Principal Investigator:

John Wall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religion, Department of Philosophy and Religion

This pilot study is partially funded by the Center for Children and Childhood Studies

The purpose of the project is to explore theological resources that may help shed light on the contemporary meaning and purposes of child rearing.

It is now widely recognized that children are not receiving the attention, resources, and care that they should in contemporary American society. Over the past two to three decades, children began to receive less time and energy from parents stretched by the new economy, less attention from extended family members who increasingly live far away, less resources and a declining quality of education from schools, fewer opportunities in communities to find mentors and alternative support structures, and decreasing protection and assistance from the government. This social marginalization of children contributes to well-documented declines in child well-being in areas like physical and mental health, preparedness for the world of work, ability to form adult attachments, and overall satisfaction with life.

While scholars from a variety of disciplines are now engaged in research on ways to renew and better understand our parental and social commitments to children - including psychologist, sociologists, historians, and legal scholars, to name but a few - theologians and religious ethicists have remained curiously absent from this work. This absence is especially remarkable given the extensive and profoundly influential child rearing theologies that have been produced throughout Western history. Part of the reason for this neglect is a general perception that theological, and especially Christian, perspectives on child rearing tend to be harsh and even abusive. However, this view on closer inspection is not only an oversimplification but also, with some exceptions, on the whole inaccurate. While past religious perspectives on child rearing contain much we would not accept today, most of them also provide surprising depths of respect for children and concern for their well-being and nurturance.

This project will bring various traditional theological perspectives on child rearing to light, and explore - in a critical, balanced and non-confessional way - their possible resources for a better understanding of the meaning of child rearing today. To this end the study will examine three watershed theologies of child rearing, not just in themselves but also within their historical and intellectual contexts. These are: (1) Thomas Aquinas' late scholastic "natural law" model of developing children's innate natural goodness into mature participation in the common good; (2) John Calvin's Reformation "covenant" view of child rearing as disciplining fallen human nature toward integrated social participation; and (3) Friedrich Schleiermacher's 19th century "liberal" understanding of child rearing as nurturing the gift of childhood innocence and preserving children's natural wisdom up into adult society. While these perspectives share Judeo-Christian roots, they are radically different in their understanding of children's natural and social capacities, their innocence vs. participation in original sin, the roles of parents vs. those of larger social institutions, and child rearing's overall purpose and meaning. While each perspective has flaws from our modern point of view, each also has profoundly influenced our understandings of child rearing today, and in addition has potential for helping reshape our present child rearing culture.

For more information, please contact Dr. John Wall

Selected web sites for further reading:

The Religion, Culture, and Family Project at The University of Chicago: http://www.uchicago.edu/divinity/family

The Coalition for Marriage, Family, and Couples Education (CMFCE): http://www.smartmarriages.com

The Children's Defense Fund: http://www.childrensdefense.org

The National Marriage Project: http://marriage.rutgers.edu