The Power to Pray
Drawing on Marcel Mauss, this article contends that historians and sociologists should not focus on what prayer brings about, but on how it is brought about or “produced.” Specifically, it aims at bringing to light normative conceptions of prayer, through content analysis of Protestant children’s bo...
| Published in: | Religion & theology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Religion & theology
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality CD Christianity and Culture KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBD Benelux countries KDD Protestant Church RF Christian education; catechetics |
| Further subjects: | B
Spirituality
religious socialization
history of prayer
Protestantism
content analysis
children’s books
The Netherlands
gender differences
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Drawing on Marcel Mauss, this article contends that historians and sociologists should not focus on what prayer brings about, but on how it is brought about or “produced.” Specifically, it aims at bringing to light normative conceptions of prayer, through content analysis of Protestant children’s books, written by the Netherlands’ most important twentieth-century author of juvenile literature, W.G. van de Hulst. A recurrent theme in his earlier works is a “breach” in the prayer life of the (male) protagonists – their “conversion” from conventional, “ritual” prayer to individualised, improvised, “sincere” prayer. In his later works, by contrast, Van de Hulst suggested that “real prayer” can be learned gradually, in an intimate relationship between children – notably girls – and their mothers. The gender- and age-specific nature of these models for prayer is shown by mapping out differences between prayer scenes, e.g. with respect to social setting, body postures, and forms of address. |
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| ISSN: | 1574-3012 |
| Contains: | In: Religion & theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15743012-02401005 |