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First Communion is generally understood as a rite of passage in which seven- and eight-year-old Catholic children transform from baptized participants in the Church to members of the body of Christ, the universal Catholic Church. This official Church account, however, ignores what the rite actually may mean to its participants. In When I Was a Child, Susan Ridgely Bales demonstrates that the accepted understanding of a religious ritual can shift dramatically when one considers the often neglected perspective of child participants.
Bales followed Faith Formation classes and interviewed communicants, parents, and priests in an African American parish and in a parish containing both white and Latino congregations. By letting the children speak for themselves through their words, drawings, and actions, When I Was a Child stresses the importance of rehearsal, the centrality of sensory experiences, and the impact of expectations in the communicants' interpretations of the Eucharist. In the first sustained ethnographic study of how children interpret and help shape their own faith, Bales finds that children's perspectives give new contours to the traditional understanding of a common religious ritual. Ultimately, she argues that scholars of religion should consider age as distinct a factor as race, class, and gender in their analyses.
Bales followed Faith Formation classes and interviewed communicants, parents, and priests in an African American parish and in a parish containing both white and Latino congregations. By letting the children speak for themselves through their words, drawings, and actions, When I Was a Child stresses the importance of rehearsal, the centrality of sensory experiences, and the impact of expectations in the communicants' interpretations of the Eucharist. In the first sustained ethnographic study of how children interpret and help shape their own faith, Bales finds that children's perspectives give new contours to the traditional understanding of a common religious ritual. Ultimately, she argues that scholars of religion should consider age as distinct a factor as race, class, and gender in their analyses.
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"[Bales] blends a thoughtful ethnographic look at first communicants in two North Carolina churches."-- Chronicle of Higher Education
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In this ethnographic study of children's religious lives, Bales listens to children's own perspectives on the ritual of first communion. Based on work in an urban African American congregation and in a white and Latino congregation, Bales argues that age should be a factor as distinct as race, class, and gender are to scholars of religion.
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- PublisherThe University of North Carolina Press
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0807829714
- ISBN 13 9780807829714
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages272
- Rating
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When I Was a Child: Children's Interpretations of First Communion
Published by
University of North Carolina Press
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0807829714
ISBN 13: 9780807829714
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Hardcover
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.98. Seller Inventory # G0807829714I4N00
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