Abstract
When confronted with being asked to “draw god”, children have to solve a problem; they are being asked to produce a visual representation of an entity that they have never seen. Resources for solving this problem are available within the child’s cultural context: The shape of the figure itself may be based on various religious representations of gods, iconic figurations of supernatural agents in fictional artefacts (paintings, movies, cartoons even in advertisement), various valences may be attributed to colours or to different parts of an image composition, etc. The drawings produced by children depend also on their cognitive abilities to grasp the concept of god, their emotional abilities to express the accompanying feelings, their creativity and artistic skills. In representing god, children have to solve additional problems. For example, connotations of the concept of god can awaken attachment bonds to parental figures; religious prohibitions against representations of god can be in conflict with the task of drawing god. The purpose of this work is to integrate the results presented in parts II-V of this book, and to articulate the different factors in an integrated model that outlines possible strategies used to carry out the project of drawing god.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | When Children Draw Gods |
Subtitle of host publication | A Multicultural and Interdisciplinary Approach to Children's Representations of Supernatural Agents |
Editors | Pierre-Yves Brandt, Zhargalma Dandarova-Robert, Christelle Cocco, Dominique Vinck, Frédéric Darbellay |
Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media B.V. |
Pages | 15-42 |
Number of pages | 28 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783030944292 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783030944285, 9783030944315 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Publication series
Name | New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion |
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Volume | 12 |
ISSN (Print) | 2367-3494 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2367-3508 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023, The Author(s).
Funding
Acknowledgments This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Grants Nr. CR11I1_156383 and IZSEZ0_180471.
Funders | Funder number |
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Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung | CR11I1_156383, IZSEZ0_180471 |
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung |
Keywords
- Anthropomorphism
- Child development
- Cross-cultural
- Drawings
- Emotionality
- Gender
- God representations
- Religious education
- Socio-cultural influence
- Visual research