Jack Priestley: an obituary

Abstract

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Jack Priestley. Jack had been a long-time key figure in the life of the International Association for Children’s Spirituality, being involved with the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality as a member of the Editorial Board, a delegate at the early International Conferences and our Honorary President. One task in this role was to compile his ‘Notion of the spiritual,’ a short piece posted until recently on the IACS website. This piece marked a significant shift away from the prioritizing of dogmatic claims regarding spirituality. Rather than reverting to fixed descriptions and claims to truth within theology and religion, his ‘notion’ indicates how spirituality transcends theology and religion. His Hockerill lecture of 1996 was an important contribution to the debate on children’s spirituality, proposing the idea that ‘development’ is an appropriate term in this respect. He preferred to focus on the dimension of spirituality that cannot be described or defined, and as such, this idea has provided a foundation for the beliefs and values of the association and journal. His thinking was also influential in the wider world of education. Along with Terence Copley and others, he was instrumental in encouraging teachers to consider a different dimension to religious and spiritual education. His idea was that students should be participants in learning, allowing for the creation of dynamic experiences that are relevant to their personal lives. This was certainly at a tangent to the epistemological hegemony within the paradigm prevalent in Religious and Spiritual Education in the UK in the 1980s. In turn, his thinking inspired the work of scholars such as Tony Eaude, Jacqueline Watson and Ruth Wills, each of whom have made significant contributions to this journal. Their research and practice within the fields of Education and Children’s Spirituality in the UK has perpetuated an interest in the development of an understanding of (non-religious) spirituality in children’s lives and thus ensured that Jack’s legacy continues to inform and inspire. Clive and Jane Erricker, co-founders of the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality and conveners of the first International Conference on Children’s Spirituality worked closely with Jack and were similarly instrumental in promoting the rhetoric and theory of children’s spirituality. Clive offers this tribute: ‘Jack’s death is an occasion for sorrow. He was a mentor in my professional life and a long-time friend. He was a major proponent of an experiential approach to religious education that gained traction in the 1980s in England and Wales, though its influence went further than that. He, along with others INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SPIRITUALITY 2019, VOL. 24, NO. 2, 104–106 https://doi.org/10.1080/1364436X.2019.1622219