The Child and His Religion
 
 ■>
 
 The Child and His 
 Religion 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE E. DAWSON, PH.D. 
 
 Professor of Psychology 
 Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy 
 
 /^^^7 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 
 1909
 
 Copyright 1909 By 
 The University of Chicago 
 
 Published October 1909 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A.
 
 1)3 Z-^ 
 
 TO 
 MY WIFE AND CHILDREN, WHO, THROUGHOUT 
 THE YEARS, HAVE SUPPLIED MOST OF THE IN- 
 SPIRATION, AND MUCH OF THE MATERIAL, OF MY 
 THOUGHT, THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The material of this book is largely drawn from 
 magazine articles and addresses already given to 
 the public. Chap, iii, on "Children's Interest in 
 the Bible," is substantially the same as originally 
 published in the Pedagogical Seminary for July, 1900, 
 Vol. VII. The other chapters present in modified 
 form the material contained in various articles and 
 addresses. Friends of the writer have expressed the 
 wish that this material might be put in more acces- 
 sible form, and there has been a certain public demand 
 for the article on " Children's Interest in the Bible." 
 Herein lies the reason for publishing the book. 
 
 In bringing this material together for publication 
 in book form, no hope has been cherished of making 
 it a finished product. The book lacks unity, but 
 it is believed that the various chapters discuss topics 
 that have a certain relationship, through the central 
 aim of the writer to bring the so-called natural 
 processes of life and education into harmony with 
 the religious processes. If the book appears some- 
 what controversial in places, it is a fault of style 
 rather than of spirit. The writer's acquaintance 
 with the unsettled conditions of religious and educa- 
 tional thought of the present is too intimate to allow 
 of his being a dogmatist. The book is given out 
 in the hope that it may help to strengthen the reli- 
 gious and educational views of those who agree with
 
 viii Preface 
 
 it, that it may provoke a friendly comparison of 
 judgments from those who do not agree with it, and 
 that it may stimulate all its readers to think out for 
 themselves the problem of religious education. 
 
 The writer is grateful for permission, generously 
 given by President G. Stanley Hall, editor of the 
 Pedagogical Seminary, to reproduce the article on 
 "Children's Interest in the Bible." 
 
 George E. Dawson 
 
 ■ Springfield, Mass. 
 October i, 1908
 
 CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values .... i 
 
 Interest and the educational reformers; Herbart's 
 doctrine of interest; The biological conception of in- 
 terest; The sequence of interests; Atrophy of inter- 
 ests; Opposition to the doctrine of interest; Study of 
 children's interests in secular education; Interest and 
 religious education. 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 The Natural Religion of Children ... 25 
 
 Natural religion and the doctrine of interest in educa- 
 tional history; Science and natural religion; Animism 
 in children; The sense of causality; The instinct of 
 immortality; The faith and good-will of children. 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 Children's Interest in the Bible .... 53 
 
 The Bible and religious education; Children's choice 
 between the Old and the New Testament; Choice 
 among the books of the Bible; Choice of Bible scenes, 
 stories, ^and characters; Development of interest in 
 Jesus; Conclusions. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Problem of Religious Education ... 99 
 
 Complexity of the problem; Suggestions from secular 
 education; The aim of religious education; The 
 material of religious education; The method of reli- 
 gious education; Conclusion. 
 
 Index 121
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 J J ^i % ' j V -J 
 INTEREST AS a .».i:;.SfIl"^. OF ^/MJJES 
 
 The economy of interest 'in education has for 
 centuries attracted the attention of educators. Long 
 before it was definitely formulated by Herbart as a 
 pedagogical doctrine, it had a prominent place in 
 the thought both of educational theorists and of 
 practical teachers. In fact, its history is a part of 
 the general movement of educational reform, begun 
 by Rabelais in the sixteenth century, and still work- 
 ing itself out in current civilization. It is in the 
 light of this general movement in educational history 
 that we may best understand the origin and signifi- 
 cance of interest as an educational doctrine, 
 v^ Interest and the educational reformers. — The early 
 ^ educational reformers revolted against the dogmatic 
 V and artificial education of their time — with its 
 L enslavement to books and routine instruction, its 
 • stress upon formal discipline, and its repression of 
 ^ children's individuality. Varying from generation 
 to generation, the issues raised by these men have 
 been the centers of controversy down to the present 
 time. Many of them are still unsettled. What 
 is called the "New Education" is still making its 
 demands for more modern branches of study, more 
 practical preparation for life, and a more liberal 
 regime of scholarship and discipline. What is
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 called the "Old Education" is still contending for 
 the classical languages and mathematics, formal 
 discipline, and academic standards of learning and 
 instruction generally, Bu-t throughout these cen- 
 turies of controversy and cha.nge, the motive force 
 of educational reform has not been primarily peda- 
 gogical. It has been rather the impulse springing 
 from a changed attitude toward human life. The 
 fundamental characteristic of the first educational 
 reformers was their respect and reverence for the 
 natural, spontaneous tendencies of the soul. They 
 challenged the age-long assumption that human 
 nature was evil in its constitution, and that the begin- 
 ning and end of education was to destroy the natural 
 qualities, and create, in their stead, a character 
 radically different. They brought to light not 
 merely, or chiefly, a larger understanding of the 
 human soul, but more especially a larger faith in its 
 intrinsic worth. Here is the origin of the view that 
 the natural interests of children are worthy of respect, 
 and that they should be taken into account in all 
 educational programmes. Moreover, it is probably 
 true, in the main, that from Rabelais to the present 
 time men's attitude toward the problem of interest 
 has been primarily determined by what they have 
 thought of human nature. It has been a measure 
 of their faith in the innate goodness and sanity of 
 man's life. 
 
 The period of civilization during which the old, 
 formal system of education was established is
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 3 
 
 identical with what has been called "The Age of 
 Faith." But this faith was narrowly limited in its 
 outlook. It did not include human nature in its 
 survey, nor the objects and forces of the material 
 world. The men who shaped the early systems of 
 Christian education and philosophy had little rever- 
 ence for what is natural and spontaneous in man's 
 life. They believed that the natural inclinations 
 were wrong, and that they must be changed into 
 harmony with the arbitrary ideals of human life that 
 had become standardized in the theological and 
 philosophical thought of the time. It was therefore 
 not only absurd but dangerous to base the control of 
 life, in any degree, upon natural desires and capa- 
 cities. 
 
 The type of education resulting from such an 
 estimate of human nature is well described in these 
 words of Professor Monroe: 
 
 The old conception of education aimed to remake the 
 nature of the child by forcing upon him the traditional or 
 customary way of thinking, of doing, and even of emotional 
 reaction; to substitute for the instinctive or natural reaction 
 of the child those artificial reactions developed through many 
 generations of religious, intellectual, and social formalism. 
 Human affections were evil, and hence the heart was to be 
 separated from the objects of natural desire. Human senses 
 were untrustworthy, and hence could not be made the basis 
 of knowledge or of instruction. Human inclinations and in- 
 stincts, springing from a nature depraved in its essence, 
 were toward the evil and were to be eradicated. Natural 
 interests, as expressions of the nature which both education 
 and religion sought to repress and make over, were to be
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 shunned in all educational processes. To the extent that an 
 activity or task was difficult to perform intellectually and was 
 distasteful emotionally, to this extent it possessed educational 
 value. The first step in the moral education was to "break 
 the will of the child," which in its perverseness but represented 
 the evil of human nature. This was to be followed in his 
 social and moral education by the constant effort to mold the 
 child into the artificial forms of conduct wherein a real and 
 natural motive was hidden in formal behavior satisfactory to 
 the judgment of the adult, even though it might conceal a 
 motive contradictory to the external expression.' 
 
 This is the type of education satirized by Rabelais 
 in his Gargantua, where he makes his bookish hero 
 spend five years and three months in learning his 
 letters so well that he could repeat them in every 
 possible order; thirteen years, six months, and two 
 weeks more in learning to read a variety of Latin 
 authors, as unintelligible as they were uninteresting 
 to him; eighteen years and eleven months in master- 
 ing the commentaries of certain learned scholastics 
 so that he could say them over either forward or 
 backward and understand them as well one way 
 as the other; and, finally, sixteen years and two 
 months in learning various formulae for computing 
 the age of the moon and the recurrence of religious 
 festivals. It is against this type of education, too, 
 that Rabelais' larger and more genial faith in human 
 nature protests when he takes Gargantua away from 
 the books and pedantry of scholastic instruction and 
 sends him into the fields to study the creatures and 
 
 • Textbook in the History of Education, p. 566.
 
 Interest as a Measure oj Values 5 
 
 forces of nature; into the workshops to learn the 
 structure of wood, stone, and metals, and the process 
 of their manufacture; and out upon the playground 
 to secure vigor of body and mind through free and 
 spontaneous exercise in the open air. 
 
 Of the same spirit of protest was Montaigne, 
 another French educational reformer of the sixteenth 
 century. Says this writer : 
 
 The thing a boy should learn is not what the old authors 
 say, but what he himself ought to do when he becomes a 
 man. Wisdom, not knowledge! We may become learned 
 from the learning of others; wise we can never be except by 
 our own wisdom. We are truly learned from knowing the 
 present, not from knowing the past. And yet we toil only 
 to stuff the memory and leave the conscience and the under- 
 standing void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage for grain 
 and bring it home in their beak, without tasting it themselves, 
 to feed their young, so our pedants go picking knowledge 
 here and there out of various authors, and hold it at their 
 tongue's end, only to spit it out and distribute it amongst 
 their pupils. ' 
 
 So, too, Comenius, the great Moravian bishop and 
 educator, whose system of instruction was based 
 upon the broadest possible appeal to the natural 
 impulses of the soul. He was the first to see, in a 
 large comprehensive way, that the content and 
 method of education ought to be made significant 
 and attractive to children. He would consider the 
 fundamental desires of the mind, and shape these 
 into an eagerness for learning in every possible way. 
 
 ' Du pedantisme, Book J, chap. xxiv.
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 The parents should praise learning and learned men, 
 show children beautiful books, and treat teachers 
 with respect. The teacher should be kind and 
 fatherly, should distribute praise and reward judi- 
 ciously, and should always, where possible, keep 
 beautiful and attractive objects before the child. 
 The school buildings should be light, airy, and 
 cheerful, and well furnished with apparatus, as 
 pictures, maps, models, and collections of specimens. 
 The subjects taught should not be too hard for 
 the learner's comprehension, and the more enter- 
 taining parts of them should be especially dwelt 
 upon. The method should be natural, and every- 
 thing that is not essential to the subject or is 
 beyond the pupil should be omitted. The whole 
 philosophy of interest as affecting the spirit and 
 method of education is summed up in these words 
 of Comenius: 
 
 Education should be conducted without blows, rigour, or 
 compulsion, as gently and pleasantly as possible, and in the 
 most natural manner (just as a living body increases in size 
 without any straining or forcible extension of the limbs; since 
 if food, care, and exercise are properly supplied, the body 
 grows and becomes strong, gradually, imperceptibly, and of 
 its own accord. In the same way I maintain that nutriment,/ 
 care, and exercise, prudently supplied to the mind, lead it 
 naturally to wisdom, virtue and piety). The education given 
 should not be false but real, not superficial but thorough; 
 that is to say, the rational animal, man, should be guided not by 
 the intellects of other men, but by his own; should not merely 
 read the opinions of others and grasp their meaning or commit 
 them to memory and repeat them, but should himself pene-
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 7 
 
 trate to the root of things and acquire the habit of genuinely 
 understanding and making use of what he learns.' 
 
 This spirit of reverence for what is elemental 
 and natural in human life, and disposition to be 
 guided by it in directing the education of children, is 
 shared by all the great educational reformers. It 
 separates them by centuries from the contemporary 
 philosophers and theologians, and makes them 
 prophets not only of a new education but also of a 
 new philosophy of life. As a general attitude, or 
 type of faith, it culminates, perhaps, in Rousseau. 
 This writer, however erratic and unbalanced he may 
 have been, nevertheless said the things that needed 
 to be said to his generation. To a man of Rousseau's 
 sensibilities, contemplating the French civilization 
 of the eighteenth century, with its formalism in edu- 
 cation and religion, and its veneer of cant and hypoc- 
 risy covering every possible corruption in civic and 
 social life, the opening words of his Emile may well 
 have seemed literally true: " Everything is good as it 
 comes from the hands of the Author of Nature, but 
 everything degenerates in the hands of man." This 
 sentence epitomizes Rousseau's philosophy of educa- 
 tion. Man perverts and spoils everything he lays 
 his hands upon. He goes forth with his ignorant 
 conceit, and his false theories of what ought to be 
 done, and he mars the fair face of Nature wherever 
 he touches it. There is nothing to do but stop this 
 sort of thing; revere nature; watch her ways; help 
 
 ' The Great Didactic, chap. xii.
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 her betimes, but, for the most part, let her alone; 
 at any rate, keep out of her way. All that other 
 educational reformers had felt, and expressed in 
 terms more or less general, about the natural worth 
 of the human soul, and the educational economy of 
 making use of its interests, Rousseau literally burned 
 into the minds and hearts of his own and succeeding 
 generations, by his impassioned eloquence. 
 
 Herbarfs doctrine of interest. — But it remained for 
 Herbart, the German psychologist, to think out the 
 mental values of interest, and to formulate them into 
 an educational doctrine. It is here as elsewhere in 
 human experience. Men grope their way through 
 feeling and conviction to a rational explanation and 
 justification of what they have felt and believed. 
 Rabelais and Montaigne felt instinctively the worth 
 of what is original and spontaneous in human nature. 
 In Comenius and Rousseau this feeling became 
 crystallized into a definite conviction. Now, at the 
 hands of Herbart, interest was given a rational 
 explanation, and assigned its place in educational 
 economy. Herbart regarded education as essen- 
 tially a process of assimilating new experience in such 
 a way as to unify the mental content and make it 
 meaningful and effective. This process he called 
 apperception; and the feeling-accompaniment of 
 apperception, the thing that makes experience signifi- 
 cant and so capable of being assimilated, he called 
 interest. Interest for Herbart thus becomes the 
 center of educational effort. It is the mainspring of
 
 Interest as a Measure oj Values g 
 
 attention, memory, and all other mental activities 
 involved in education. If the subject-matter and 
 methods of instruction fall within the limits of a 
 child's interests, he will give his attention to the 
 instruction and assimilate its content. EflQcient 
 mental activity is not otherwise possible in education. 
 The biological conception of interest. — From the 
 point of view of psychological analysis, little has been 
 added to Herbart's conception of interest. Various 
 disciples have worked out his views in greater detail, 
 and some have enlarged upon them in the direction 
 of a more comprehensive view of interest. The 
 tendency of Herbart's disciples, however, has been 
 to emphasize the more conscious and intellectual 
 phases of interest, as was the case with Herbart 
 himself. Their reasoning upon this subject has been 
 guided essentially by psychological standards. With 
 the development of the biological sciences, however, 
 and their application to the study of mental growth 
 in the lower animals, primitive races, and children, 
 new light has been shed upon the problem of interest. 
 It is beginning to be seen that interest is not funda- 
 mentally a psychological function at all, but a bio- 
 logical function. It is not primarily a mental activity 
 having for its object the assimilation of knowledge. 
 It is rather a reaction of the whole life, consciously or 
 unconsciously, in the direction of those adjustments 
 that insure survival. From this point of view, 
 interest may be defined as biological responsiveness. 
 This responsiveness may include every degree of con-
 
 lo The Child and His Religion 
 
 sciousness, from the most elementary to the most 
 complex. Just as human activities range from the 
 reflex to the fully conscious, and just as every spon- 
 taneous activity is directed by that responsiveness to 
 stimuli that are economical, so does interest enter 
 into every possible adaptation. It is just as narrow 
 a conception of interest to limit it to conscious feeling 
 of values, as some writers have done, as it is to limit 
 mental activity as a whole to conscious processes. It 
 may be said that there is no practical advantage for 
 education in thus making interest extend beyond 
 the limits of intellectual perception. But there is a 
 very great advantage. The entire question of indi- 
 rect, or unconscious, education — of the influence of 
 environment, automatically and instinctively reacted 
 to; of suggestion and imitation — hinges upon uncon- 
 scious interest. 
 
 The mechanism of interest conceived as biological 
 responsiveness is the organic life, and, more espe- 
 cially, the nervous system. Herein are stored up the 
 experiences of the race that are most significant for 
 human survival, and these racial experiences come 
 to light now in the primary reflexes, now in instincts, 
 and now in the gropings of the intellect. Thus it is 
 that the new-born child makes just the reactions to 
 its environment that are necessary, and through such 
 reflex, or automatic, activities its interests are satis- 
 fied. Thus it is that the older child, half-consciously, 
 through such instincts as fear, sympathy, and play, 
 reacts to its environment according to the demands
 
 Interest as a Measure oj Values 1 1 
 
 of its nature, and so satisfies its interests. And thus, 
 too, the adult man or woman, carrying forward the 
 reflex and instinctive activities and interests of the 
 earlier years, adds the conscious, rationally directed 
 activities, and so satisfies his or her interests as 
 intellectually perceived. 
 
 The sequence of interests. — We have here a sug- 
 gestion that the interests of life appear in a certain 
 order, or sequence, just as the needs and activities 
 appear with which they are correlated. Thus the 
 child lives first in a world of reflex and instinctive 
 experience. Its interests are confined to physical 
 comfort, to eating and sleeping, to its fears, its 
 repugnances, its sympathies. Then is added the 
 world of sense and motor experience, and its interests 
 widen with its tactual, visual, and auditory sensa- 
 tions. Finally, there is opened up to it the world of 
 ideal relations — of imagination, reason, and con- 
 science — and its interests become intellectual, artistic, 
 and moral. An illustration of the parallelism between 
 interest and organic development is seen in the 
 child's learning to walk. As the motor centers 
 controlling the movements necessary to walking 
 mature, the child becomes keenly interested in every 
 activity that increases his ability to walk. So it is 
 with talking. The speech centers in the brain, and 
 the nervous and muscular mechanism of the vocal 
 organs, reach a certain stage of development, and 
 the child becomes interested in making sounds, 
 imitating the language of others, and so of acquiring
 
 12 The Child and His Religion 
 
 the power of speech. Still more striking is the 
 illustration seen in the ripening of sexual interests. 
 Parallel with the functioning of the sexual centers in 
 the spinal cord and brain, and the changes in general 
 organic development, there appears a vast complex 
 of automatic and instinctive tendencies, which 
 involve some of the most powerful interests in human 
 life. The entire attitude toward the opposite sex is 
 changed. New habits of dress, new manners, and 
 new modes of social activity are formed. Ambitions 
 and the very ideals of life are modified, and the whole 
 world takes on a different shading in its values. 
 
