קול קורא // פרקים לספר: ילדים ורוחניות; דדליין לתקצירים=30.6.18

Children and Spirituality

Nietzsche’s famous proclamation that “God is dead” cut mankind off from any spiritual practice and grounding, ushering in liberating movements that have given rise to a variety of voices and identities throughout the twentieth and well into the twenty-first century (e.g., feminism, LGBTQ movements, millennials)all of which may very well do without God. And yet, God is quite present albeit in a different form as we worship Hollywood Stars, technology, our careers, and, mostly centrally, our children.

This child worship echoes back to the ideation of the holy child in Romantic thought,a child who is in close proximity to God. How does this lingering idea fare today? How holy is the child when there is no God in our age of secularization? Is the child of a same-sex couple considered as angelic as a straight couple’s child? How about the HIV-positive child? Is the child still innocent given the know-how of technology that puts the child ahead of any parents or grandparents? What form of parenting does an unholy, knowing child inspire? What is the child’s relationship to God? Is God a part of childhood in the secular age? Where is God in childhood? Are we still God’s children Does God corrupt childhood? How is God showing up in our discourses about children and childhood today? While the demonic child has received a lot of attention, this volume is interested in a variety of angles about the relationship between God and children, our angelic children, such as the following, non-exclusive list:

• Spirituality
• Witchcraft
• Possession and Horror
• Parenting
• Soul
• Prayer
• Faith and Belief
• Schooling and Education
• Technology
• Cognitive Studies
• Mental Health
• Medicine (HIV and children)
• Mindfulness
• Buddhism
• Islam
• Christianity

Please submit a 350 word abstract, a short bio, and full contact information by 30 June 2018  to childrenandspirituality@gmail.com. Completed chapters are due 31 January 2019.

The collection is edited by Drs. Markus P.J. Bohlmann, professor of English at Seneca College, Toronto, and Debbie Olson, assistant professor of English at Missouri Valley College.