primary Education: Philosophical Perspectives from Theory and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ruth Joy Wills

Ruth Joy Wills is a part time lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at Liverpool Hope University, U.K. She is a member of the executive committee of the International Association of Children's Spirituality, and teaches part time in a Primary School.