Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts
Historically, the development of God concepts in human cognition has been explained anthropomorphically. In other words, for children especially, God is a big, super-human who lives in the sky. Recent empirical research on the development of these concepts may suggest an alternative hypothesis. In t...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Religious Research Association
2003
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| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1826273236004896768 |
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| author | Barrett, J Richert, R |
| author_facet | Barrett, J Richert, R |
| author_sort | Barrett, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Historically, the development of God concepts in human cognition has been explained anthropomorphically. In other words, for children especially, God is a big, super-human who lives in the sky. Recent empirical research on the development of these concepts may suggest an alternative hypothesis. In this paper, we review this research and outline the "preparedness hypothesis," which suggests that children may be cognitively equipped to understand some properties of God in a non-anthropomorphic way. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:25:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:566993fb-605c-46a0-83ab-705be500a761 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:25:07Z |
| publishDate | 2003 |
| publisher | Religious Research Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:566993fb-605c-46a0-83ab-705be500a7612022-03-26T16:50:04ZAnthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God conceptsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:566993fb-605c-46a0-83ab-705be500a761Theology and ReligionAnthropologyPsychologyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetReligious Research Association2003Barrett, JRichert, RHistorically, the development of God concepts in human cognition has been explained anthropomorphically. In other words, for children especially, God is a big, super-human who lives in the sky. Recent empirical research on the development of these concepts may suggest an alternative hypothesis. In this paper, we review this research and outline the "preparedness hypothesis," which suggests that children may be cognitively equipped to understand some properties of God in a non-anthropomorphic way. |
| spellingShingle | Theology and Religion Anthropology Psychology Barrett, J Richert, R Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title | Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title_full | Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title_fullStr | Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title_short | Anthropomorphism or preparedness? Exploring children's God concepts |
| title_sort | anthropomorphism or preparedness exploring children s god concepts |
| topic | Theology and Religion Anthropology Psychology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT barrettj anthropomorphismorpreparednessexploringchildrensgodconcepts AT richertr anthropomorphismorpreparednessexploringchildrensgodconcepts |