How We See God and Why It Matters: A Multicultural View Through Children's Drawings and Stories

This is a book about seeing the ultimate mystery as represented by the figure of God. It is not about religion per se, although it makes reference to many of the great religious traditions of the world and their gods. Rather, it is about the presence of the spiritual world and its inhabitants. The author’s aim is to attempt to answer the question, How do we see God? through engaging with the images created by a group of children from a number of different cultures and spiritual backgrounds. Through a two-year period, the author travelled the world interviewing more than 500 children, asking them to draw a picture of God, to act and speak as God, and to tell a story about God. This text is a documentation of that journey into the lives and spiritual beliefs of children. Throughout the book, a broad selection of pictures and stories by the children is reproduced and paraphrased. The author offers his own commentaries, not as an analyst in a psychological sense or critic in a literary one, but as a God-seeker trusting in the power of the image to reveal meaning. This unique book will be of primary interest to professionals in the field of psychology, especially child and family therapists, as well as art and drama therapy, sociology, and theology. The book will also have appeal to parents and children who are looking for ways to understand their belief systems in relationship to others.