When Children Draw Gods

This open access book explores how children draw god. It looks at children’s drawings collected in a large variety of cultural and religious traditions. Coverage demonstrates the richness of drawing as a method for studying representations of the divine. In the process, it also contributes to our understanding of this concept, its origins, and its development. This intercultural work brings together scholars from different disciplines and countries, including Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Iran, Brazil, and the Netherlands. It does more than share the results of their research and analysis. The volume also critically examines the contributions and limitations of this methodology. In addition, it also reflects on the new empirical and theoretical perspectives within the broader framework of the study of this concept. The concept of god is one of the most difficult to grasp. This volume offers new insights by focusing on the many different ways children depict god throughout the world. Readers will discover the importance of spatial imagery and color choices in drawings of god. They will also learn about how the divine's emotional expression correlates to age, gender, and religiosity as well as strategies used by children who are prohibited from representing their god.

Picasso's artistic inspiration takes hold of young Emma's faith imagination in this beautifully illustrated debut picture book about how we all see God differently. “This urge to draw something beyond spectacular would not leave my side. ‘What should I draw?’ I thought. I sat quietly, listening to my mind and heart. That's when I heard their whisper and I decided to draw God.” Emma tries again and again and again to draw God, but her classmates can’t see God in any of her drawings. Emma finally realizes that she doesn’t need their approval. “I knew I had drawn God. God knew I had drawn God, and maybe Picasso knew, too. That finally felt like enough.” But when Emma returns to school on the following Monday, something beyond spectacular happens. Drawing God is a story for children to discover what inspires their very own faith imagination and to realize the contagious faith that lives powerfully within them. Celebrate World Drawing God Day on November 7th. Visit www.drawing-god.com.

As humans charge up the steep slope of technological innovation, digital age media increasingly shapes our perception of everything--even spiritual matters. The next stage of spiritual development may be the product of a digital interface between our own image of the divine, virtual reality technology that produces real perceptions, and with devices that stimulate areas of the brain associated with spiritual experience. This book explores the influence of digital media on spirituality and the impact of the digital environment on our experience of the spiritual world. The author predicts a future in which digital technology and neuroscience will combine to create a new understanding of the divine. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

People who love kids spend a sizeable amount of their adult life obsessing about how their lives would be with kids in it. They wonder how they can be good parents and be their kids' ultimate companion. They actively or passively prepare for this period of their lives and try to figure out ways to connect with their kids. The kids came with a need to express themselves, and it turns out that drawing is one of these needs. Herein lies the problem; the parent cannot draw. If this is your story, we understand how hard it is for you to confront that wrong notion that you cannot be there for your kids. You do not have to feel this way because you can always get help. Now, that help has come in the form of this drawing book. You do not have to feel like you are not doing enough for your kids in the area of creative expression because now, you can always bring out this book and guide them on how to use it to fulfill their drawing needs. The best part of this is that you will be doing it together; you learn as they learn and at the same time, you get to connect with them on a deeper level. So yes, you may not have much artistic or drawing skill, but you can help your kids develop theirs, and this book and the drawing guides in it will help you get them there. You and your kids are about to have the most amazing creative experience - one that you will talk about for years to come.

Offering the most relevant, effective, and transformative approaches to ministry as it develops a feminist and womanist practical theology, this book brings together the best in feminist and womanist scholarship that deals with the work of ministry in a one-volume format.

This is a book about seeing the ultimate mystery as represented by the figure of God. It is not about religion per se, although it makes reference to many of the great religious traditions of the world and their gods. Rather, it is about the presence of the spiritual world and its inhabitants. The author's aim is to attempt to answer the question, How do we see God? through engaging with the images created by a group of children from a number of different cultures and spiritual backgrounds. Through a two-year period, the author travelled the world interviewing more than 500 children, asking them to draw a picture of God, to act and speak as God, and to tell a story about God. This text is a documentation of that journey into the lives and spiritual beliefs of children. Throughout the book, a broad selection of pictures and stories by the children is reproduced and paraphrased. The author offers his own commentaries, not as an analyst in a psychological sense or critic in a literary one, but as a God-seeker trusting in the power of the image to reveal meaning. This unique book will be of primary interest to professionals in the field of psychology, especially child and family therapists, as well as art and drama therapy, sociology, and theology. The book will also have appeal to parents and children who are looking for ways to understand their belief systems in relationship to others.

Every generation faces unique challenges. The first-century Church had Caesar’s lions and the Colosseum. And, while it might seem like an unlikely comparison, the challenge of living with popular culture may well be as serious as persecution was for the saints of old. Today we witness the tremendous power of pop culture to set the pace and priorities of our lives. We simply cannot afford to be indifferent about culture’s influence—nor can we escape it, glibly condemn it, or Christianize it. Cultural expert Ken Myers helps us to engage pop culture from a historical and experiential perspective so that we can live in it with wisdom and discernment.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Percy Jackson in Odd Gods, the first book in a hilarious illustrated series about the most unlikely, unusual Gods ever to grace the halls of Mount Olympus Middle School. A Summer 2019 Kids' Indie Next Pick! Oddonis may be the son of Zeus, but he’s a little bit…odd for a God. He’s so odd, in fact, he’s not sure if he has any powers at all. And if that isn’t enough, his twin brother Adonis is the most popular, most athletic, and most otherworldly handsome God of them all. Oddonis’s future at Mount Olympus Middle isn’t looking bright, especially when he makes the last-minute decision to run against Adonis to be class president. With the help of his friends Mathena (Goddess of math and poultry), Germes (God of all things sniffling and snotty), Puneous (the smallest God of them all), and Gaseous (enough said?), Oddonis is determined to win the race, prove that his friends are as good as any Greek God, and maybe, just maybe, find out what his true powers really are. Read the hilarious new adventures of Oddonis and his friends from debut children’s authors David Slavin and Daniel Weitzman, filled with dozens of black-and-white illustrations by award-winning artist Adam Lane.