What is it about?
The article analyzes four worship services with children, focused on different age groups and with different (but all Protestant) theological backgrounds. It describes the interactions during worship and highlights the theologies that those performances communicate or establish. Various worship services with children have in common that the perform God through story, ritual and play, so the article reflects on these topics.
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Why is it important?
Instead of focusing on words and beliefs only, this articles' focus on bodies and performance helps see how children are a vital part of how God is performed in worship.
Perspectives
What I enjoy about this text is that it includes descriptions of very different types of worship with children, that may offer inspiration for anyone worshiping with children. It also shows that the setting and the way children can participate in worship is actually theologically significant and therefore very relevant to the Church. Additionally, I feel that the kinds of worship that are analyzed in this article, practices that take place with with mainly children participating, are sometimes undervalued within the dominant intergenerational discourse (the idea that children and adults should worship together sometimes seems to overlook any merits that non-congregational worship might have), whereas I feel the two are complementary to each other rather than opposites.
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Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Performing God with Children, Journal of Youth and Theology, June 2022, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/24055093-bja10033.
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