Children’s Agency in Worship
-
Lydia van Leersum-Bekebrede
,
Ronelle Sonnenberg
Abstract
Children help create and shape their social worlds, including that of worship. This article explores how children negotiate and appropriate worship practices and incorporate their own values, understandings and creative ideas into their worship. This analysis of children’s agency relies on qualitative data drawn from direct observation of Dutch Protestant worship services designed for and/or attended by children. Recognising that children have agency in worship encourages practitioners and practical theologians to identify how children already help shape the worship they take part in and enhance opportunities to strengthen their agency and influence.
Zusammenfassung
Kinder wirken mit an der Gestaltung ihrer Lebenswelt, auch im Gottesdienst. Dieser Aufsatz stellt die Ergebnisse einer qualitativ-empirischen Studie vor, die der kreativen Anteilnahme von Kindern in Gottesdiensten der evangelischen Kirche in den Niederlanden nachgeht. Die jüngsten Gottesdienstteilnehmer*innen als handelnd und handlungsfähig zu sehen, ermutigt dazu, mehr Gelegenheiten für Erfahrungen der Selbstwirksamkeit von Kindern im gottesdienstlichen Geschehen zu schaffen.
Acknowledgements
A warm “thank you” to the anonymous peer reviewers, whose suggestions helped to clarify the argument and to highlight children’s agency even more.
Biographical Note
Lydia van Leersum-Bekebrede has studied cultural anthropology and wrote this article while she was a Ph.D. student at Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, Netherlands, researching liturgical rituals with children from zero to twelve years old in Protestant contexts in the Netherlands. Ronelle Sonnenberg is an Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and focuses on youth ministry. Jos de Kock is a Professor of Practical Theology specialising in religious education and Rector of Evangelische Theologische Faculteit, Leuven, Belgium. Marcel Barnard is a Professor of Practical Theology and Liturgical Studies at Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Children’s Agency in Worship
- Homo pandemicus – homo solitarius
- When a Crisis Empties Mosques: A Case Study of Muslim Responses to the Pandemic’s Challenges in Regards to Spiritual Care and Communal Rituals in Austria and Germany
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- White Supremacy as Counter-Telos: Pastoral Formation in the White Habitus
- Conspiracy Theories in Congregations: A Pastoral Response
- Creativity Unleashed: Building a Practical Theology for Christian Leadership in a World in Flux
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- Book Reviews
- HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018), 171 pp., ISBN 9781532617249, $9.92
- Miller-McLemore, B.J (ed)., The Wiley Blackwell Reader in Practical Theology (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 424pp., ISBN: 978-1-119-40849-9, $38.95
- Jin Young Choi and Joerg Rieger, eds., Faith, Class, & Labor: Intersectional Approaches in a Global Context (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020), 271 pp., ISBN 9781725257160, $35.00 / £26.00
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Children’s Agency in Worship
- Homo pandemicus – homo solitarius
- When a Crisis Empties Mosques: A Case Study of Muslim Responses to the Pandemic’s Challenges in Regards to Spiritual Care and Communal Rituals in Austria and Germany
- Who Is My Neighbour?
- White Supremacy as Counter-Telos: Pastoral Formation in the White Habitus
- Conspiracy Theories in Congregations: A Pastoral Response
- Creativity Unleashed: Building a Practical Theology for Christian Leadership in a World in Flux
- Resonance in a Theopoetics of Practice in Practical Theology
- Research Report
- Climate Violence and Earth Justice: A Research Report on Practical Theology’s Contributions
- Book Reviews
- HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Interdependence: A Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018), 171 pp., ISBN 9781532617249, $9.92
- Miller-McLemore, B.J (ed)., The Wiley Blackwell Reader in Practical Theology (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 424pp., ISBN: 978-1-119-40849-9, $38.95
- Jin Young Choi and Joerg Rieger, eds., Faith, Class, & Labor: Intersectional Approaches in a Global Context (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020), 271 pp., ISBN 9781725257160, $35.00 / £26.00