 The atrophy of interest. — As a corollary of this law 
 of sequence in interests, there is a law of decay, or 
 atrophy, of interests. As with other functions of 
 life, if an interest is not satisfied, it will tend to grow 
 feebler and finally disappear. This atrophy of 
 interests is surest and quickest in its results when the 
 interest first manifests itself. Thus a newly hatched 
 chick will peck at everything that suggests food. 
 Its reflex nervous mechanism is ripe for pecking, and 
 it has the associated pecking interest. But if the 
 chick is prevented from pecking for a few days, it 
 will lose both the power of pecking and the interest 
 in doing so. Thereafter, food must be put into its 
 mouth to keep it alive. When a child has reached 
 a certain stage of development, it shows an interest 
 in trying to stand on its feet and walk. If, for any 
 reason it is prevented from doing so, the interest will 
 gradually diminish and may in time fade out entirely.
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 13 
 
 This is illustrated in the so-called wild children,^ 
 who, being deprived in early life of human compan- 
 ionship, have not had the exarnple of upright posture 
 and locomotion. I once saw a little girl of three 
 years who was unable to walk or even stand alone. 
 She would make no attempt to do either and seemed 
 to have absolutely no interest in getting up on her 
 feet or walking. The child seemed perfectly well, 
 and her parents had become very anxious about her. 
 Inquiry revealed the fact that when she was nine 
 months old, the little girl had been injured by a fall, 
 and had been kept very closely confined for six 
 months, at first in her crib and later in a high chair, 
 never being allowed to stand on her feet. When she 
 was at last put upon the floor, she began her creeping 
 just as she had been in the habit of doing six months 
 before. Nor did she show any disposition to do 
 otherwise than creep, even after her strength had 
 been fully recovered. It required several months of 
 careful attention on the part of the parents, in exer- 
 cising her in standing and walking, to awaken any 
 interest whatsoever in these activities. This law 
 of atrophy through disuse undoubtedly operates 
 throughout the entire range of human interests, not 
 only in those interests more closely related to organic 
 life, but also in the intellectual, moral, and religious 
 interests. It is manifestly of great concern to par- 
 ents and others who have the care of children that 
 all normal interests be given a chance to function at 
 
 I Cf. Cornish, Animals at Work and Play, pp. 315-23.
 
 14 The Child and His Religion 
 
 the right time and in the right way. There can be 
 no question that intellectual sluggishness and moral 
 and religious indifference are frequently due to an 
 atrophy of interest at those periods of life when the 
 intellectual, moral, and religious ideas and feelings 
 are awakening. It is probably a literal scientific fact 
 that a child's interest in God or some phase of moral 
 conduct is as completely subject to the law of atrophy 
 as the chick's pecking interest or the child's interest 
 in walking. 
 
 The biological view of interest, therefore, identifies 
 it with the vital needs of life. Interest is a measure 
 of survival values. The interested individual lives 
 and grows; the uninterested individual dies. That 
 subject-matter in education and those methods of 
 instruction that lay hold upon the interests of chil- 
 dren, promote life and growth. That subject-matter, 
 those methods of instruction that do not lay hold 
 upon the interests of children, produce arrest of 
 development and death. Thus does a scientific 
 estimate of the primary economy of interest confirm 
 the instinctive convictions of the educational re- 
 formers. The protest of these men against a view 
 of life, and a type of education, that regarded human 
 nature as intrinsically evil, and the great elemental 
 interests of the soul as false and dangerous, was not 
 only broadly human and sympathetic; it was also 
 true. 
 
 Opposition to the doctrine of interest. — If, then, the 
 doctrine of interest in education has the sanction of
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 15 
 
 four centuries of educational reform; if, according 
 to Herbart and his followers, it is indispensable to 
 the mental processes involved in education; and if, 
 according to biological psychology, it is an index of 
 the significance and value of experience, how comes 
 it that it is still vigorously opposed as a principle of 
 education and conduct? One reason, and the 
 principal one, has already been given. Real interest 
 is fundamentally a natural reaction of the soul. It 
 therefore comes under condemnation along with 
 everything else that belongs to the category of the 
 natural. As we have found, there was a time in the 
 history of Christian civilization when human nature 
 was regarded as utterly vile and depraved. It is 
 less than two hundred years since Jonathan Edwards, 
 the greatest of American theologians, said: "God 
 has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise, 
 to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. 
 Natural men are held in the hand of God over the 
 pit of hell. They have deserved the fiery pit and are 
 already sentenced to it."' Such a view of human 
 nature is certainly sufficient to account for much of 
 the antagonism toward the doctrine of interest. To 
 a man who thought thus of the "natural man," any 
 suggestion that the spontaneous interests of children, 
 who are in the highest degree natural, are significant 
 guides in their care and training, would seem little 
 short of blasphemous. While the conception of 
 human nature as a thing intrinsically evil is rapidly 
 I Sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
 
 1 6 The Child and His Religion 
 
 fading from the modern mind, there are still some 
 people, influential in intellectual and social life, who 
 talk about education and parental government as 
 though they believed in innate depravity. And 
 there are not a few men and women who evince a 
 lurking suspicion that it is not safe to trust the lead- 
 ings of a boy's interests either in education or every- 
 day conduct. 
 
 But a belief in innate depravity is not usually given 
 as a reason for rejecting the doctrine of interest. The 
 more common one is, that to consult the interests of 
 children means to follow the lines of least resistance, 
 and this means to weaken the will. This reason 
 assumes that if a task is interesting the effort put 
 forth in its execution will be less. But the fact is 
 that interest increases effort. A classic illustration 
 of this truth is the play of children. Play in the 
 child's life realizes completely the idea of many- 
 sided interest, and yet it is just the form of activity 
 that calls forth the most complete self-expression and 
 stimulates the greatest effort. Everybody who has 
 observed the plays of children knows that a healthy, 
 enthusiastic boy on the playground is tireless and 
 indefatigable in his efforts. A like principle holds 
 in the work of adults. What man in practical 
 life believes that his efforts are greater and more 
 sustained if his work is uninteresting and dis- 
 tasteful to him? Quite the opposite is true. 
 Edison, the inventor, is probably one of the 
 hardest workers in America, and he is probably
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 1 7 
 
 one of the most completely absorbed in the interest 
 of his tasks. 
 
 From the point of view of education, the fact that 
 a study is interesting is not proof that it diminishes 
 effort. Interest is indissolubly bound up with atten- 
 tion, and, as Professor James contends, attention is 
 the center of will. Interest, indeed, does not pro- 
 duce the effortless dawdlers in schoolrooms, as every 
 practical teacher knows. It is the indifferent pupils, 
 the uninterested ones, that dawdle over their work; 
 and it is just these who are apt to suffer in a deteriora- 
 tion of will. The truth is there is no really effective 
 effort in education, or elsewhere, without a deep, 
 fundamental interest in the work. Interest, indeed, 
 economizes energy and makes a task easier. But 
 this does not mean that effort is less intense while 
 the task lasts. It means the contrary. And when 
 the task is completed in less time, and with a less 
 expenditure of energy, there is time and energy 
 available for other tasks. No small amount of 
 human energy has been wasted in trying to achieve 
 the merit of lifeless drudgery; and not a few failures 
 in human life have been due to choosing for children 
 the path of greatest resistance simply because it was 
 the most difficult. 
 
 This is no plea for shirking a disagreeable task. 
 Things must be done sometimes that seem uninter- 
 esting and cruelly hard. But if the life has been 
 made strong through achieving its ends along the 
 lines of its desires, it will face the occasional hard and
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 uninteresting tasks in the joy of mastering difficul- 
 ties. On the other hand, if a child is trained under 
 a regime of uninteresting tasks, if it is kept involved 
 in difficulties for the sake of inuring it to hardships, 
 its spirit will suffer from an atrophy of desires, 
 its life w^ill lack motive and intensity, and vi^hile it 
 may go through the hard crises of life uncomplain- 
 ingly and with what seems to be the spirit of a martyr, 
 its fortitude will be due not so much to heroism as to 
 apathy. 
 
 But there is another reason assigned for rejecting 
 the doctrine of interest. It is asserted that some 
 interests are undeniably bad. This is true, but such 
 interests come under the general law of perverted 
 functions and are quite apart from the normal 
 standards of life. I have defined interest as "bio- 
 logical responsiveness." That is to say, it is a func- 
 tion correlated with every vital process. If, then, 
 any vital process be perverted, the interests correlated 
 with such process will also be perverted. Thus 
 there are nutritive interests associated with the 
 process of nutrition. The child craves food, and, 
 under normal conditions, this craving has correlated 
 with it interests that are healthy. But through some 
 perversion of the nutritive process, either hereditary 
 or acquired, or through some ill-advised gratification 
 of appetite that has excited nervous sensations which 
 have resulted in a perversion of appetite, it may 
 crave food that is harmful. In such case, its nutri- 
 tive interests will be abnormal. Or, again, there
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 19 
 
 are interests associated with the child's emotional 
 life, as those correlated with fear, anger, love, etc. 
 Thus the child craves the companionship and affec- 
 tion of other children, and, under normal conditions, 
 its craving is a healthy one. But there may be 
 some twist in its affectional life. It may be too 
 affectionate, or its affections may seek an outlet 
 through wrong channels. In such case, the child's 
 social interests will be abnormal. So it is with all 
 the various classes of interest. Intrinsically, they 
 are all good. Bad interests are perverted or diseased 
 forms, and the cure lies not in suppression, but in 
 seeking out the cause of the perversion and removing 
 it. A boy's interest in athletics, for instance, or a 
 girl's interest in dress, to such a degree that their 
 high-school work is interfered with, cannot be most 
 satisfactorily regulated by attempting to eradicate 
 it. It is primarily a healthy interest, and has become 
 harmful only through excess. The remedy lies in 
 discovering the causes of this excess and removing 
 them. 
 
 Study oj children's interest in secular education. — 
 The doctrine of interest has now been so generally 
 accepted by progressive secular educators, that the 
 branches ordinarily taught in the public schools are 
 being scrutinized in a new light. The entire ques- 
 tion as to the choice and gradation of lesson-material 
 is being reopened. Both educational experts, and 
 teachers practically engaged in schoolroom work, are 
 testing in various ways the educational values of the
 
 20 The Child and His Religion 
 
 subjects taught and their adaptation to the different 
 levels of feeling and intelligence. Thus the ele- 
 mentary interests of children in the qualities of 
 objects, such as use, action, color, form, and the like 
 have been studied by Binet/ Barnes,^ and Shaw.^ 
 The distribution of interests among the subjects of 
 the public-school curriculum has been studied by 
 Taylor.-* Children's interests in the reading-matter 
 of the school curriculum, as well as their general 
 literary interests, have been studied by Wissler,s 
 Miss Chase, '^ and Kirkpatrick.' Miss Ward^ has 
 studied the geographical interests; Mrs. Barnes,^ 
 the historical interests; and Miss Gates, '° the musical 
 interests. Play interests have been studied by Presi- 
 dent Hall," Ellis and Hall," Gulick,^^ Mrs. Burke, ^^ 
 and others. The puzzle interest, as showing the 
 
 ■ Revue philosophique, December, 1890. 
 
 3 The Pacific Educational Journal, February, 1896. 
 
 3 Child-Study Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 152-67. 
 
 4 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 497-511. 
 s Ibid., pp. 523-40. 
 
 (> Proceedings N. E. A., 1898, pp. 1011-15. 
 
 7 Northwestern Monthly, Vol. VIII, pp. 651-54; Vol. IX, 
 pp. 188-91, 338-42. 
 
 8 Education, Vol. XVIII, pp. 235-40. 
 
 Barnes' Studies in Education, Vol. I, pp. 83-93. 
 ^^'° Journal of Pedagogy, Vol. II, pp. 265-84. 
 ' ' Scribner's Magazine, Vol. Ill, pp. 690-96. 
 " Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 129-75. 
 '3 Ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 135-51. 
 '* Northwestern Monthly, Vol. IX, pp. 349-55.
 
 Interest as a Measure of Values 21 
 
 more complex intellectual interests of children, has 
 been studied by Lindley.' O'Shea^ has studied 
 children's interests in pictures, myths, and nature 
 literature. While their interests as revealed in ideals, 
 ambitions, choice of occupations, etc., have been 
 studied by Barnes,^ Miss Darrah,-* Monroe, ^ and 
 Jegi.*" The data derived from these and many 
 similar studies yield much concurrent testimony 
 regarding the nature and development of children's 
 spontaneous interests. Their influence has already 
 modified to a considerable extent the theory and 
 practice of secular education. They prove con- 
 clusively that the study of children's interests is a 
 profitable method of approach to the problem of 
 rational instruction. 
 
 Interest and religious education. — In religious 
 education, the doctrine of interest has not been so 
 widely accepted as in secular education. It is much 
 harder to get a sympathetic hearing on such a topic 
 before a body of religious teachers than before a body 
 of secular teachers. A few years ago, in addressing 
 a Sunday-school convention, I made the statement 
 that the Bible material chosen for use in the Sunday 
 schools ought to be adapted to the interests and intel- 
 
 1 American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VIII, pp. 431-93. 
 
 2 Child-Study Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 266 ff. 
 
 3 Northwestern Monthly, Vol. IX, pp. 91-93. 
 
 4 Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LIII, pp. 88-98. 
 s Education, Vol. XVIII, pp. 259-64. 
 
 ^ Transactions of the Illinois Society of Child-Study, Vol. Ill, 
 pp. 131-44-
 
 22 The Child and His Religion 
 
 ligence of the pupils. From the point of view of 
 most secular teachers, this statement was so common- 
 place as to have in it an element of humor. And 
 yet a man prominent in Sunday-school work chal- 
 lenged it vigorously, asserting, amidst considerable 
 applause, that children should be taught what they 
 ought to know in the Bible, and not what they wanted 
 to know. At one time, while attempting to collect 
 the opinions of teachers and others as to what por- 
 tions of the Bible are most attractive to children of 
 different ages and types, I sent a list of questions 
 to a prominent religious publication. The editor 
 replied that he could not publish it, he had no sym- 
 pathy with such an attempt, and did not believe in 
 selecting Bible material according to the likes or 
 dislikes of pupils. In the early Christian centuries, 
 a stern church Father became much incensed at 
 those who proposed to apply grammatical principles 
 to the interpretation of the Bible, and said he would 
 blush to have the Holy Scriptures subjected to the 
 rules of grammar. So, apparently, would this 
 editor blush to have the Holy Scriptures subjected 
 to the laws of human nature. The most extensive 
 organization in the world for the promotion of Bible- 
 study in the Sunday school has shaped its courses 
 of study from the beginning with complete disregard 
 for the interests and capacities of children. Only 
 within the past year has it yielded to the more pro- 
 gressive element in religious education, which has 
 now become strong enough to control the situation.
 
 Interest as a Measure oj Values 23 
 
 The tardiness of religious educators in accepting 
 a principle that secular education has incorporated 
 into its pedagogical creed, is not hard to understand. 
 We have found that throughout those centuries when 
 all education was under ecclesiastical control, 
 theology taught that the natural man was vile and 
 the natural interests of the human heart were not 
 to be trusted. The aim then was to repress and 
 eradicate these natural interests and to create a 
 man that should be conformed to religious, and not to 
 natural, standards. When secular education sepa- 
 rated itself from religious institutions, it was more 
 open to the influence of the changing views of human 
 nature. Science became its handmaid, moreover, 
 and has increasingly shaped its aims and given direc- 
 tion to its activities. But any suggestion that the 
 natural processes of life, of whatsoever kind, are not 
 to be trusted and utilized in education is repugnant 
 to science. Hence secular education, under the 
 influence of science, becomes more and more com- 
 mitted to natural aims and methods. Meanwhile, 
 religious education, sharing the age-long suspicions 
 of the church that naturalistic interpretations of 
 human life are wrong, and that science cannot 
 legitimately shape its ideals and methods, whatever 
 it may do with secular education, does not follow the 
 latter in its development, except in the most reluctant 
 and half-hearted manner. 
 
 But there are signs of a new era in religious educa- 
 tion, as there are signs of a new era in religious life
 
 24 The Child and His Religion 
 
 as a whole. Tendencies that have been operating 
 within the church from the beginning are culminat- 
 ing in a different view of the natural world. Men 
 are ceasing to believe in that sharp distinction be- 
 tween the natural and the supernatural in which 
 their fathers believed. They are coming to believe, 
 and believe fervently, that nature is the theater of 
 God's activity no less than what has been thought to 
 be outside of nature, and therefore cannot be evil. 
 They are coming to believe that earth and earth's 
 children are not in conflict with heaven and the chil- 
 dren of heaven. They are coming to believe that 
 the natural man is not, as Jonathan Edwards thought, 
 suspended over hell by an angry God, but rather a 
 creature of God's love and care — not an utterly bad 
 man at all, but a man trying to live his life out up to 
 the full level of his ability and opportunities. And 
 with these changed, and changing, convictions re- 
 garding nature and man, the church at its best is now 
 ready to recognize natural processes in religious 
 education, and in the regeneration of society, and to 
 welcome the aid of science in doing the work it is 
 appointed to do.' 
 
