Yearbook of Contextual Biblical Interpretation - Current Issue

Abstract The children’s song “Jesus Loves Me” originated in the nineteenth century. Over the years, “Jesus Loves Me” has become a popular Christian hymn and a well-loved song in Sunday schools, churches, and Christian households around the world. Children are part of families, schools, local and faith communities. Their arrival as infants is welcomed in most cultures and environments across the world. The realit Read More

Abstract In this article, we provide a conceptual clarification of the terms “child theology” and “children’s theology” on the basis of a literature review. This allows us to position our question “how children’s theology can contribute to theology” well within the academic debate on the subject. We take up the social constructivism that is the underlying paradigm of children’s theology, and we do so in a way that explicitly includes Read More

Abstract Various authors have written on children’s spirituality and how spirituality of children can be nurtured. These reflections are mostly inspired by a clear view on children’s agency and an emancipatory form of child theology. In this chapter we discuss the question how discrimination on the basis of race, class, and gender can be avoided in initiatives to nurture children’s spirituality. What can a feminist p Read More

Abstract What role does Christian hope play in the contextual biblical interpretation with children? This chapter examines the core teaching materials of the Godly Play method with regards to their treatment of the future. The analysis uncovers a preponderance of backward-looking narratives at the expense of future-oriented perspectives. While Godly Play aims to instill a “playful orthodoxy” and prepare children for Read More

Abstract This article employs a childist lens to critically examine the portrayal and roles of children in religious education within Philippine Catholic schools, using the narrative of the Binding of Isaac (Gen. 22:1–19) as a focal point. The study critiques how traditional educational practices in schools perpetuate a systemic silencing of children’s voices, leading to epistemic injustice wherein children are relegated to passive role Read More

Abstract Child theology aims at focusing on religious questions and experiences of children. Literature underlines this as a dominant dimension of religious dialogue and the development of a personal identity of children. In primary and secondary schools, the connection between personal identity and dialogue in the classroom, in the context of worldview diversity, means that teachers need to emphasize the religious questi Read More

Abstract “Contextual Biblical Interpretation” (CBI) as a concept has been useful because of its broad and inclusive scope. The article identifies a number of conceptual parameters of CBI. First, CBI includes biblical studies work in which the context of biblical reception is the subject of interpretation. Second, the context of reception is an inhabited or peopled context and these actual local context-based people are the s Read More