Children's God Representations: Are Anthropomorphic God Figures Only Human?

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_17C3B141F460
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Children's God Representations: Are Anthropomorphic God Figures Only Human?
Title of the book
When Children Draw Gods
Author(s)
Dessart Grégory
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
ISBN
9783030944285
9783030944292
ISSN
2367-3494
2367-3508
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Pages
45-67
Language
english
Abstract
In many religious traditions, anthropomorphism plays a central role in visual representations of the divine. As suggested by the notion of minimally coun- terintuitive properties (e.g., Boyer, Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cogni- tion and culture, New York, pp. 391–411, 1994), some peculiar ontological arrangements (e.g., ontological violations) tend to characterize religious representa- tions. In the case of human-like God figures, such ontological peculiarities may consist of either: a combination of humanness and non-humanness (e.g., a human figure with wings), or a lack of central characteristics presenting qualities that are central to the human category (e.g., a face). The former corresponds to Guthrie’s (Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion, New York, 1993) observation of the recurrent sameness-otherness combination with the human being to depict the divine. Such conceptual arrangements may change across a child’s development. However, research on children’s God representations has systematically considered anthropomorphic figures as distinct from non-anthropomorphic ones. The current work proposes a revised developmental model that accounts for domain-specific properties used by children to signify the special position of God as compared to human beings. That model is particularly appropriate to consider God representa- tions as depicted in children’s drawings.
Open Access
Yes
Create date
30/08/2023 8:11
Last modification date
31/08/2023 6:08
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