 ' For more extended discussions regarding the doctrine of in- 
 terest in education, see James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 
 chap, x; De Garmo, Interest in Education; O'Shea, Education as 
 Adjustment, pp. 146!?.; McMurry, Elements of General Method, 
 chap, iii; Dewey, Interest in Relation to Will (Herbart Yearbook, 
 1895); and Ostcrmann, Interest in Its Relation to Pedagogy.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE NATURAL RELIGION OF CHILDREN 
 
 The view that a child is naturally religious is a 
 part of the same general philosophy of life that under- 
 lies the doctrine of interest in education. According 
 to this philosophy, nature is the progressive unfold- 
 ment not only of material structures but also of 
 human values. It is a mode of spiritual activity. 
 Human life is a part of the cosmic order, and is sub- 
 ject to the same laws that control the movements of 
 electrons within an atom or the revolutions of the solar 
 system. All that can ever be in man's world is 
 implicit in nature. This is no more than to assert 
 in psychological terms the law of the conservation 
 of energy. Hence those who accept this philosophy, 
 have never found it hard to believe that the natural 
 interests of children are intrinsically healthy, and 
 under normal conditions, are safe guides in their 
 training and care. Hence, too, those who accept 
 this philosophy have always sought in the child the 
 germs of religion, as of everything else that enters into 
 the life of the adult man or woman. 
 
 Natural religion and the doctrine of interest in 
 educational history. — Accordingly, the doctrine of 
 interest and the belief in natural religion have had 
 a similar history. The latter has received more at- 
 tention from theology, and the former from educa- 
 
 25
 
 26 The Child and His Religion 
 
 tion. But of every generation of theologians and 
 educators it may be said that the two behefs have 
 been closely associated both in the minds of indi- 
 viduals and in systems of thought. It is not surpris- 
 ing, therefore, though none the less significant, that 
 the history of educational reform should support not 
 only the doctrine of interest, as we have found in the 
 previous chapter, but also the belief in the child's 
 natural religion. Thus Sir Francis Bacon, whose 
 philosophical writings have had a large influence in 
 the development of inductive reasoning and in the 
 whole movement of modern science, identified reli- 
 gious processes with those of nature. He believed 
 that the rational powers of man's soul are divine and 
 that man realizes himself religiously, as otherwise, 
 through natural means. A more comprehensive 
 statement of this view of human life has perhaps 
 never been made than is contained in Bacon's first 
 aphorism: 
 
 Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and 
 understands as much as his observations on the order of 
 nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, 
 and neither knows nor is capable of more.' 
 
 Comenius also, whom some believe to have been 
 the greatest educator of the Christian centuries, 
 identified religion with the natural qualities of the 
 child's life. A fundamental principle in his educa- 
 tional philosophy was that the seeds of learning, 
 virtue, and piety are naturally implanted in the 
 human soul. Of piety he says: 
 
 ' Novum Organmn, Book I, "Aphorism" I.
 
 Natural Religion of Children 27 
 
 That the roots of piety are present in man is shoun by 
 the fact that he is in the image of God. For an image impHes 
 likeness, and that like rejoices in like, is an immutable law of 
 nature. Since, then, man's only equal is He in whose image 
 he has been made, it follows that there is no direction in which 
 he can be more easily carried by his desires than towards the 
 fountain whence he took his origin.' 
 
 And again, in answer to those who opposed his views 
 with the doctrine of innate depravity: 
 
 It is base, wicked, and an evident sign of ingratitude, that 
 
 we continually complain of our corrupt state If we 
 
 deny that we, with our offspring, are unfit for the kingdom of 
 God, how was it that Christ said of children that theirs was the 
 kingdom of heaven ? Or how can he refer us to them, bidding 
 us to become as little children, if we wish to enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven ? . . . . We see then that it is more 
 natural and easier for a man to become wise, honest and 
 righteous than for his progress to be hindered by incidental 
 depravity. For everything returns easily to its own nature. 
 
 Pestalozzi, the great Swiss educator, whose influ- 
 ence in giving a social impulse to education has hardly 
 been equaled, likewise makes religion a primary con- 
 stituent of the child's nature. He not only be- 
 lieved in the child's intuitive perception of religious 
 things but he would have this quality of his mind 
 cultivated along with other qualities throughout the 
 entire educational process. He says to the mother: 
 
 God has given to thy child all the faculties of our nature, 
 but the grand point remains undecided — how shall this heart, 
 this head, these hands, be employed ? To whose service shall 
 they be dedicated ? A question the answer to which involves 
 a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee 
 
 I The Great Didactic, chap, v, sec. i8.
 
 28 The Child and His Religion 
 
 It is recorded that God opened the heavens to the patriarch 
 of old, and showed him a ladder leading thither. This ladder 
 is let down to every descendant of Adam; it is offered to thy 
 child. But he must be taught to climb it. And let him not 
 attempt it by the cold calcvilations of the head, or the mere 
 impulse of the heart; but let all these powers combine, and 
 the noble enterprise will be crowned with success. These 
 powers are already bestowed on him, but to thee it is given to 
 assist in calling them forth. ^ 
 
 Pestalozzi's belief in the innate religious qualities of 
 the child, and his conviction that the development of 
 these should be an integral part of all education, may 
 be summed up in the following quotations cited by 
 Quick: 
 
 The child loves and believes before it thinks and acts. 
 
 These forces of the heart, — faith and love, — are in the 
 formation of immortal man what the root is for the tree. 
 
 Man does not live by bread alone; every child needs a 
 religious development; every child needs to know how to 
 pray to God in all simplicity, but with faith and love. 
 
 If the reUgious element does not run through the whole of 
 education, this element will have little influence on the life; 
 it remains formal or isolated. 
 
 The child accustomed from his earliest years to pray, to 
 think, and to work, is already more than half educated.^ 
 
 But it is to Froebel that we must look for the most 
 complete expression of the belief that the child's 
 nature is essentially religious. Indeed, Froebel's 
 entire philosophy turns upon this point. The whole 
 visible universe is divinely constituted. It is the 
 external expression of an internal energy, which is 
 
 ' Letters to Greaves, p. 21. 
 
 » Educational Reformers, p. 358.
 
 Natural Religton of Children 29 
 
 God. Man is one with God, and is a part of the 
 universal process of self-realization. 
 
 It is the special destiny and life-work of man, as an intelli- 
 gent and rational being, to become fully, vividly, and clearly 
 conscious of his essence, of the divine effluence in him, and, 
 therefore, of God; to become fully, vividly, and clearly con- 
 scious of his destiny and life-work; and to accomplish this, 
 to render it (his essence) active, to reveal it in his own hfe 
 with self-determination and freedom. 
 
 Since the goal of man's life is to render the divine 
 content of the universe and his own life conscious to 
 himself, and make himself an efficient coworker with 
 God in the universal process, the function of all 
 education is to help man to this goal. 
 
 By education [says Froebel], the divine essence of man 
 should be unfolded, brought out, lifted into consciousness, and 
 man himself raised into free, conscious obedience to the 
 divine principle that lives in him, and to a free representation 
 of this principle in his life. Education, in instruction, should 
 lead man to see and know the divine, spiritual, and eternal 
 principle which animates surrounding nature, constitutes the 
 essence of nature, and is permanently manifested in nature; 
 and, in living reciprocity and united with training, it should 
 express and demonstrate the fact that the same law rules both 
 (the divine principle and nature), as it does nature and man. 
 Education as a whole, by means of instruction, should bring 
 to man's consciousness, and render efficient in his life, the 
 fact that man and nature proceed from God and are con- 
 ditioned by him — that both have their being in God. 
 
 Thus, with much repetition, Froebel, throughout 
 his book, The Education of Man, affirms the reli- 
 gious constitution of all nature, the child's included, 
 
 I The Education of Man, p. 2.
 
 30 The Child and His Religion 
 
 and the necessity of basing education upon this 
 affirmation. It is this fact that makes the kinder- 
 garten virtually a religious institution, the one really 
 religious institution in our educational system. For 
 the average kindergartner, Froebel is not merely 
 the founder of a new type of infant training. He is 
 the prophet of a new religion that unifies nature and 
 the human spirit. The Education of Man is the 
 kindergartner's Bible, and there can be no question 
 but that it is thus far the most complete expression of 
 an educational creed that is religious, and yet has in 
 itself the germs of scientific culture. If ever religious 
 education and secular education are brought into 
 harmony, it will be upon some such basis as Froebel's 
 educational philosophy. 
 
 Science and natural religion. — The attitude of the 
 educational reformers toward natural religion has 
 been vindicated by modern science, just as we have 
 found to be the case with the doctrine of interest. 
 Science, whose field of work is nature, and whose 
 method is an objective study of the phenomena of 
 nature, is bound not alone by its premises but by the 
 very laws of mind, to discover God in nature, as well 
 as man's approach to God through natural methods. 
 It is a fundamental instinct of the human soul to seek 
 unity of knowledge and belief, as it is to seek unity 
 of life. Hence, from the beginning of its history, 
 science has been implicitly religious. In putting its 
 insistent questions to nature, it has been engaged 
 in a quest for God, and the ways of life that will bring
 
 Natural Religion 0} Children 31 
 
 man into harmony with his Creator% Just as soon as 
 these questions are put to human nature, it is found 
 that the mind of man brings to hght, in its instincts, 
 and fundamental processes of reasoning, what is 
 everywhere suggested in nature. There is a God — 
 intelhgent, purposeful, benevolent — who is working 
 in and through nature, and most immediately and 
 personally in the life of man. That is to say, the 
 divine content of nature comes to consciousness in 
 its highest creature, man. Man is religious because 
 the so-called natural world of which he is a part is a 
 supernatural world, progressively incarnating the 
 life of Him who is Creator alike of body and spirit. 
 The first scientists to discover that man is naturally 
 religious were the students of primitive races. Such 
 were the anthropologists, the ethnologists, the stu- 
 dents of comparative religion. Whether as mission- 
 aries, travelers, college and university investigators, 
 or experts connected with bureaus of government 
 research, these men collected masses of facts bearing 
 upon the religious lives of the lower races, and, in- 
 deed, of all non-Christian peoples. These facts 
 were sifted out and interpreted, and the common 
 elements in the religions of many diverse tribes and 
 nations were brought to view. Thus, facts, principles, 
 and laws were derived which constitute the subject- 
 matter of a new science, that of comparative religion; 
 and comparative religion afl&rms that mankind 
 everywhere has certain instincts, beliefs, customs, 
 and institutions that are religious, and that are
 
 32 The Child and His Religion 
 
 essentially identical wherever found. Such is the 
 instinct to endow all visible phenomena with spirit, 
 which has been called animism, and which men like 
 Professor Tylor' believe is the tap-root of all religion. 
 Such are the ideas of God and the survival of death, 
 which, in various forms, are universal. Such are 
 worship, burial, and other customs growing out of 
 these beliefs, with their appropriate institutions and 
 systems of social control. 
 
 Closely related to this group of scientists are those 
 students of genetic psychology who have applied the 
 principles and methods of that branch of science to 
 the study of children's religious natures. Follow- 
 ing the clue to the essential elements of the religious 
 life supplied by comparative religion, they have 
 observed the questions, sayings, customs, and conduct 
 of children, to find evidence that the child naturally 
 shares in the religious consciousness of the race. 
 The results have been no less conclusive than in the 
 case of comparative religion. For the purposes of 
 religious education, they are even more significant 
 since they put us in possession of facts and laws of 
 life that illuminate the practical problems of religious 
 nurture in the home, school, and church. 
 ^ Animism. — First among these results of the study 
 of children's religious nature is the conclusion that 
 the child, like primitive man, is animistic. He 
 instinctively endows the world, both animate and 
 inanimate, with spirit and personality. The rocks, 
 
 ' Primitive CiiUure.
 
 Natural Religion of Children 33 
 
 flowers, and trees; the stars, moon, and sun; the 
 clouds, wind, and rain; his own playthings, whether 
 doll, sled, or marbles — are, at various times and in 
 varying degrees, felt to have life, and to think, feel, 
 and act like himself. Careful, systematic observa- 
 tion would doubtless reveal this instinct in every 
 child, although it is manifested more clearly in some 
 children than in others; while, in general, the sur- 
 roundings and example of adult life tend to repress 
 and obscure it. 
 
 The heavenly bodies frequently appeal to this 
 instinct in children, just as they do in the case of 
 primitive peoples. The moon, for most children, is 
 alive. It looks down upon them from the sky. It 
 follows them about. A little girl of five years said to 
 me one night: "Why does the moon always seem 
 to follow us? Does it really see us?" The stars 
 are the eyes of the blue sky, peeping out from behind 
 the clouds, twinkling merrily or moist with the mists 
 of evening. The same little girl asked me on one 
 occasion if the stars did not sometimes wink at 
 children. The large number of poems and prose se- 
 lections in children's literature that deal with personi- 
 fications of the moon, stars, and sun, witness to this 
 animistic spirit in children. Rain and snow suggest 
 to the child all sorts of personal qualities. It is hard 
 for them to resist the feeling that a summer shower 
 comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the 
 dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illus- 
 trated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was
 
 34 The Child and His Religion 
 
 a thunder shower after a long dry spell. The rain 
 was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. 
 The child stretched forth her hands toward the rain- 
 drops and said : " Come, good rain, and water our 
 plants!" Flowers and trees have individuality for 
 most children, if not for all. Ruth's mamma found 
 her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance 
 from the house. "What are you doing, Ruth?" 
 " I'm sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and 
 like to have me with them, doriH you know?" At 
 another time she said: "Mamma, these daisies seem 
 to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they 
 want us to kiss them." On one occasion she said to 
 her brother, who was in the act of gathering some 
 flowers she claimed for herself, " I don't think it nice 
 to break off those poor flowers. They like to live 
 just as well as you do." The boy thus chided by his 
 sister for gathering her flowers, was generally very 
 fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite human 
 companionship in them. He could not bear to see 
 flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or 
 lying crushed upon the sidewalk. Even at the age 
 of ten years, he would still work solicitously over 
 flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfeet, with 
 evident concern for their comfort. 
 
 Children often personify playthings, personal 
 trinkets, etc. Thus a girl mentioned by Dr. Gould 
 had a habit of caressing some object in her sleeping- 
 room, as a vase, ornamental box, or piece of furniture 
 before retiring for the night. A boy of three years 
 talked to his sled and scolded it for getting tangled
 
 Natural Religion of Children 35 
 
 up. Sometimes he would whip his playthings if 
 they did not work to suit him. Once, in a fit of 
 anger, he broke a favorite toy, and then cried bitterly 
 because he thought the toy felt hurt. The anger- 
 phase of animism is often perpetuated into adult 
 life, when grown-up people get mad at obstinate 
 machinery, uncertain fountain pens, and exasperat- 
 ing door-locks. 
 
 This animistic spirit in children is the same that 
 inspired those children of nature, the Greeks, to 
 people the oak trees with dryads and the springs and 
 streams with nymphs. It is the same spirit that led 
 the Druids of Western Europe to worship the trees; 
 the Aztecs, the sun; and the ancient Egyptians and 
 Hindus, the waters of the Nile and Ganges. It is the 
 same spirit that works among modern men, in more 
 subtle and refined forms, now in poetry, now in 
 science itself, to give a personal, spiritual, interpre- 
 tation to nature. We see it in Wordsworth's poems, 
 in some of Kingsley's novels, in the nature sketches 
 of Charles Dudley Warner, and in the writings of 
 physicists like Lord Kelvin and Sir Oliver Lodge. 
 It makes little difference what this tendency of the 
 human mind is called. Some would prefer to name 
 it anthropomorphism; others, perhaps, fancy or 
 imagination. The important thing is that such an 
 instinct exists in children, as among the lower races 
 of mankind, and, indeed, among the higher races — 
 in the poets, certain scientists, and others — where 
 the deadening effects of over-intellectualism have not
 
 36 The Child and His Religion 
 
 blighted the naive feelings and instincts of the 
 natural man. Such an instinct witnesses to man's 
 oneness with nature — to the great fundamental fact 
 of life, that the energy which throbs in the human 
 intellect and emotions, works throughout nature, 
 with the same spiritual purpose, and toward the 
 same spiritual ends, that give meaning and value to 
 man's own existence. 
 
 The instinct of causality. — Another result of the 
 study of children's religious nature is the conclusion 
 that the child tries to discover a personal cause, to ex- 
 plain the phenomena of the objective world and its 
 own life. In the language of science, it seeks to satisfy 
 its instinct of causality. In the language of religion, it 
 seeks a creator. This instinct of causality, or quest 
 for a creator, is psychologically related to animism. 
 To endow the universe with spirit is to point the 
 way toward the discovery of a personal agency back 
 of phenomena, and working through them. But 
 animism, properly speaking, does not rise above the 
 plane of instinct and feeling. It institutes no intelli- 
 gent inquiry as to the cause and meaning of things. 
 The instinct of causality makes this additional de- 
 mand. It is a function of the rational intellect. It 
 wants to know what power, what personality, brings 
 the phenomena of the universe to pass. It is rooted, 
 like the other elements of the religious nature, in the 
 divine constitution of man. The child, made in the 
 image of his Creator, reflecting the powers of self- 
 activity which his Creator possesses, sees in the uni-
 
 Natural Religion of Children 37 
 
 verse a personal, intelligent agent at work. He can 
 no more conceive of things happening without the 
 direction of personal will, in the cosmic order, than 
 f he can conceive of things so happening in the human 
 order. He is in the midst of man's activities and cre- 
 ations, and he sees nothing made, or unmade, with- 
 out the play of human will. How can he look upon 
 the cosmos, of which his own little world is a part, as 
 independent of those laws of cause and effect that 
 condition human achievements ? 
 
 Hence it is that with children, as with primitive 
 men everywhere, we find the question of ultimate 
 cause, and its answer in terms of supernatural 
 agency. All men, from the lowest to the highest, 
 have been seekers after gods, or God. Plutarch 
 says : 
 
 I have seen people without cities and organized govern- 
 ments, or laws; but people without shrines and deities I have 
 not seen. 
 
 Ratzel says: 
 
 We cannot analyze a single race on its spiritual side with- 
 out laying bare the germs and root-fibres of religion. Eth- 
 nography knows no race devoid of religion. Religion is 
 everywhere connected with man's craving for causaUty, which 
 will ever be looking for the cause, or causer, of everj'thing 
 that comes to pass. Thus its deepest roots come into con- 
 tact with science, and are profoundly intertwined with the 
 sense of nature. From scientific conviction we must unhesi- 
 tatingly endorse the verdict of Von Strauss: "Complete 
 absence of religion, true atheism, may be the result of an 
 undermining, soul-deadening overculture; but never the
 
 ;^8 The Child and His Religion 
 
 effect of crude barbarism. This always retains the craving 
 for religion, with the corresponding faculty for religion, how- 
 ever faultily and confusedly this may operate."' 
 
