Learning a Form of Life

Abstract

Focusing on the space of churches, Chapter 2 explores the practices through which adults seek to form children as subjects able to ‘engage with God’ in Sunday school and Kids Church and the ways in which the children responded to these practices across each of the three churches studied in this book. Focusing on the desired formation of children provides insight into the morally charged ideals of personhood articulated in each church, and draws out the particular emphasis on biblical literacy and ideals of submission to God expressed in conservative evangelicals’ work with children in comparison with the emphasis on ideals of friendship with Jesus that is privileged at St George’s and Riverside. The author argues that despite these differences, the techniques of formation used in each church aim to shape the children as reflexive individuals, able to reflect on their actions in the light of church teachings.