Gudomlig lek - Synen på barn i Godly Play-metoden

Sammanfattning: Godly Play is a method for Christian Education inspired by Maria Montessori’s work. It aims to give children a language for their religious experiences. In the same way as Montessori used children’s play and eagerness to learn as means to an end – education, Godly Play uses play to explain the relationship with God. However, Godly Play stresses the importance of playing for the sake of playing, not in order to reach a goal. This work concentrates on the view of children and children’s abilities shown in the Godly Play method, with a special focus on ideologies and norms about childhood and adulthood and the ways our understanding of childhood may influence how children are treated in local congregations today. Godly Play is connected to issues about children’s spirituality as well as the Convention of the Rights of the Child and common conceptions of childhood. Godly Play as a method has a very high view of children. Godly Play corresponds with both the Convention of the Rights of the Child and theories about how age is related to power. However, there is also a dualism towards them, in the same way as there is in, for example, the Convention of the Rights of the Child.