 Von Hartmann says : 
 
 The religious motive of man necessarily demands an object 
 upon which to center its attention. This object is, to use the 
 term in a wide, but, we believe, a proper sense, "God." 
 Employing the term thus, it includes the most primitive notion 
 of the lowest savage as well as the highest conception of the 
 most cultured races. 
 
 It is this universal demand for a final cause, a creator, 
 that comes to light in the child's life; and this 
 demand becomes not only a principal factor in his 
 religion, but also in all the activities which have to 
 do with the ultimate problems of intellect and feeling. 
 A few illustrations will suffice to make clear this in- 
 stinct of causality in children. I draw first of all upon 
 notes taken on the religious development of a boy 
 between the ages of three and six years. At the end 
 of the third year, while visiting Niagara Falls with 
 his parents, this boy showed his first interest in the 
 cause of things. While watching the water of the 
 Falls from Prospect Park, he said : " Mamma, who 
 pours the water over Niagara Falls?" We may 
 imagine similar questions being asked by the Ameri- 
 can Indian ages previous, and answered in terms of 
 "Gitchie Manitou, the Mighty." From this begin- 
 ning, the boy during the next three years seemed to 
 be trying to make himself clear upon the question 
 of where things come from originally, and who keeps 
 
 ■ History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 40.
 
 Natural Religion oj Children 39 
 
 the world going. "Who makes the birds?" "Who 
 made the very first bird ?" "Who fixed their wings 
 so they can fly ? " " Who takes care of the birds and 
 rabbits in the winter when snow is on the ground ?" 
 "Who makes the grass grow?" "Who makes the 
 trees?" "Who makes them shed their leaves and 
 then get them back again ?" " Who made the sand 
 and rocks in Forest Park ?" "Who made the Con- 
 necticut River?" "Who keeps it from running 
 dry ? " " Who makes it thunder ? " " Who put the 
 moon in the sky ? " " Who made the whole world ? " 
 " Who made people ? " "Who made me?" "Does 
 God make everything?" "Who made God?" 
 " Was God already made ? " "Is God everywhere ? " 
 Such were the questions asked again and again, with 
 all sorts of comments in reply to the answers that 
 were given him. The question of what is the origin 
 of things was seldom or never asked. It was always 
 who; ;and when the personal cause he was seeking 
 was named "God" in connection with numerous 
 objects, he finally generalized by asking if God 
 makes everything. 
 
 During the years these observations were made, 
 this boy had no contact whatever with ordinary re- 
 ligious instruction. The development of his instinct 
 of causality was left to itself, such answers being 
 given to his questions, and such comments being 
 made upon topics he was interested in, as his under- 
 standing seemed fitted to receive. In most observa- 
 tions recorded of children's reasonings about God,
 
 40 The Child and His Religion 
 
 however, it is not clear how much of their thought 
 is original and how much is colored by their religious 
 instruction. Even where the latter is the case, how- 
 ever, there is always some suggestion of the child's 
 natural attitude. Professor Sully' tells of a boy, 
 four and a half years old, who was in the habit of tak- 
 ing knives from his mother's kitchen and using them. 
 At last the mother said: "L., you will cut your 
 fingers, and if you do they won't grow again." The 
 boy thought for a moment and then replied: "But 
 God would make them grow. He made me, so he 
 could mend my fingers, and if I were to cut the ends 
 off, I should say, 'God, God, come to your work,' and 
 he would say, 'All right.'" In Extracts from a 
 Father's Diary, quoted by Professor Sully in his 
 Studies of Childhood, we find this note on the reason- 
 ing of a five-year-old boy about God : 
 
 One day he asked how God made us and put flesh on us, 
 and made what is inside us. He then proceeded to invent a 
 little theory of creation. "I suppose he made stone men and 
 iron men first, and then real men." This myth might readily 
 suggest that the child had been hearing about the stone and 
 iron age, and about sculptors first modeling their statues in 
 other material. It seems probable, however, that it was 
 invented by a purely childish thought as a way of clearing up 
 the mystery of the living, thinking man.^ 
 
 In President Hall's study^ of the "Contents of 
 Children's Minds on Entering School," there are 
 
 ' Studies oj Childhood, pp. 127, 128. 
 
 » P. 478. 
 
 3 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I, pp. 139-73.
 
 Natural Religion of Children 41 
 
 many incidental references to this subject. Some 
 children think that God takes the sun out of the 
 sky at night, lights the stars with matches, makes the 
 rain fall, sends the lightning, creates babies in 
 heaven, takes people to himself when they die, etc., 
 etc. And Professor Barnes sums up the topic in the 
 following words: 
 
 I believe a child has a native need for a theology, and that 
 if he is not given one he will create it. He early comes to the 
 point where he seeks ultimate origins and ends. "I do not 
 know if Mother Nature made me," said the httle blind Helen 
 Kellar, "I think my mother got me from heaven, but I do not 
 know where that place is. I know that daisies and pansies 
 come from seeds which have been put in the ground; but 
 children do not grow out of the ground, I am sure. I have 
 never seen a plant child ! But I cannot tell who made Mother 
 Nature, can you?" The following are among the questions 
 asked by one of my little friends when she was between four 
 and five years old: "How did the moon come in the sky?" 
 "Why do we die?" "Why are things made to be killed?" 
 "Who made the first fish egg, and how was it made ?" "Where 
 did I come from ?" "Who was the mother of the first baby 
 there ever was?" "When the first mother was a baby, who 
 was her mother?" "How did the first lady in the world 
 learn manners?" These are but typical of the questions 
 asked by any child, and a theology serves to merge them all 
 in the larger theological and philosophical problems of 
 adult Hfe. The deeper demand which drove the little George 
 Sand to develop an elaborate theology and ritual, and 
 which drove Goethe, at seven, to erect an altar and enact 
 the part of a high priest, must surely come to imaginative 
 children who find themselves so constantly hemmed in by 
 the phenomenal.' 
 
 I Studies in Education, Vol. II, p. 287.
 
 42 The Child and His Religion 
 
 The instinct of immortality. — A third conclusion 
 drawn by genetic psychology from its study of chil- 
 dren's religious nature, is that the child believes in 
 the continuity of personal existence. Adult religion 
 does not have to teach it the immortality of the soul, 
 any more than it has to teach it the idea of a God. 
 It is naturally endowed with a sense of its immor- 
 tality. Professor Sully says: 
 
 A child cannot accept an absolute beginning of things, and 
 .... he is equally incapable of believing in an absolute 
 ending. He knows that we begin our earthly lives as babies. 
 Well, the babies must come from something, and when we 
 die we must pass into something. ^ 
 
 In Extracts from a Fathers Diary, quoted by 
 Professor Sully, and already referred to, we find 
 this dialogue between a boy five years old and his 
 mother : 
 
 C. "Why must people die, mamma?" 
 
 M. "They get worn out, and so can't live always, just 
 as the plants fade and die." 
 
 C. "Well, but why can't they come to life again just hke 
 the flowers?" 
 
 M. "The same flowers don't come to life again, dear." 
 
 C. "Well, the litde seed out of the flower drops into the 
 earth and springs up again into a flower. Why can't people 
 do like that?" 
 
 M. "Most people get very tired and want to sleep forever." 
 
 C. "Oh! I shan't want to sleep forever, and when I am 
 buried I shall try to wake up again; and there won't be any 
 earth on my eyes, will there, mamma?" 
 
 In my own notes^on the religious development of a 
 
 ' Studies of Childhood, pp. io6, 107.
 
 Natural Religion of Children 43 
 
 boy, referred to under the previous topic, I find this 
 record : 
 
 The first illustration of his attitude toward death was at 
 the beginning of his fourth year, when he found a dead bird. 
 "Mamma, what is the matter with the bird ?" "It is dead." 
 "What does 'dead' mean?" "The Httle bird's Hfe has gone 
 out of its body." "Where has the bird gone?" It was clear 
 that he had no idea in his mind to which he could refer this 
 new thing his mother was trying to explain, and nothing she 
 said satisfied his questioning. A few hours later, he opened 
 up the subject again by saying, "Will the dead come oH the 
 little bird, mamma ? " He had noticed the ruffled condition of 
 the bird's plumage and was evidently wondering if it would 
 change back to its natural appearance. His mother told him 
 she thought the dead would come off by and by. Then he 
 asked, "Mamma, when you die like the bird, will the dead 
 come off you?" 
 
 A few months after this, the boy had his first 
 experience with the death of a human being. An 
 old lady, Grandma W., whom he knew well, had 
 died. The same class of questions he had previously 
 asked about the dead bird he now asked about 
 Grandma W. " Where has she gone ? " "To God's 
 home." "Where is God's home?" "O, God's 
 home is everywhere — up among the stars, here on 
 earth, all about us. It is an invisible home, to us. 
 We can't see it." "How did Grandma W. get to 
 God's home? Did he come and get her?" "No, 
 he did not come. He was right by her when she 
 died. She closed her tired, sick eyes, and when she 
 opened them again, she saw God, who was with her 
 all the time." "What is in that box they are carry-
 
 44 The Child and His Religion 
 
 ing from the house?" "Grandma W.'s body." 
 "Where are they taking her?" "To Oak Grove 
 Cemetery." "But, Mamma, why are they taking 
 her there? What will they do with her?" "It is 
 Grandma W.'s body they are taking to the cemetery. 
 They will bury it." "But, Mamma, is God in the 
 ground ? Grandma W. can't live in the ground, can 
 she?" 
 
 In these instances it is clear that the child could 
 not grasp the idea that either the bird or Grandma 
 W. had ceased to exist. Death might take the animal 
 or person away, but they still lived for the child in a 
 sense hardly less real than when they were before his 
 eyes. One is reminded of Wordsworth's poem 
 about the little cottage girl, who, with several of her 
 brothers and sisters dead, still insisted that there was 
 an unbroken family of seven. 
 
 Professor Street, in his Genetic Study of Immor- 
 tality,^ says of the group of twenty-five children he 
 personally studied: "It is very interesting and sug- 
 gestive to note that they had no suspicion that their 
 own existence would ever cease." " It seems, then," 
 he adds, " that man has to learn his mortality rather 
 than his immortality." The conclusions of this 
 author, based upon the testimony of deaf-mutes, the 
 little children personally studied, and the self-analysis 
 of a considerable number of adults are as follows: 
 
 (i) The concept of immortality has a growth that parallels 
 that of the race; (2) Its origin is the product of the psychical 
 I Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VI, pp. 267-313.
 
 Natural Religion of Children 45 
 
 activities of man himself, and not the fruit of a body of innate 
 ideas. This does not imply, however, that there is not some 
 deep, fundamental instinct, which may have been the dynamic 
 power impelling him to such a conclusion;^ (3) In the returns 
 [to questions asked adults] much mention is made of the testi- 
 mony of an inner revelation giving clear evidence of the truth 
 of personal continuity. It is possible to explain this psycho- 
 logically as the accumulated heredity of countless ages, 
 joined with the autogenetic longing for perpetuity. However, 
 until it can be shown that there is no teleology in the world, 
 and that there is no divine hand at the helm, such testimony 
 must be accepted, though it cannot be empirically established. 
 
 The inability of the child to conceive of its own 
 or other lives as ceasing to exist, may, of course, have 
 various interpretations. It seems to me, how^ever, 
 that it is open to the same interpretation that has 
 already been placed upon the animistic impulse and 
 the sense of causality. It is an innate endowment, 
 an instinct of immortality. All races of mankind 
 have believed in some kind of survival of death. 
 This belief, according to some students of the prob- 
 lem, has had a most important influence in the evolu- 
 tion of civilization. To say nothing of its effects 
 upon the lives of men, morally considered, the cus- 
 toms and laws associated with such a belief must have 
 had a vastly conserving effect upon human society. 
 It is not too much to say that one important measure 
 of a people's racial fitness has been their belief in the 
 survival of death. The significance of this racial 
 phase of the problem has not yet been fully appre- 
 ciated in the arguments for and against the belief in 
 
 I Italics mine.
 
 46 The Child and His Religion 
 
 the immortality of the soul. But, in addition, to 
 the racial belief in the survival of death as accounting 
 for the child's sense of immortality, there is the 
 general philosophical consideration already pre- 
 sented. The child is a part of a world-process which 
 progressively unfolds the divine consciousness. God 
 is immanent in the human soul, and God is eternal. 
 The child instinctively feels the values of a life that 
 shares the nature of its creator. Science predicates 
 an instinct of self-preservation as fundamental to the 
 struggle for existence. But the instinct of self-pres- 
 ervation, translated into its religious equivalent, 
 becomes an instinct of immortality, because the 
 struggle for existence is an eternal process. 
 
 Whatever interpretation may be placed upon the 
 child's attitude toward death, however, the fact itself 
 is significant. It is an enormously economical factor 
 in the child's life, just as it has been in the life of the 
 race, and must have a similar value in fitting the 
 child to survive in its individual struggle for existence. 
 Its importance for religious education has not been 
 fully appreciated, if, indeed, in some quarters, it has 
 been recognized at all. 
 
 Faith and good-will. — Such are the principal 
 elements of natural religion that have thus far 
 received the attention of scientific students. They 
 are fundamental factors, it seems to me, in all 
 religion, however highly developed may be the type. 
 If a mind feels instinctively the spiritual quality of 
 things and forces, if it puts a personal, intelligent
 
 Natural Religion oj Children 47 
 
 cause back of the phenomena of the world, and if it 
 believes instinctively in its personal survival of 
 death, that mind is essentially religious, and, under 
 proper conditions, will direct its feeling, thinking, 
 and conduct according to the religious standards of 
 life. There are other qualities of the child's nature, 
 however, more general in character, which have very 
 important relations to religion, and which are dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics of childhood. Such are 
 especially the qualities of faith and good-will, with- 
 out which religion, in the Christian sense of the term, 
 is unthinkable. It remains briefly to consider these 
 qualities. 
 
 That the child's natural attitude toward the world 
 is one of faith and good-will is evident to the most 
 casual observer. If one considers this attitude in a 
 spirit of scientific inquiry, the feeling provoked will 
 not simply be one of affectionate regard for the 
 naivete of childhood, but of wonder and intellectual 
 interest. Why is it, that — in a human society where 
 faith is so uncertain, and distrust so common; where 
 good-will depends so much upon selfish considera- 
 tions, and jealousy, suspicion, and hatred are so apt 
 to supplant sympathy, friendship, and benevolence — 
 the unspoiled human nature of childhood is so full 
 of faith, so trustful, so prevailingly good-willed ? 
 Here is a problem that the philosophy of innate 
 depravity seems to have overlooked. And the 
 child has faith and good-will. The great religious 
 verities, which we have already found he believes
 
 48 The Child and His Religion 
 
 in instinctively, are felt in such an intimate way that 
 he reacts to them in the spirit of faith and love. That 
 is to say, they are not mere fanciful ideas, or intellec- 
 tual conceptions, but motive forces modifying his 
 states of mind and determining his conduct.' In 
 connection with a child's belief that the animate and 
 inanimate worlds are endowed with spirit and 
 personality, note his sense of companionship with 
 growing plants, trees, and other objects in nature. 
 As one observes his attitude toward these things, he 
 cannot fail to see their influence upon him, an 
 influence that is not simply intellectual or aesthetic, 
 but also moral. He likes them almost, or quite, as 
 he does persons, and his treatment of them is not the 
 treatment of dead, senseless things, but of living, 
 feeling, reasoning things. The plants that he culti- 
 vates in his garden, the flowers that he watches in 
 the fields, the trees among whose branches he climbs, 
 the birds that he spies out in the thickets — are all 
 his friends, each speaking to him in its own way. 
 The effect upon his life of such a feeling toward 
 natural objects is beyond estimate. He loves to be 
 among these things. His soul is kept in a healthy 
 condition by contact with them. He learns from 
 them their wonderful secrets. He receives from 
 them suggestions that affect advantageously his con- 
 duct. In short, his instinctive belief in the spiritual 
 relationship between himself and these natural 
 objects begets a faith that saves him oftentimes from 
 evil associations, from ignorance, and from idleness.
 
 Natural Religion oj Children 49 
 
 A child's faith and good-will are manifested also 
 in connection with his idea of a personal, intelligent 
 power in the world. In the latter part of his fourth 
 year, a little boy was awakened one night by a 
 violent thunderstorm. He was much frightened, and 
 called to his mother with trembling voice, "Mamma, 
 God won't let the thunder hurt us, will he ?" When 
 assured that the lightning was governed by God's 
 laws, and that there was little or no danger, he 
 quieted down and slept soundly during the rest of the 
 storm. So far as was known, this child had never 
 been told that God protected him under such condi- 
 tions. It was evidently an inference drawn from his 
 own thoughts about the personal influence he felt 
 to pervade the world. Similar evidence of this 
 child's belief in God's care for him and other people, 
 as well as animals, and things generally, was plenti- 
 ful. Thus from time to time he asked a number of 
 questions as to whether God liked him, how he took 
 care of his little sister before she came into the world, 
 how he got little children to heaven when they died, 
 whether God fed the squirrels in the winter when the 
 nuts were gone, how God makes children good, how 
 he makes little babies, kittens, etc., grow up and 
 become big, etc. In all such questions there was 
 implied the most perfect faith that God is in the 
 world, keeping it in order, and caring for his creatures 
 in a tender and benevolent way. That such faith 
 gave him a feeling of security and courage in storms, 
 darkness, sickness, and dangers of various kinds, is
 
 50 The Child and His Religion 
 
 certain. In other words, there was present a faith 
 ^ that saves from fear, discouragement, and weakness, 
 and there was a hearty response of good-will toward 
 a being thus able and willing to order his world 
 benevolently, as well as toward a world so ordered. 
 But the child's faith and good-will go out to human 
 beings in a larger measure than to nature, or even 
 to God himself. His mind has not learned to sum 
 up the finite in the infinite, to rest his faith in things 
 near at hand upon the ultimate cause of things. 
 And so his faith and good-will find their major 
 stimulus in parents, brothers and sisters, playmates 
 and friends. And how great and beautiful is this 
 faith and this good-will? I have never seen in a 
 ^ u- young unspoiled child any indications of a disposition 
 to doubt the good intentions and honesty of people, 
 to mistrust or suspect them, or to ascribe evil motives 
 to their conduct. That common tendency of the 
 adult mind to think evil of other people, to see sinister 
 motives in their actions, is absent in the child. Even 
 when he is punished, or mistreated, he does not 
 ascribe the act to bad intentions, and he harbors no 
 resentment. Did any parent of a young child, or 
 teacher in the lower grades of the public school, ever 
 see any inclination of the child toward ill-will 
 because of punishment ? Do not all angry thoughts 
 go with the pain and the tears, if such have arisen at 
 all ? Who is it that first wants to "make up" when 
 these little tragedies of human affection are enacted 
 between little children and their parents or teachers ?
 
