Figure of the Child in Contemporary Evangelicalism

Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three contrasting evangelical churches in the UK, Anna Strhan reveals how attending to the significance of children within evangelicalism deepens understanding of evangelicals' everyday hopes, fears and concerns, not only for children, but for wider British society.

List of contents

• Introduction


• 1: The Agency of Children and the Study of Religion


• 2: Learning a Form of Life


• 3: Parenthood: Anxiety, Authority, and Agency


• 4: Building an Academy


• 5: School Visitors


• 6: Marking Times and Transitions


• 7: Living with Mess


• Conclusion


• Bibliography

About the author

Anna Strhan is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. She is the author of Aliens and Strangers? The Struggle for Coherence in the Everyday Lives of Evangelicals (Oxford University Press, 2015), shortlisted for the BBC/BSA Ethnography Award 2016, and Levinas, Subjectivity, Education (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), and co-editor of Religion and the Global City (Bloomsbury, 2017) and The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Summary

Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three contrasting evangelical churches in the UK, Anna Strhan reveals how attending to the significance of children within evangelicalism deepens understanding of evangelicals' everyday hopes, fears and concerns, not only for children, but for wider British society.

Additional text

Through her ground-breaking, relational approach to studying children and childhood in both conservative and progressive evangelical congregations, Anna Strhan effectively challenges the assumption that children are the "next generation" of their tradition by convincingly demonstrating how children shape their communities through their engagement with adults as well as through adults' efforts to maintain their attention. In short, this book is a must read for anyone interested in the continued currency of term "evangelicalism", the role of children's agency in their communities, and in how children and childhood serve to push religious congregations to adjust to societal change.

Product details

• Authors: Anna Strhan, Anna (Lecturer in Sociology Strhan, Strhan Anna
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9780198789611
• ISBN: 978-0-19-878961-1
• No. of pages: 244
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, RELIGION / Christianity / History, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Sociology: family & relationships, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Religious issues & debates, Social and cultural anthropology, Sociology: family and relationships, Religious groups: social & cultural aspects, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Religious issues and debates, Other Nonconformist & Evangelical Churches, Other Nonconformist and Evangelical Churches