 Natural Religion of Children 51 
 
 The fact is, the world is an innocent, good sort of 
 world to the child. It reflects his own simple, trans- 
 parent life. He believes in it and likes it. He does 
 not suspect it of wanting to harm him. He is the 
 enemy of no one, and does not imagine that he has 
 any enemies in turn. True he may find fault with 
 people. He may get mad at his parents or playmates, 
 and say or do things that are unkind. He is not an 
 angel, and he often does very unangelic things. But 
 there is absolutely no bitterness, no hatred, no grudge, 
 no harboring of ill-will, no thinking the worst. His 
 faith in the essential honesty, innocence, and good 
 intentions of human nature is, as yet, absolute. His 
 good-will toward everything and everybody in the 
 world about him is abounding. 
 
 The significance of these qualities for religion, and 
 life, cannot be overestimated. We have already seen 
 how Pestalozzi thought that "faith and love are in 
 the formation of immortal man what the root is for 
 the tree." The Apostle Paul's majestic summary of 
 human virtues under the rubrics of faith, hope, and 
 love was not only a religious but a scientific state- 
 ment of fact. The essence of social philosophy is 
 contained in the words of the Angel of the Annuncia- 
 tion, "On earth peace, good will toward men!" 
 And Jesus of Nazareth himself singled out these 
 qualities, and symbolized them in the child, when he 
 said : " Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to 
 come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 CHILDREN'S INTEREST IN THE BIBLE 
 
 In the preceding chapters, I have aimed to suggest 
 a certain background philosophy of human Hfe, 
 which, I beheve, should be the starting-point in 
 religious education ; together with the elements of the 
 religious nature with which such education primarily 
 has to do. I shall next try to apply the facts and 
 principles thus suggested to a study of the subject- 
 matter of religious education, as drawn from the 
 Bible. 
 
 The Bible and religious education. — It is, of course, 
 a theoretical, as well as a practical, demand of the 
 Christian religion, that the Bible shall be a princi- 
 pal source of religious culture-material. The reason- 
 ableness of this demand is not apt to be questioned 
 by anyone who thinks seriously upon the subject. 
 Whatever may be thought of Christianity as a type 
 of religion, there can be no question that the civiliza- 
 tion we live in is intimately identified with it. Nor 
 can there be any question that Christianity, in its 
 origin, nature, and historical development, has 
 depended upon the Bible. So that neither Chris- 
 tianity nor Christian civilization can be accounted 
 for without a knowledge of the spirit and content of 
 this book. The children of any given generation of 
 Christians can come to their full heritage, not merely 
 
 Si
 
 54 The Child and His Religion 
 
 of religious beliefs, but also of literary, ethical, social, 
 and political ideals and usages that have grown up 
 along with Christianity, only by being made thor- 
 oughly familiar with the Bible. This establishes 
 the claim of the Bible to a generous recognition as a 
 great primary source of ideals, facts, and principles 
 necessary to a proper understanding and appropria- 
 tion of the content of Christian civilization. Such 
 recognition is quite independent of religious con- 
 siderations, in the ordinary sense of that term. It 
 must proceed from any large view of the many phases 
 of human culture which western nations have made 
 distinctive. 
 
 But it is also a theoretical and practical demand 
 of the Christian religion that this Bible, fundamental 
 as is its importance for religious education, shall be 
 used intelligently. It is not a book so completely 
 transcending human experience that, as the medi- 
 aeval bishop thought, it is independent of the rules of 
 grammar, or, as the modern religious editor thought, 
 independent of the laws of mind. Whatever theo- 
 logical construction may be placed upon the Bible, 
 or whatever its importance for the education of man- 
 kind, it must be brought into relationship with the 
 human spirit through the same channels of sense, 
 intellectual perceptions, reasoning processes, and 
 emotional response that are employed in connection 
 with other types of educational material. The 
 mediaeval saint might clasp his Bible to his breast 
 to ward off the assaults of Satan. The East Indian
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 55 
 
 mother may still lay her Bible in the cradle of her 
 babe to keep away disease. The fortune-telling type 
 of believer within our own communities may open 
 his Bible at random to find some verse that will 
 decide the fortunes of a day or lifetime. The simple- 
 minded gospel worker may use Bible texts in revival 
 meetings or display them in railroad depots or trolley 
 cars as talismans of salvation. But the average 
 modern mind will no longer accept the Bible as a 
 fetich or talisman, because it can no longer believe 
 in fetiches or talismans of any kind. It has not 
 become less religious or reverent, but more intelligent 
 and discriminating. 
 
 It becomes necessary, therefore, in religious educa- 
 tion to use the Bible like any other body of literature 
 that must depend, for its understanding and influ- 
 ence, upon intelligent comprehension and responsive- 
 ness of feeling. This means that the Bible must be 
 adapted to the pupil and not the pupil to the Bible — 
 that its material must be selected and imparted 
 according to the mental capacity, the emotional atti- 
 tude, the instinctively or rationally felt needs of the 
 learner. One important criterion by which this 
 adaptation may be effected is the spontaneous 
 interest of children in the material of the Bible, and 
 this criterion I have employed in obtaining the results 
 presented in this chapter. Starting from the con- 
 clusion of current scientific inquiry as to the meaning 
 of children's interests, and following the same general 
 lines that have been followed in the study of chil-
 
 56 The Child and His Religion 
 
 dren's interests in the various types of educational 
 material used in the public schools, I have attempted 
 to investigate the interest of children in the Bible. 
 The questions I have kept before me are the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 1. How do children feel toward the Old and the 
 New Testament, respectively, at different ages ? 
 
 2. How do they feel toward the various books of 
 the Bible at different ages? 
 
 3. How do they feel toward the different scenes, 
 stories, and characters of the Bible at different ages ? 
 
 4. What is the development of interest in the 
 scenic, narrative, and personal elements of the 
 Bible as age advances ? 
 
 5. What is the development of interest in the per- 
 son and works of Jesus as age advances ? 
 
 A syllabus of questions was prepared in such a 
 way as to bring out, directly or indirectly, the in- 
 formation sought under each of these heads. This 
 syllabus was put in the hands of a large number of 
 parents and teachers, with the instruction that they 
 should extend their observations over as long a 
 period as possible, and should use such special tests 
 as they could in getting at the preferences of children. 
 From the children thus studied by others, and those 
 studied by myself, 1,000 were selected as the basis 
 of this paper. Most of these children live in the 
 larger cities and towns of New England. They 
 arc mainly of American parentage, though there are 
 inchuled a few Italians and French Canadians.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 57 
 
 They are distributed among all the evangelical 
 denominations, the Congregationalists predominat- 
 ing. There are, besides, a few Catholics. The 
 children range in age from eight to twenty, and are 
 about equally distributed as to age and sex. While 
 the study itself is a tentative one, and no claim what- 
 ever is made that its results are conclusive, it is 
 nevertheless believed that the children studied are 
 typical, and that the data afford a reasonably 
 accurate illustration of children's Bible interests 
 within the ages and classes represented. 
 
 Choice between the Old and the New Testament. — 
 I have based my estimate of children's choice between 
 the main divisions of the Bible upon three classes of 
 facts: (i) Their own direct statements as to their 
 preference; (2) indirect evidence secured through 
 their choice of Bible scenes, stories, and characters; 
 and (3) the judgment of teachers. At first thought, a 
 child's statement that he likes one part of the Bible 
 better than another may seem to have little value. 
 And yet, when we look at the matter from the stand- 
 point of every-day experience, is there not every rea- 
 son for thinking that the average child, in the Chris- 
 tian home or Sunday school, knows what he likes, 
 or does not like, in the Bible as in other things? 
 When the schoolboy says he likes United States 
 history better than arithmetic, or vice versa, there is 
 no reason for doubting the genuineness of his pref- 
 erence. When the boy says he likes to read the life 
 of Daniel Boone, or the story of Robinson Crusoe,
 
 58 The Child and His Religion 
 
 better than a treatise on physics, we do not hesitate 
 to accept his statement as significant. We adults 
 often forget that children's likes and dislikes are more 
 spontaneous than our own, and that they are apt to 
 be much less disguised. There has nothing im- 
 pressed me more in looking over the returns received 
 from children than the perfect candor of their 
 answers. This was not always the case in the re- 
 turns received from adults. The latter often hesi- 
 tated to express a preference, giving reasons that 
 indicated clearly a feeling that it was not just the 
 proper thing to like one part of the Bible better than 
 another. Every part of the Bible is holy; therefore, 
 the properly constituted man or woman should like 
 one as well as another. The typical child is not 
 troubled with any such feeling toward the Bible. 
 If he doesn't like some portion of it, he says so; or 
 if he doesn't like any of it, he says so. This may be 
 additional evidence of his innate depravity. I 
 merely state the fact. A child's statement that he 
 likes the Old Testament better than the New, or 
 vice versa, seems to me therefore to be worthy of 
 acceptance as an index of his interest. When such 
 a statement is, in general, confirmed by the indirect 
 evidence of other preferences and by the testimony 
 of teachers, one's conclusions ought to rest upon a 
 fairly substantial basis. 
 
 At eight years old, the majority of children of both 
 sexes prefer the New Testament; that is to say, 60 
 per cent, of the boys and 72 per cent, of the girls. The
 
 Children'' s Interest in the Bible 59 
 
 interest in the New Testament declines, however, 
 during the next few years, reaching its minimum at 
 
 14, in the case of boys, and at 12, in the case of the 
 girls. At this point, 32 per cent, of the boys and 40 
 per cent, of the girls prefer the New Testament. At 
 
 15, the interest of the boys remains about the same 
 as at 14, but thereafter it rises rapidly and steadily 
 until at 20 years 8S per cent, prefer the New Testa- 
 ment. The girls' interest rises slowly from 12 to 
 14, and thereafter rises even more rapidly than the 
 boys', until at 20 years 97 per cent, prefer the New 
 Testament. At 8 years, 40 per cent, of the boys and 
 28 per cent, of the girls prefer the Old Testament. 
 From 8 years on, the interest in the Old Testament 
 steadily rises, reaching its maximum at 13, in the case 
 of the boys, and at 12 in the case of the girls. At this 
 point, 63 per cent, of the boys and 46 per cent, of the 
 girls prefer the Old Testament. Thereafter, in the 
 case of both sexes, the interest steadily declines, until 
 at the age of 20, 12 per cent, of the boys and 3 per 
 cent, of the girls express a preference for the Old Tes- 
 tament. From 13 to 19 years, some of the boys say 
 they have no choice, the maximum of such being 
 reached at 15 and 16. In the case of the girls, 
 this period of uncertainty reaches from 10 to 17, 
 the maximum being reached at 11 and 12. A graphic 
 presentation of these results is given in Charts 
 I and II. 
 
 What interpretation may we place upon these 
 results ? To begin with, the interest of the youngest
 
 6o 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 children in the New Testament is probably not a 
 general interest in that division of the Bible. It 
 centers rather in the Infant Jesus. A child is always 
 of interest to other children, whether in life or story. 
 The scenes and incidents of the Bible relating to 
 
 CHART I 
 Bovs' Choice between the Old and the New Testament 
 
 100 
 
 AGE 8 9 10 I 
 . — ..OLD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 / 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
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 --' 
 
 ** 
 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 \ i 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
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 /\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 "•— ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 —— ^ 
 
 N, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /' 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 \ 12 13 H 15 16 17 18 19 20 
 TEST. NEW TEST NO CHOICE. 
 
 childhood are prime favorites with most of the 
 younger children that have been studied. Thus, the 
 birth of Jesus, the finding of Moses by Pharaoh's 
 daughter, Jesus blessing little children and the flight 
 into Egypt are among the most commonly mentioned. 
 To this natural interest in the childhood of the Bible
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 
 
 6i 
 
 must be added the special interest derived through 
 Christian art and literature, dealing with such events 
 as the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Flight into 
 Egypt, much of which the average child has some 
 acquaintance with. Besides these aids to interest. 
 
 CHART II 
 Girls' Choice between the Old and the New Testament 
 
 100 
 
 40 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 >» ^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,^' 
 
 — - 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 — 
 
 ---. 
 
 _„ 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 \,.^ 
 
 -••-- 
 
 1:^.— 
 
 \ 
 
 ---^ 
 
 AG£ 8 9 10 U 12 13 I* 15 16 17 18 19 , 20 
 NEW TEST OLD TEST. NO CHOICE.. 
 
 we must also take into account the associations of 
 Christmas time, which give the birth and childhood 
 of Jesus a unique place in children's affections. It 
 is not surprising, therefore, that the New Testament, 
 which contains the stories and scenes relating to a 
 child naturally interesting, and rendered more so 
 
 IK>S fi^GJSUHS, GHIl*
 
 62 The Child and His Religion 
 
 by the art, literature, and customs of Christian civili- 
 zation, should be preferred by so many of the younger 
 children. 
 
 This element of attractiveness aside, however, it is 
 probable that the New Testament does not naturally 
 appeal so strongly to children as does the Old. So 
 early as 8 years, 40 per cent, of the boys and 28 per 
 cent, of the girls prefer the Old Testament, and these 
 percentages steadily rise for some years. This indi- 
 cates that even in the youngest children, to whom the 
 Infant Jesus is especially attractive, there are other 
 forces at work in determining their interest. These 
 forces assert themselves more and more, and during 
 the years from 9 or 10, on to 13 or 14, they shift the 
 center of interest to the Old Testament. How 
 strong these forces must be, is suggested by another 
 important fact, that should be taken into account 
 in this connection. In general, religious teachers 
 lay much more stress upon the facts and teachings 
 of the New Testament than upon those of the Old. 
 As shown by this study, the interest of adults is over- 
 whelmingly in favor of the New Testament. Esti- 
 mating the child from the adult standpoint, these 
 adults impose their interests upon the children they 
 instruct. Very naturally, there is thus given to the 
 children an interest in facts, doctrines, etc., that is 
 not spontaneous, but derived from the teachers. 
 This derived interest undoubtedly enters into the 
 choice of children. And yet, as we have seen, the 
 forces at work in these children's natures are suffi-
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 63 
 
 ciently strong to offset the bias induced by adult 
 example and to turn the balance in favor of the Old 
 Testament. Everything considered, it is probable 
 that the typical boy or girl from g years to 14, is more 
 attracted to the Old Testament than to the New. 
 
 There is some light shed upon this matter by the 
 scientific studies already referred to. If it be true 
 that the various levels of instinct and intelligence in 
 racial life have their outcroppings in the develop- 
 ment of the individual child, and if we may regard 
 the development of the Hebrew people as typical of 
 the life of the race as a whole, ought we not to expect 
 that the main centers of children's interest in the 
 Bible will shift from the Old to the New Testament 
 as manhood and womanhood approach ? To illus- 
 trate: The fundamental human instincts may be 
 classified as egoistic, or selfish, and altruistic, or un- 
 selfish. Psychologists are agreed that racial devel- 
 opment, as well as individual development, is away 
 from the predominantly selfish instincts toward the 
 predominantly unselfish instincts. Now the Old 
 Testament Scriptures appeal more especially to the 
 former class of instincts; while the New Testament 
 Scriptures appeal rather to the latter. Fear, anger, 
 jealousy, hatred, revenge, etc., are conspicuous 
 attributes of God and men, in the Old Testament; 
 while sympathy, compassion, trustfulness, and love 
 are the most prominent attributes of God and men, 
 in the New. In short, the Bible moves from an 
 egoistic point of view regarding God and mankind,
 
 64 The Child and His Religion 
 
 to an increasingly altruistic point of view. The 
 parallelism between the development of the child and 
 the development of the Bible is therefore clearly sug- 
 gested, so far as concerns these great central instincts 
 of the human soul. 
 
 Again, psychologists are agreed that the human 
 race has developed from a predominantly sensory- 
 motor type toward a predominantly associative and 
 rational type. Primitive man lives in his senses and 
 activities. The world is essentially a sensuous world 
 to him. He delights in everything that appeals 
 strongly to sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. 
 This explains his fondness for bright colors, massive 
 sounds, pungent tastes, strong odors, and the like. 
 His motor nature is also dominant in his enjoyments, 
 as is shown especially in his fondness for dancing, 
 wrestling, and other feats of strength and prowess. 
 The individual child likewise develops from the 
 sensory-motor to the rational in its nature and inter- 
 ests. In vividness of sense-impressions and in con- 
 stancy and variety of spontaneous movements, 
 children surpass adults. Gilbert' found by testing 
 school children that the great period of sense-develop- 
 ment is from early childhood up to lo or 12. The 
 play activities of children during the same period 
 are very marked, as many investigations have shown. 
 Out of this sensuous and intensely active hfe of chil- 
 dren spring those interests that reveal themselves in 
 
 ' Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, Vol. I, p. 80, 
 and Vol. II, p. 90.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 65 
 
 a fondness for spectacular scenes, feats of skill and 
 daring, and the general flesh-and-blood heroism so 
 attractive to boys and girls. Studies made of chil- 
 dren's reading interests bring to light the fact that in 
 the period just preceding adolescence there is a 
 marked fondness for the heroic in literature. Thus, 
 Principal Atkinson,' of the Springfield (Mass.) 
 High School, found that the books read the preceding 
 summer by an entering freshman class were largely 
 biographical, including a range of heroes from 
 Charlemange and Cromwell to Daniel Boone and 
 Buffalo Bill. In general, an ideal or heroic char- 
 acter placed in a historic situation seemed to appeal 
 to the largest number. 
 
 Now the Bible illustrates a similar development 
 from the sensory-motor type of life toward the asso- 
 ciative and rational type of life. The Old Testa- 
 ment abounds with spectacular scenes, such as the 
 fight between David and Goliath, and Daniel in the 
 lion's den; thrilling stories, such as those associated 
 with the lives of Moses and Joseph; and heroic char- 
 acters, such as Abraham and David. There is 
 throughout a combination of scenic splendor, striking 
 episodes, and unique personalities that impresses the 
 senses most vividly and appeals to the love of dra- 
 matic action. It is true, of course, that the motive 
 of the Old Testament is religious. There was no 
 design on the part of its writers to present a pageant 
 of striking characters and incidents. But the method 
 
 I Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1898.
 
 66 The Child and His Religion 
 
 is, nevertheless, that of the primitive mind, which 
 seizes upon the sensuous and the dramatic, rather 
 than the rational and reflective, elements of life and 
 religion. Here again, therefore we find a parallelism 
 between the development of the child and the devel- 
 opment of the Bible. 
 
 This parallelism between the unfolding of racial 
 consciousness as revealed in the Bible and the unfold- 
 ing of the child's consciousness, has further illustra- 
 tion when we direct our attention to the older children 
 included in this study. Here we find that as life 
 ripens into adolescence, the centers of interest shift 
 to the New Testament. From 15 years on, in the 
 case of the boys, and from 14 years on, in the case of 
 the girls, the preference of the latter becomes more 
 and more marked. Now, all the studies of adoles- 
 cence tend to show that this period marks a psychical, 
 as well as a physical rebirth. The child is born out 
 of an individualistic type of feeling into a social type 
 of feeling; out of a sensory-motor type of intelligence 
 into a reflective type of intelligence; out of an egocen- 
 tric and sensuous life, in short, into a life altrocenlric 
 and rational. Hancock' has found by experi- 
 mental tests that children's ability to reason increases 
 rapidly with the approach of adolescence. Lan- 
 caster^ shows that during this period altruistic feeling 
 is extremely active in both sexes, revealing itself in 
 philanthropic work of all kinds. Starbucks and 
 
 ' Educational Review, October, 1896. 
 
 2 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 61-128. 
 
 3 American Journal of Psychology, January and October, 1897.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 67 
 
 Gulick, ' by statistical studies of conversion, find that 
 the great majority of accessions to the church take 
 place between 12 and 20 years of age. We may 
 conclude, therefore, that just as Jesus and the Chris- 
 tian type of consciousness represented a new birth 
 for the race, so does the flowering-out of the altruistic 
 and reflectively religious consciousness of adolescence 
 represent a new birth for the individual. In other 
 words, just as the personality of Jesus and his regimen 
 of life sum up the ideals toward which the race is 
 struggling, so do they sum up the ideals toward which 
 the individual soul is struggling. 
 
 As regards the children who express no prefer- 
 ence between the Old and the New Testament, it 
 will be observed that they fall within those ages 
 when the interests of the majority of the children are 
 shifting from the Old to the New Testament. From 
 what has already been said, it is evident that the 
 transformation from the egoistic, sensuous life of 
 childhood, to the altruistic reflective life of adoles- 
 cence, must occasion a severe conflict of interests. 
 This general conflict of interests is doubtless reflected 
 in the inability, or disinclination, of some to choose 
 between the Old and the New Testament. Teachers 
 and parents often remark upon the indifference of 
 some children during these beginning years of adoles- 
 cence. As is well known in Sunday-school work, this 
 is a period when children are kept in their classes 
 with difficulty. The study of children reveals the 
 
 I Association Outlook, Springfield, Mass., Vol. VIII, pp. 33-48.
 
 68 The Child and His Religion 
 
 fact that early adolescence is the birthtime of doubts 
 and vacillations in conduct. Now probably these 
 phenomena are due in part to the physical and 
 psychical strain of the period, more intense in some 
 children than in others; but I venture to suggest 
 that all such indifference, doubt, or whatever it may 
 be, is largely due to the conflict of interests incident 
 to the transition from one type of life to another. 
 
 To conclude this discussion regarding the choice 
 of children between the Old and the New Testament: 
 Have we not in the development of children's interest 
 in the main divisions of the Bible a verification of an 
 age-long belief ? The Christian world has long been 
 familiar with the thought that the Old Testament is 
 preparatory to the New. The historical events 
 recorded in the former have their culmination in the 
 latter. The prophesies springing from the life of 
 ancient Israel anticipate the life and utterances of 
 Him who came out of Nazareth. The laws given 
 at Sinai have their fulfilment in the Sermon on the 
 Mount. In short, in the words of Paul: "The law 
 was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ."' 
 This popular view of the relation between the Old 
 and the New Testament is being confirmed by the 
 conclusions of modern biblical scholarship. The 
 Hebrew Scriptures illustrate the general laws of 
 development in the life of a people. Each step in 
 the unfolding of Hebrew institutions, customs, laws, 
 and moral and religious ideals, is related to all that 
 
 ' Gal. 3:24.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 69 
 
 precedes and all that follows. The new dispensa- 
 tion could not come till the old had prepared at 
 least a few choice souls for its reception. The 
 words of Paul, " When the fullness of time was come, 
 God sent forth his Son,"' have thus their modern 
 reading in the theory of human development. 
 
 Choice among the hooks of the Bible. — The data 
 summarized under this head contribute to the same 
 general results as those reached in the preceding 
 section. In addition, however, they bring to light 
 the interests of children from a more distinctively 
 educational point of view. The material of the 
 Bible, as commonly given to children, may be classi- 
 fied under the following heads: (i) historical (includ- 
 ing the geographical), (2) prophetic, (3) gospel, and 
 (4) doctrinal. To these may be added the literary, 
 including the poetic and wisdom books. Following 
 the lines of this classification, I have grouped the 
 various books of the Bible for which the children 
 indicated a preference, under six heads: historical, 
 prophetic, poetic, wisdom, gospel, and doctrinal. 
 
 At 8 years of age, the choice of the boys is equally 
 divided between the historical and the gospel books. 
 During the next three years, the interest in the 
 historical books increases, reaching in the nth 
 year 60 per cent. Thereafter, the historical interest 
 declines, falling to 22 per cent, in the 14th year and 
 to 8 per cent, in the 20th year. The interest in the 
 gospel books falls off rapidly from the 8th to the 13th 
 
 1 Gal. 4:4.
 
 yo The Child and His Religion 
 
 year, reaching at that time 22 per cent. Then it rises 
 steadily and rapidly to the 20th year, when it reaches 
 78 per cent. Interest in the poetic books begins at 
 9 years, rises steadily to the 14th year, when it 
 reaches t,t, per cent., and then falls off more or less 
 irregularly to the 20th year, when it stands at 14 
 per cent. From 12 to 15, there is some interest 
 shown in the prophetic books, the maximum being 
 18 per cent, in the 14th year. There is also a slight 
 interest shown in the wisdom books from 16 to 18, 
 the maximum being reached at 17, when the per- 
 centage is seven. Not a single boy between the 
 ages of 8 and 20 expressed a preference for a book 
 that could be classed as doctrinal. 
 
 The girls also distribute their preferences equally 
 between the historical and gospel books to start with. 
 The historical interest then declines to 37 per cent, 
 at 10 years, rises steadily to 46 per cent, in the 13th 
 year, and thereafter falls to zero in the 19th year. 
 The interest in the gospel books falls to 30 per cent, 
 in the 12th year, and thereafter rises steadily and 
 rapidly to 90 per cent, in the 20th year. The poetic 
 interest appears first in the 9th year, rises to 20 per 
 cent, in the nth and 12th years, and then slowly 
 declines to zero in the 17th year. Interest in the 
 prophetic books has a somewhat uneven run from 
 12 to 20, reaching its maximum at 12 and again at 
 17. Interest in the wisdom books begins at 14, 
 being at its maximum from that age to 15, and then 
 declining to zero at 20. A slight interest is shown
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 71 
 
 in the doctrinal books from 19 to 20, the maximum 
 being 10 per cent., at the latter age. 
 
 In general, therefore, we have a somewhat wide 
 distribution of interests up to the beginning of adoles- 
 cence, with some advantage in favor of the historical 
 books, especially on the part of the boys. Literary, 
 prophetic, and wisdom books come more into favor 
 in the years just preceding adolescence and maintain 
 a somewhat prominent place throughout the early 
 years of that period; while the gospel interest stands 
 out conspicuously as the pre-eminent adolescent 
 interest. These results are brought out more graph- 
 ically in Charts III and IV. 
 
 In interpreting the foregoing results, we have first 
 to note that, in general, the preferences coincide with 
 those considered in the preceding section. Thus, 
 the preference for the historical books, which are 
 mainly in the Old Testament, run more or less 
 parallel with the preference for the first division of 
 the Bible. The preference for the gospel books, 
 which are in the New Testament, run more or less 
 parallel with the second division of the Bible. This 
 is not so much the case with the younger children. 
 Here the choice of gospel books is not so general as 
 is the choice of the New Testament as a whole, while 
 the choice of historical books is more general than is 
 that of the Old Testament as a whole. This dis- 
 parity of choice is due, in part at least, to some chil- 
 dren's choosing the Acts of the Apostles, which was 
 classed among the historical books. In general,
 
 72 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 therefore, the choice among the books of the Bible 
 at different ages has the same explanation that has 
 already been given to account for the choice between 
 the Old and the New Testament. The preference 
 
 CHART ni 
 Boys' Choice among the Various Books of the Bible 
 
 100 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
 20 
 10 
 
 AGE 8 9 JO II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
 
 GOSPEI HIST0RICA1 POETIC. 
 
 o__c-o- PROPHETIC. I WISDOM. 
 
 of the younger children for the gospel books is due 
 to the fact that these books contain the scenes and 
 incidents associated with the infancy of Jesus. The 
 preference of the older children for the historical 
 books is due to the fact that these books contain the 
 elements most attractive to the egoistic and sensuous 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 -"' 
 
 -'- 
 
 
 *" 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 N, 
 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "^ 
 
 ^-- 
 
 -^ 
 
 VH 
 
 / •- 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^- 
 
 
 ,»^' 
 
 ^•x 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ff 
 
 / 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ,^ 
 
 *r«^ 
 
 ^--^ 
 
 "N 

 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 
 
 73 
 
 natures of such children, while the choice of gospel 
 books by adolescents is explained by reference to the 
 general ripening of the altruistic and reflective life 
 at that period. 
 
 CHART IV 
 Gnas' Choice among the Various Books of the Bible 
 
 locr 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 "^ 
 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 
 30 
 20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 y^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 X. 
 
 *N 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "*■ 
 
 -"" 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 ../•' 
 
 
 
 -••- ^ 
 
 \, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /" 
 
 y 
 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 •Wsii^ 
 
 
 ^ZZ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 AGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 10 19 20 
 
 GOSPEL. HISTORICAL, POETIC. 
 
 jPROPHETlC. H+HWM+w WISDOM. »,»«Ha*ee<«,0OCTR)NAL. 
 
 However, we may look at children's choice among 
 the books of the Bible from a somewhat different 
 point of view and in greater detail. First, as to the 
 choice of historical books. It has been found that 
 the interest of public-school children in history and 
 geography is marked during the period from 9 or 10,
 
 74 The Child and His Religion 
 
 on to 13 or 14. Mrs. Barnes^ found that the historic 
 sense has a rapid development during these years. 
 Her curves are very similar to those shown in the 
 above diagrams. She concludes that from 7 years 
 on, history becomes an increasingly attractive sub- 
 ject for children, though the larger historical interest 
 does not develop, perhaps, before 11 or 12. Miss 
 Ward,^ who studied the geographical interests of 
 several thousand children, finds that there is a 
 marked interest in places, especially in places that 
 have human associations. I have studied the general 
 school interests of over 1,000 children in the public 
 schools of Springfield, Mass., and find that both the 
 historical and geographical interests begin to be 
 prominent at 10 years. These facts make it prob- 
 able that children from 9 to 10 years, on to 13 or 
 14, will be naturally interested in the historical and 
 geographical elements of the Bible. There is also 
 another fact to be taken into account in this connec- 
 tion. There is evidence for believing that children 
 during this period have especial aptitude for mem- 
 orizing. All those studies that involve a constant 
 exercise of memory, such as language, arithmetic, 
 geography, and history, are more easily taught to 
 children at this time. Street^ concludes from his 
 study of language-training that children acquire 
 languages most readily from 8 to 12 years. Bolton'' 
 
 ' Studies in Education, pp. 43-52, 83-93. 
 " Education, Vol. XVIII. 
 
 3 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 269-93. 
 
 4 A^nerican Journal oj Psychology, Vol. IV.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 75 
 
 found that the memory of children for numbers 
 practically reaches its maximum in the grades 
 below the high school. Shaw' found that the mem- 
 ory of children for the essential elements of a story 
 culminated just before the high-school period is 
 reached. Scripture** found that the time-memory in 
 children reaches its greatest accuracy at about 13 or 
 14 years. These investigations indicate that the 
 period of life in question is peculiarly adapted for 
 fact-studies, which make great demands upon the 
 memory. And this again renders it probable that 
 children's preference for the historical books of the 
 Bible is based, in part, upon certain special intellec- 
 tual aptitudes. 
 
 Next, as to the choice of prophetic and literary 
 books. "Prophecy" consists of two things as ap- 
 plied to the Bible: (i) the revelation of coming 
 events; and (2) the speaking forth of the deeper 
 truths of hfe. Perhaps, in the last analysis, these 
 two things are one, but we ordinarily consider them 
 distinct. Now, adolescence is the "Golden Age" of 
 prophecy. It is then that the individual conscious- 
 ness is reborn into the consciousness of the race. 
 The deeper truths of existence are yearned for and 
 glimpsed. There is a moral and religious ferment, 
 and the loftiest and the most sordid ideals struggle 
 for mastery. Moreover, it is then that the human 
 soul looks most anxiously into the future. Perhaps 
 
 I Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 61-78. 
 a Thinking, Feeling, Doing, p. 251.
 
 76 The Child and His Religion 
 
 it looks farthest into the future. Certainly it tries 
 then, as at no other time, to learn its horoscope. 
 Witness the idealizing, the day-dreaming, the fortune- 
 telling devices of young people. Lancaster' in his 
 study of the psychology and pedagogy of adolescence, 
 has collected data illustrating both these aspects of 
 the prophetic spirit. The longing for the more 
 vital truths of life, and the far-looking into the future, 
 recur again and again in the returns received from 
 the youth of both sexes. Adolescence is also the 
 period when literary feeling and aspirations ripen. 
 These are offshoots of the aesthetic nature, and 
 studies of adolescent life bring to light the fact that 
 all the forms of aesthetic feeling and activity begin 
 to crop out early in this period. In the study of 
 children's school interests already referred to, I have 
 found that the interest in painting, drawing, and 
 music increases rapidly from 12 years on, Lancaster 
 found that of 100 actors, 50 poets, 100 musicians, 50 
 artists, and 100 writers, the majority had achieved 
 success in their art before the age of 20, showing that 
 the life of aesthetic feeling and idealism is well 
 developed in early adolescence. The preference of 
 children for the prophetic and literary books of the 
 Bible, in the early adolescent years, is, therefore, 
 doubtless an expression of more general moral and 
 aesthetic interests. 
 
 Finally, as to the choice of gospel books: This is 
 pre-eminently the choice of the adolescent. From 
 
 ' Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 61-128.
 
 Children'' s Interest in the Bible 77 
 
 what has already been said, it is evident that adoles- 
 cence needs, and seeks, above everything else, some 
 kind of a philosophy and regimen of life. Life has 
 become a thing fraught with a new but vague mean- 
 ing; the struggle is to make its meaning clear. Life 
 has become a larger, richer thing; the struggle is to 
 learn the method by which its largeness and richness 
 may be personally realized. The quickening of 
 moral feeling leads to self-scrutiny and an apprehen- 
 sion of more or less friction between the self and the 
 best environments. The quickening of the religious 
 feelings begets a desire to get adjusted to the largest 
 and best ideals. The quickening of the sense of life, 
 as lived through others and for others, awakens the 
 impulse to become a part of the great cosmic struggle 
 for more complete existence. In the gospels is found 
 the Christian philosophy of life; and in the gospels is 
 found the Christian regimen of life, in its broad out- 
 lines. For the gospels reveal the personality of One 
 who "came that they might have life and that they 
 might have it more abundantly," and Christian 
 philosophy sums itself up in personal character. 
 And the gospels reveal broadly the Christian regimen 
 of life, for this is simply to follow where He leads. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that, when the mean- 
 ing and method of life are sought with such earnest 
 zest as during the adolescent years, the Christian 
 explanation of what life is, and how it may be lived, 
 should be of interest. 
 
 Choice of Bible scenes, stories, and characters. — The
 
 73 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 data collected under this head bear upon three points : 
 (i) the scenes, stories, and characters that are most 
 liked; (2) the development of interest in the scenic, 
 narrative, and personal elements; and (3) the com- 
 parative interest in the three classes of elements at 
 different ages. Preferences were shown for 57 differ- 
 ent Bible scenes, 26 from the Old Testament and 31 
 from the New. Of these, the 15 most popular scenes 
 are the followinsr: 
 
 Total 
 
 1. Daniel in the Lions' Den 
 
 2. The Crucifixion 
 
 3. The Birth of Jesus 
 
 4. Jesus Blessing Little Children. 
 
 5. The Lord's Supper 
 
 6. Feeding the Five Thousand. . . 
 
 7. Jesus Walking on the Sea 
 
 8. The Resurrection 
 
 The Finding of Moses 
 
 The Raising of Lazarus 
 
 The Transfiguration 
 
 Jesus before the Wise Men. . . . 
 
 Jesus' Triumphal Entry 
 
 The Woman at the Well 
 
 The Stilling of the Tempest. . . 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 II. 
 12. 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 53 
 
 52 
 
 45 
 27 
 
 35 
 38 
 
 13 
 
 42 
 
 30 
 
 23 
 
 25 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 18 
 
 27 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 21 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 105 
 78 
 65 
 
 55 
 53 
 49 
 37 
 36 
 34 
 32 
 31 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 24 
 
 It will be observed that all but 2 of these 15 scenes 
 are from the New Testament. Probably this is to be 
 accounted for, in part, by the influence of pictures. 
 Many of the scenes mentioned are the commonest 
 subjects of the masterpieces of Christian art, repro- 
 ductions of which appear in pictorial Bibles, Sunday- 
 school literature, and the like. It is also due, un- 
 doubtedly, to the intrinsic attractiveness of the per- 
 sonality and works of Jesus. All of the scenes from
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 79 
 
 the New Testament have him as their central figure, 
 three presenting him as a child or in connection with 
 children. The most popular scene of all, however, 
 is Daniel in the Lions' Den. This is unquestionably 
 one of the most graphic scenes in the Bible when 
 given pictorial representation, as it often is, in reli- 
 gious literature. This fact is sufficient to account for 
 its popularity. The popularity of the Crucifixion is 
 doubtless due, in part, to Christian art and to the 
 emphasis placed in religious teaching upon the death 
 of Jesus. It is also, probably, due to a lurking fond- 
 ness in some children for cruel and tragic scenes. 
 One boy, in describing his preferences, said, " I like 
 anything that has murder and such things in it." It 
 is to be hoped that not many children share this feel- 
 ing. But there is here suggested a possibility that 
 should inspire caution in those who are disposed to 
 dwell upon such scenes in religious teaching. 
 
 The choice of Bible stories has a total range of t,^, 
 23 of these being drawn from the Old Testament and 
 15 from the New. The most popular of these are 
 given in the table on the following page. 
 
 It appears from this that Old Testament stories are 
 more popular than are New Testament stories, the 
 5 standing highest in the list being drawn from the 
 Old Testament. These 5 stories have all the essen- 
 tial elements that make such productions attractive 
 to the young — heroic characters, heroic situations, 
 heroic actions. The same is true, in a somewhat 
 less degree, of the remaining 5 stories drawn from the
 
 8o 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 Old Testament. From all that has been said about 
 the egoistic sensuous life of children in the earlier 
 years, we are prepared to understand why the story- 
 interest should center in that division of the Bible. 
 
 1. The Selling of Joseph 
 
 2. David and Goliath 
 
 3. Daniel and the Assyrian Kings. . 
 
 4. Moses and Pharaoh's Daughter. 
 
 5. The Story of Ruth 
 
 6. Story of Jesus' Birth 
 
 7. The Prodigal Son 
 
 8. Story of Noah's Ark 
 
 9. The Calling of Samuel 
 
 10. Samson and the Philistines 
 
 11. The Flight into Egypt 
 
 12. Jonah and the Whale 
 
 13. Story of Esther 
 
 14. Changing Water into Wine 
 
 15. The Good Samaritan 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 48 
 
 99 
 
 5° 
 
 5° 
 
 43 
 
 41 
 
 25 
 
 44 
 
 10 
 
 41 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 15 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 II 
 
 Total 
 
 147 
 100 
 
 84 
 69 
 51 
 49 
 38 
 38 
 32 
 27 
 18 
 
 17 
 17 
 17 
 16 
 
 The most popular story in the New Testament is that 
 of Jesus' birth, many of the youngest children choos- 
 ing this, as we might expect from what has preceded. 
 But one story in this group of 15 is based upon a 
 miracle, and this probably owed its interest for chil- 
 dren to the human elements involved. In general, 
 few children expressed a liking for miracles. 
 
 A total of 45 Bible characters were chosen — 25 
 Old Testament characters and 20 New Testament 
 characters. The 15 most popular are given in the 
 table on the following page. 
 
 From the foregoing, it appears the three characters 
 most often chosen, arc New Testament characters. 
 The boys distribute their preferences equally among
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 
 
 these. A much larger percentage of the girls, how- 
 ever, choose John the Disciple, while more of the 
 girls choose Peter than Jesus. The qualities found 
 in John are sufficient to account for his popularity. 
 He is a gentle, loving, yet manly, character. He is 
 
 Total 
 
 John the Disciple 
 
 Peter 
 
 Jesus 
 
 David 
 
 Moses 
 
 Paul 
 
 Joseph 
 
 Daniel 
 
 Samuel 
 
 Ruth 
 
 Elijah 
 
 Abraham 
 
 Solomon 
 
 John the Baptist 
 
 Mary, the Mother of Jesus. 
 
 Boys 
 
 Girls 
 
 48 
 
 104 
 
 48 
 
 77 
 
 48 
 
 66 
 
 49 
 
 65 
 
 44 
 
 59 
 
 31 
 
 63 
 
 32 
 
 43 
 
 19 
 
 36 
 
 13 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 II 
 
 152 
 
 125 
 
 114 
 114 
 103 
 
 94 
 75 
 55 
 30 
 24 
 24 
 21 
 20 
 15 
 15 
 
 doubtless also loved for the sake of his Master, 
 whom he so fittingly portrayed in the Fourth Gospel. 
 The prominence of Peter is not so easily understood. 
 Aside from his rugged, virile manhood, we have 
 probably to take into account his unique place in 
 Jesus' regard and the distinction he has enjoyed in 
 church history. It may seem strange that Jesus 
 should rank lowest in the total preferences shown for 
 these three New Testament characters. I am in- 
 clined to believe that this is not accidental, however. 
 It is doubtful if the younger children at least were 
 influenced by the theological estimate of Jesus. They 
 probably see only the human Jesus, and if they think
 
 82 The Child and His Religion 
 
 of Jesus as a man, when they are asked to express a 
 choice between him and another man, they do so with 
 the same candor that they show in other matters. I 
 doubt not that Jesus is naturally the most attractive 
 character in the Bible for children of all ages. This 
 study shows that, as a child, he is more often chosen 
 by the younger children than is any other character. 
 It seems to me probable that this preference would 
 continue among older children if the latter were 
 allowed spontaneously to grow into an appreciation 
 of the adult Jesus. But religious teachers are usually 
 so anxious to present Jesus to children as a divine 
 person, and children's minds are so unable to grasp 
 the mystical implications of this dogma, that the 
 human Jesus is taken away from them and the divine 
 Jesus is made an intellectual abstraction. The 
 result is, that the child can love neither the one nor 
 the other. This religious forcing will inevitably 
 shift the interest of a child to a character whose simple 
 humanity it can understand and love. I believe 
 this will account for the preference which so large a 
 percentage of the girls show for John. 
 
 Among the Old Testament characters chosen, the 
 most prominent are David, Moses, Joseph, and 
 Daniel. This is what we would expect from what we 
 have already learned of children's preference for the 
 heroic and dramatic elements of the Old Testament. 
 
 As regards the development of interest in the 
 scenic, narrative, and personal elements of the Bible, 
 we find: (i) That, in general, the interest in scenes
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 8^ 
 
 and stories is somewhat more marked in the younger 
 children than in the older; and (2) that the interest 
 in characters increases with advancing age. Refer- 
 ence to Charts V and VI makes this sufficiently 
 clear. From these charts it will also be observed 
 that the comparative interest in the three classes of 
 elements at different ages is overwhelmingly in favor 
 of the characters. The larger percentage of children 
 of all ages are attracted more strongly to the personal 
 elements of the Bible than to any other. This is 
 shown not alone by the preference expressed for 
 characters, but also by the choice of scenes and nar- 
 ratives themselves. Thus, of the 57 scenes men- 
 tioned, all but 4 have their center of interest in per- 
 sons; while of the t^?> Bible stories selected, all but 
 3 owe their interest to the characters that take part in 
 them. 
 
 Sufficient has already been said in this and preced- 
 ing sections to explain most of the above results. The 
 overwhelming interest of children of all ages in the 
 personal elements of the Bible deserves further dis- 
 cussion, however. The human interest of children 
 has been generally observed by those who have 
 studied the psychology of childhood. To adapt the 
 sentiment of the Latin poet, nothing of human con- 
 cern is foreign to the child. The first efforts of the 
 little boy to realize his artistic ideals are usually 
 pictures of men. The principal play activities are 
 reproductions of the lives of adult men and women. 
 The reading interests of older children run mainly
 
 84 The Child and His Religion 
 
 along the line of biography, or fiction in which the 
 character element is prominent, Atkinson, in com- 
 menting upon the reading-interest of boys at the 
 high-school period, says: "The liking for biography 
 is remarkable. One boy read the lives of Grant, 
 Garfield, Sherman, and Blaine. Another read the 
 lives of Charlemagne, Cromwell, David Crockett, 
 Daniel Boone, and Buffalo Bill."^ Mrs. Barnes,^ 
 from her study of the historic sense of children, con- 
 cludes that history should primarily be taught 
 through the biographies of heroic and striking char- 
 acters. Miss Ward,3 who has investigated the geo- 
 graphical interest of children, finds that five-sixths 
 of the preferences for towns, cities, or countries 
 reveal a human interest. Miss Ward mentions Anna 
 Buckbee as having made a similar study to her own, 
 with similar results, and concludes by saying: " Does 
 not the strong human interest shown by children 
 lead us to unite with Miss Buckbee in asking if this 
 does not show that the earth should be taught as the 
 home of man?" The sentiment thus expressed is 
 rapidly becoming general in educational circles. 
 History, geography, literature, and the elementary 
 sciences are being taught more and more from the 
 viewpoint of their human interest. In the light of 
 
 " "A Year's Study of the Entering Pupils of the Springfield 
 (Mass.) High School," Proceedings of the National Education 
 Association, 1898. 
 
 ' Studies in Education, p. 90. 
 
 3 Education, Vol. XVIII.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 
 
 85 
 
 such facts, the significance of children's predominant 
 interest in the personal elements of the Bible becomes 
 clear. Have we not here a suggestion that the Bible, 
 too, may best be given to children through the 
 medium of personal incident and biography ? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHART V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' i 
 
 Comparative Choice among Boys of Bible Characters, Stories, 
 AND Scenes 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 N^ 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 
 60 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 V, 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 / 
 /' 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iU 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
 ^,,-^ 
 
 ^',f 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 20 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 / 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 • 
 
 x 
 y 
 
 
 
 ■^' 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ., 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 s 
 
 > 
 
 ^-'' 
 
 ,^' 
 
 AG£ 8 
 
 10 11 12 
 —CHARACTERS. 
 
 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
 STORIES. SCENES. 
 
 Development of interest in Jesus. — Finally, we 
 may examine the data bearing upon children's 
 interest in Bible characters, with a view to discover- 
 ing whether there is any change from period to period 
 in their regard for Jesus. For purposes of compari- 
 son, it^will be helpful to^note the development of
 
 86 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 interest in John the Disciple, and David, the most 
 popular characters in the New and the Old Testa- 
 ment, respectively. First of all, we should remem- 
 ber that what has been said about little children's 
 fondness for the infant Jesus will not hold to the 
 
 CHART VI 
 
 Comparative Choice among Girls of Bible Characters, Stories, 
 
 AND Scenes 
 
 * 
 
 100 
 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
 20 
 10 
 
 AGE 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 \, 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 \ 
 
 y 
 
 ^ 
 
 ""^ 
 
 ■ ' 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 s 
 
 
 
 "s — 
 
 ^?< 
 
 >^. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /^ 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 N 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 •» ^ — 
 
 ■^• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '0 11 12 13 14 15 16 
 .CHARACTERS. ———STORIES. - 
 
 18 19 20 
 SCENES. 
 
 same extent in the choice of Jesus as an adult 
 character. In the former case, Jesus was thought 
 of in the environment of childhood. His attrac- 
 tiveness for children was revealed through their 
 fondness for the scenes and incidents connected 
 with that period. In the latter case, he is
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 87 
 
 thought of in relation to other adults and to adult 
 environments. 
 
 The boys express no preference for Jesus until the 
 loth year. Beginning at this age with 10 per cent., 
 their interest increases somewhat rapidly up to 14, 
 and then less rapidly throughout the remaining years 
 included in the study. From 17 years on, approxi- 
 mately, 60 per cent, of the boys include Jesus in 
 their list of preferences. The girls' interest begins 
 with 20 per cent., at 8 years, and rises steadily up 
 to the 15th year, when it stands at 60 per cent. 
 Thereafter, it declines somewhat, although remain- 
 ing throughout above 50 per cent. Generally speak- 
 ing, therefore, the interest in Jesus is an adolescent 
 interest, manifesting itself strongly at the beginning 
 of that period and continuing throughout. The 
 interest in John the Disciple, on the other hand, 
 covers a shorter period. It is mainly an interest of 
 early adolescence. In the case of the girls, it rises 
 sharply from 10 years on, culminating at 13, with 
 68 per cent. The boys' interest rises less abruptly, 
 reaching its culmination in the i6th year, with 50 
 per cent. Thereafter, in both boys and girls, the 
 curve of interest falls rapidly. Finally, the interest 
 in David is, in general, a pre-adolescent interest. It 
 is strongly manifested from 9 to 12, reaching approxi- 
 mately its highest point at the latter age, in the case of 
 the girls, and then remaining constant up to 15, 
 when it falls off rapidly. The boys' interest cul- 
 minates at 14, when it also declines, the percentage
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 of both sexes falling to zero in the 19th year. These 
 results will appear more clearly in the following 
 charts. 
 
 100 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
 20 
 10 
 AGE 8 
 
 CHART VII 
 
 Children's Interest in Jesus 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 '-^^ 
 
 •^ 
 
 ---^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 X 
 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 12 13 
 ..BOYS. 
 
 15 16 
 .-GIRLS. 
 
 13 19 30 
 
 We hav€, therefore, the outstanding fact that chil- 
 dren's interest in Jesus, as an adult, is an adolescent 
 interest. This is what we should expect from the 
 numerous tendencies of this period of life, elsewhere 
 referred to. In considering the general interest of 
 adolescents in the New Testament, we found that 
 this runs parallel with the ripening of the altruistic 
 and rcdective consciousness. Thus, it is the opinion 
 of those who have studied the religious aspects of
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 
 
 89 
 
 adolescence that the character and teaching of Jesus 
 appeal strongly to the adolescent mind. Lancaster 
 says: 
 
 Adolescents will sacrifice and perform duty for the Master 
 as at no other time of life. Instruction should take the form 
 
 CHART VIII 
 CeiLnREN s Interest in Tohn the Disciple 
 i 
 100 
 
 90 
 
 eo 
 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
 20 
 10 
 
 AGE 8 9 10 n 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
 BOYS. GIPLS. 
 
 of an appeal to free, spontaneous loyaUy to the King, an d 
 Jesus should be presented as the ideal, heroic God-man. His 
 self-sacrifice and self-denial, his suffering and passion may 
 be taught with the assurance that they will appeal most 
 strongly to the soul-life of the adolescents.' 
 
 ' "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," Pedagogi- 
 cal Seminary, Vol. V, p. 128. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 ». 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 --' 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 ^v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 /^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^. 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 "X^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ \ 
 
 
 
 y- 
 
 
 
 .^— ^' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ s 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 90 
 
 The Child and His Religion 
 
 This intrinsic attractiveness of the personality of 
 Jesus for young people, appears in what is called con- 
 version. The meaning attached to the latter by 
 evangelical Christianity is essentially the acceptance 
 of Jesus as a personal Savior. As has already been 
 
 CHART IX 
 
 Children's Interest in David 
 
 i 
 
 10(? 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^-» 
 
 ^^^ 
 J 
 
 b; 
 
 ^- 
 
 -^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 N*"**' 
 
 \ 
 
 ^-- 
 
 . 
 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
 — 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 \\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
 __i_BOYS. ... GIRLS. 
 
 pointed out, statistical studies of conversion show 
 that this is an adolescent phenomenon. Starbuck' 
 found that the curve of conversion reached its 
 maximum at i6, for both sexes, though a considerable 
 percentage of conversions among the girls took place 
 
 ' Psychology of Religion.
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 91 
 
 in the 13th year. Gulick^ found that the maximum 
 for boys was reached in the i8th year, with a large 
 number falh'ng in the i6th year also. In general, 
 these investigations show that most young people 
 who enter the church, do so in the first half of adoles- 
 cent life. This virtually coincides with the period 
 of maximum interest in Jesus, as shown in Chart 
 VII. The attractiveness of Jesus for adolescents is 
 therefore but one of a large class of phenomena, 
 which the investigation of adolescent life is bringing 
 to light. It would seem to afford another and 
 weighty reason for concluding that this period of 
 life is the time when the human soul spontaneously 
 opens to the ideals of character and conduct which 
 Jesus represents. 
 
 Conclusions. — The most general conclusion grow- 
 ing out of this study of children's Bible interests, is 
 that it confirms the results obtained from similar 
 studies along other lines, and is, in turn, confirmed 
 by them. This fact goes far toward offsetting any 
 suspicion as to method or completeness of data. It 
 cannot be accidental that children's interest in the 
 Old Testament falls mainly in a period of life which 
 experimental studies of children's mental aptitudes, 
 as well as their historical, geographical, reading, 
 play, and other interests, have shown to be char- 
 acterized by just the instinctive tendencies and 
 intellectual qualities that the material of the Old 
 Testament most powerfully appeals to. Nor can 
 
 I Association Outlook, Vol. VIII, pp. 33-48.
 
 92 The Child and His^ Religion 
 
 it be accidental that adolescent interest in the gospels, 
 and in Jesus, runs parallel with the general altruistic 
 and religious interests brought to light by the various 
 studies of adolescence. It seems to me, therefore, 
 that this concurrence of results does two things: (i) 
 It vindicates the point of view and method of the 
 present study; and (2) it serves to strengthen the 
 conclusions which the study suggests. These con- 
 clusions are as follows: 
 
 I. Children up to 8 or 9 years are more interested 
 in the portions of the New Testament which give 
 accounts of the birth and childhood of Jesus. They 
 are interested, however, in Old Testament stories 
 relating to the childhood or youth of characters like 
 Moses, Samuel, Joseph, and David. This suggests 
 that children of this age should be given instruction 
 in the Bible from the viewpoint of the childhood of 
 the Bible, beginning with Jesus and using the others 
 for purposes of comparative study. Of course, such 
 material would serve only as the nucleus of the pri- 
 mary curriculum. Around this could be grouped a 
 great diversity of material derived from studies in 
 nature, art, industries, and other departments of 
 human life, so selected and presented as to give the 
 children a religious outlook upon their environment. 
 A great deal of the material of the corresponding 
 grades of the public schools could be appropriated, 
 and given an ethical and religious interpretation. 
 This could be done most effectively, as it seems to 
 me, through the medium of this great World-Soul, 
 who summed up in His character and life all the
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 93 
 
 most fundamental human interests, who came into 
 the world through the gateway of childhood, and 
 who said: "Suffer little children, and forbid them 
 not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven," 
 
 2. From 9 years, on to 13 or 14, children are more 
 interested in the Old Testament. This interest 
 shows itself more especially in a fondness for the 
 historical books, the literary and prophetic books, 
 and the heroic and dramatic elements generally. 
 This suggests that the religious curriculum for this 
 period should occupy itself with the history, geog- 
 raphy, literature, prophecy, and general moral and 
 religious contents of the first division of the Bible. 
 It would coincide with the grades of public-school 
 work above the primary and below the high school, 
 in that it would deal essentially with fact-studies. It 
 would really mark the beginning of formal biblical 
 instruction, the instruction of the earlier period being 
 more general and unsystematic. The order of 
 material would be: (i) history and geography, (2) 
 literature, and (3) prophecy. The moral and reli- 
 gious elements would be involved throughout. Inci- 
 dentally, the history of other ancient peoples, and, 
 at least, the elements of comparative religion could 
 be taught. Much might profitably be made of the 
 manners and customs, and the social life, especially 
 as reflected in the industries, religious and political 
 ceremonials, and feats of arms. Sacred art might 
 be brought into requisition to aid in the study of
 
 94 The Child and His Religion 
 
 characters and customs. This is the period for 
 memorizing selected passages of Scripture, such as 
 Psalms, Proverbs, etc. 
 
 3. Children in the adolescent period show a de- 
 cided interest in the New Testament, especially in 
 the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. They 
 also show a very special interest in Jesus and the 
 principal disciples. The interest in John the Dis- 
 ciple, is an early adolescent interest, while the interest 
 in Jesus culminates somewhat later, and is sustained 
 throughout. This suggests that the material of 
 instruction for adolescence should be derived largely 
 from the New Testament. It would center in 
 Jesus and his teachings, the principal disciples being 
 studied incidentally. The study of types of Chris- 
 tian character and the development of Christian 
 thought and institutions might very profitably be 
 extended to the later history of Christianity. Every 
 possible sidelight of history, literature, art, and 
 science could be utilized in revealing the ideals of 
 Christian manhood and Christian society. The 
 religious instruction of this period should, it seems 
 to me, aim to establish a correct personal relation- 
 ship with the Divine Father and with society. Altru- 
 istic and religious feelings should be made use of to 
 stimulate and guide a spirit of co-operation with God 
 and men. 
 
 4. At all ages, children feel more interest in persons 
 than in any other elements of the Bible. Even 
 Bible scenes and stories appeal to them mainly
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 95 
 
 through the man, woman, or child that is the center 
 of the scene or the principal actor in the story. This 
 suggests that the Bible should be given to children, 
 of all ages, through its personal element. Thus, the 
 Bible should be given to young children through the 
 child Jesus. Everything in either the Old or the 
 New Testament that could be properly used to 
 make this human child Jesus intelligible and lovable 
 should be employed. No theological explanation 
 of his birth, nature, or mission need be attempted. 
 The spontaneous love of one child for another may 
 be trusted to give Jesus a secure place in the affec- 
 tions of children, if he is presented simply and 
 attractively. And it is better that the affections 
 should be enlisted in this matter than the intellect. 
 God, whom the little child should have already come 
 to know through its sense of causality as instructed by 
 older people, may be given anew to it as the Father of 
 this Child of Bethlehem, whom so large a portion of 
 mankind loves and serves. But, whatever the theo- 
 logical belief of parents or teachers, there can be no 
 economy, at this early period, in making God and 
 Jesus the persons of a mystical trinity. They should 
 be kept separate in the child's thought, as Father and 
 Child, each standing for what such terms connote. 
 Any attempt to invest Jesus with the mysteries of 
 divine incarnation and sacrificial function must, it 
 seems to me, detract from his simplicity and lovable- 
 ness in the estimation of little children. 
 Again, the Bible should be given to children from
 
 96 The Child and His Religion 
 
 8 or 9 years, on to 13 or 14, through the heroes of the 
 Old Testament. These heroes may be selected with 
 especial reference to their importance to history or 
 prophecy, or with reference to their moral and 
 religious example. The number is sufficiently large 
 to give ample choice in these directions. When such 
 a selection of heroes has been made, their characters, 
 deeds, and sayings may become the media through 
 which the children shall be taught Hebrew history 
 and geography, moral and religious principles, and 
 anything else that the Old Testament can supply for 
 purposes of religious instruction. Finally, the Bible 
 should be given to adolescents through Jesus as an 
 adult, and, incidentally, through the disciples and 
 apostles who have interpreted his character and 
 teachings. Here, again, all historical or geographical 
 material, all doctrines and exhortations, all individual 
 and social elements of ethics or religion that the 
 New Testament presents, should be taught through 
 the personal medium most closely identified with 
 them. In Trinitarian circles, this would be the time 
 to give the theological interpretation of Jesus' char- 
 acter and function. Having established the human 
 Jesus in the affections of childhood, and having 
 guided the child throughout the intervening years 
 along the lines of a healthy, normal life which finds 
 the fulfilment of its ideals in this same Jesus, any 
 doctrines of the Godhead or the atonement that may 
 seem necessary to a religious philosophy, may be 
 added. In any case, the spontaneous interest in
 
 Children's Interest in the Bible 97 
 
 Jesus should be seized upon to bring the adolescent 
 lives into harmony with him, and to make his teach- 
 ings efifective in establishing a correct regimen of 
 conduct as it affects the self and others.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
 
 Complexity of the problem. — The problem of 
 religious education has never been so complex and 
 difficult to formulate as it is at present. No state- 
 ment has yet been made of the aims, subject-matter, 
 and methods of religious education, in terms of 
 modern knowledge, and the felt needs of modern 
 life, that is generally satisfactory. Such a statement 
 will not here be attempted. I hope only to sketch 
 some of its outlines in the light of the principles dis- 
 cussed in the preceding chapters, and certain gen- 
 erally accepted conclusions of secular education. 
 
 In the earlier generations of Christianity, when 
 it was believed that men's religious life could be com- 
 passed by a body of religious doctrines, the problem 
 of religious education was comparatively simple. 
 Instruction in a catechism, the memorizing of theo- 
 logical statements of belief, and the formal assent to 
 dogmas thought to be essential to salvation, sufficed 
 for such education. Still later, when religious 
 instruction was based upon the Bible, and the sub- 
 ject-matter consisted of Scripture passages, selected 
 more or less with reference to denominational ends, 
 and presented through the medium of formal ques- 
 tions and answers, the problem was hardly more 
 difficult. In both these types of religious education, 
 
 99
 
 loo The Child and His Religion 
 
 the aim in view was definite and immediate, namely, 
 to indoctrinate the child with religious beliefs and 
 get him formally identified with the church. The 
 subject-matter likewise was prescriptive and simple 
 in character. It was necessary only to draw upon 
 the historic creeds, or select passages of Scripture 
 according to certain standards of faith and practice. 
 In some religious communities, such conceptions of 
 the aim and subject-matter of religious education 
 still survive, and here, of course, the problem is a 
 simple one. 
 
 But wherever religious communities have felt the 
 influence of modern learning, and the example of 
 secular education, and wherever, as a result, enlarged 
 conceptions of man's religious nature have been 
 formed, the problem of religious education has 
 grown accordingly. In such communities religious 
 education is repeating the history of secular educa- 
 tion. The vastly enlarged knowledge of human 
 nature and its needs, the increased complexity of 
 civilization, the enormously enriched body of culture- 
 material available and the clash between older 
 standards and instruments of education and the 
 newer standards and instruments which current life 
 seem to demand — all unite to make the problem of 
 education increasingly complex, and create confusion 
 ^ and divided counsel in educational circles. Just so 
 in religious education, which must participate in the 
 general movement of modern knowledge and civiliza- 
 tion, has there resulted confusion and divided
 
 Problem of Religious Education loi 
 
 counsel. In both cases, education, like the civiliza- 
 tion it is a part of, is in a state of transition. With 
 increasing knowledge and complexity of life, ideals, 
 programmes, and institutions must change. It is not 
 to be wondered at, under such conditions, if educators 
 of all types are in doubt as to just what elements 
 will finally enter into the problem of education. 
 How far the present generation has departed from 
 the earlier conceptions of religious education, which 
 were largely satisfied with doctrinal instruction, may 
 be seen in the work of the Religious Education As- 
 sociation. At the third convention of this organiza- 
 tion, held at Boston in 1905, the entire programme 
 was devoted to formulating the aims of religious 
 education. So broadly diverse were the discussions 
 that they touched upon every phase of religious and 
 ethical life, and reflected the work of every type of 
 social institution that is dedicated to the work of 
 spiritualizing mankind. Two years later, at the 
 fourth convention, held at Rochester, N. Y., the 
 entire programme was occupied with discussions 
 regarding the material of religious education. There 
 was here the same breadth and catholicity of views 
 as in the previous convention. Every type of cul- 
 ture-material, from the Bible to the play-ground, was 
 presented as having value in the religious education 
 of children. All this marks a significant change 
 from the conceptions of religious education held by 
 the early catechists, or even by the makers of Sunday- 
 school lessons a generation ago.
 
 I02 The Child and His Religion 
 
 Suggestions from secular education. — In consider- 
 ing the problem of religious education, we may start 
 with certain principles and ideals that are now 
 generally accepted in secular education. Here we 
 find that, amidst all the conflicting opinions as to aim 
 and material of education, a few great fundamental 
 conclusions have been forced upon educators by 
 modern science. These conclusions, with varying 
 terminology, have begun to find expression in a new 
 educational philosophy. 
 
 1. Education is a part of man's effort to do what 
 nature is always trying to do for him. It is the will 
 to live, become effective through specially devised 
 institutions and curricula of study. It is conscious 
 adjustment to a progressive environment. It is a 
 preparation for life, and a medium of more complete 
 living while this preparation is being made. It is a 
 social agency by which each new generation of chil- 
 dren is put in possession of its racial heritage, while 
 at the same time being enabled to realize its own 
 selfhood as a new generation. 
 
 2. Education can be accomplished only through 
 interactions between the mind and the objective 
 world. It depends primarily upon things experi- 
 enced, and not upon words which symbolize the 
 things experienced. It must be motor, as well as 
 sensory and reflective. It must occupy itself not 
 only with stimulating feeling and imparting ideas, but 
 also with securing adequate expression for these 
 feelings and ideas through conduct.
 
 Problem of Religious Education 103 
 
 3. Education involves complete self-expression. 
 Knowledge does not become a possession until it is 
 reacted to personally. Mind, and life itself, have, 
 in the last analysis, two modes of functioning: They 
 receive from the outside world, and they make some 
 kind of response to the world they receive from. 
 Health, growth, and efficiency depend upon main- 
 taining a proper balance between these two functions. 
 If the receptive function exceeds that of response, 
 there is decay of the power to do, while the thinking 
 and feeling processes become feeble, or perverted. 
 If the responsive function is not in harmony with the 
 receiving function, action and conduct become false 
 and the reflex effect upon character is to destroy it. 
 
 These general conclusions suggest the problem 
 of secular education, as regards aim, subject-matter, 
 and method. They are equally applicable to 
 religious education, and we may safely follow their 
 direction in sketching the problem with which the 
 latter is concerned. 
 
 The aim of religious education. — If the aim of edu- 
 cation in general may be summarized as adjustment 
 to a progressive environment, the aim of religious 
 education may be summarized as religious adjust- 
 ment to a progressive environments That is to say, 
 the distinction between secular education and 
 
 ' By "environment" is meant the things and forces that 
 ultimately condition life. By "progressive environment" is 
 meant these things and forces under increasingly complex and 
 perfected aspects.
 
 I04 The Child and His Religion 
 
 religious education is not one of environment but 
 of adjustment. The environment of a secular man 
 and of a religious man is intrinsically the same. The 
 environment of a religious man is the same, whether 
 he be at his place of business or in a church pew. 
 There is but one universe and but one set of laws 
 governing it. There is but one law of gravity, and 
 one law of good and evil. Environment is one, as 
 the world is one. But man's adjustment to this 
 environment may vary. It may be a business ad- 
 justment, an intellectual adjustment, a religious ad- 
 justment. The difference lies in the attitude one 
 takes toward environment, the interpretation he 
 places upon it, and the use to which he applies it. 
 Religious education, therefore, has for its function 
 the effecting of such an adjustment between human 
 life and its environment as will lead men to take a 
 religious attitude toward that environment, interpret 
 it religiously, and use it for the larger ends toward 
 which all rational conduct is directed. 
 
 Let us note in some detail what this would mean 
 for religious education. We may take as an illustra- 
 tion the radical change it would involve in the atti- 
 tude toward nature, natural laws, and the natural 
 impulses and aptitudes of the soul. For the things 
 and forces that are described by the term "natural," 
 constitute the most constant and obvious forms of 
 environment. In the chapter on "Interest and 
 Education," and again in that on "The Natural 
 Religion of Children," we have found that the trend
 
 Problem of Religious Education 105 
 
 of educational history and of scientific knowledge 
 is toward a view of human life that identifies it more 
 and more completely with what have been called 
 "natural" processes. We are now ready to follow 
 up this clue and seek out its religious implications. 
 What, then, would be the result if a religious ad- 
 justment should be effected between the human 
 mind and nature such as would harmonize with this 
 trend in educational history and scientific knowl- 
 edge? In general, nature would come to be re- 
 garded from a religious point of view, would be inter- 
 preted religiously, and would be used for the larger 
 and more spiritual purposes of life. This means that 
 God would be identified with nature. The so-called 
 natural laws would be regarded as God's laws. The 
 supernatural would no longer be set over against the 
 natural. The scientific law of the conservation of 
 energy would be interpreted as a divine law, efficient 
 in the world of spirit as in the world of matter, and 
 all disposition to abrogate this divine law in the 
 interest of human desires and whims would be aban- 
 doned. This means, too, that natural laws, operat- 
 ing in the human body and mind, as elsewhere, 
 would be reverenced. Men would then look upon 
 the violation of a law of health with at least as much 
 horror as the violation of a church ordinance. They 
 would broaden their view of sin to include all the 
 gratifications of appetite that destroy physical vigor, 
 and all the slothfulness of mind that perpetuate 
 ignorance and prejudice. They would, in short, 
 
 IlOS H|tG-SIiHS, QPJ:i^
 
 io6 The Child and His Religion 
 
 eat religiously, clothe themselves religiously, found 
 homes religiously, establish business and professional 
 relationships religiously, and conduct all the enter- 
 prises of individual and social life from a religious 
 point of view. 
 
 Shall it be said that there is already such a con- 
 ception of religious adjustment to nature, directing 
 the activities of the Sunday school and church ? 
 That series of sermons is rare, that course of reli- 
 gious instruction is rare, that does not suggest to the 
 minds of children and adults that the "natural" 
 and the "supernatural" are antagonistic, and that 
 religion has little, or nothing, to do with the natural 
 order of things. Within three months, I have heard 
 as many sermons that drew a sharp distinction be- 
 tween the natural development of the child and the 
 religious development. That is to say, God's work 
 in human life was made to begin with special acts 
 entirely outside of natural processes of mind. If 
 this is not to separate God from the natural world, 
 what can so separate him ? The result is, the most 
 widespread confusion in thinking and conduct. In 
 St. Petersburg there is today (August, 1908) an epi- 
 demic of cholera. Hundreds are dying daily, and 
 the distress and social chaos resulting from such 
 an epidemic are showing their effects in every 
 department of Russian life. What are the respective 
 attitudes of science and Russian religion toward this 
 natural phenomenon of cholera infection ? Science 
 says the river Neva is foul with cholera germs, the
 
 Problem of Religious Education 107 
 
 people are ignorant and careless, and the officials 
 are remiss in their duties. The epidemic is due 
 to polluted drinking-water and to general unsanitary 
 conditions and habits of the people. Until these 
 causes are removed, the epidemic must continue. 
 The Russian priesthood says the epidemic is a 
 punishment inflicted upon the Russian people for 
 their sins in neglecting the ordinances of the church. 
 They pay no attention to the polluted waters of 
 the Neva, or the unsanitary conditions of the city. 
 They offer prayers, instead, and exhort the people, 
 not to greater care in obtaining their drinking-water 
 and to greater cleanliness, but to rites of expiation 
 for their sins. 
 
 At the present moment, an extensive drouth is 
 afflicting large sections of the United States. Streams 
 of water are failing, mills are shutting down, forest 
 fires are raging, wells are drying up, and general 
 anxiety is felt as to the effects upon business, prop- 
 erty, and life. Here is a situation more complex, 
 perhaps, than the epidemic of cholera in St. Peters- 
 burg. Weather phenomena are not so well under- 
 stood as are those of disease. And yet it is probable 
 that the more intelligent section of our population 
 find a rational explanation for this drouth. Rainfall 
 depends upon such causes as the evaporation of 
 moisture from the earth's surface, the temperature 
 of the atmosphere, the movement of air-currents, etc. 
 There is very good reason why there should be no 
 rainfall in a desert, and why, again, there should be
 
 io8 The Child and His Religion 
 
 heavy rainfalls in certain other sections of the earth. 
 No person with adequate knowledge and imagination, 
 to say nothing of reverence, would think of hold- 
 ing God responsible for a drouth, with all its conse- 
 quences of inconvenience and suffering. Neverthe- 
 less, we read in the daily press that in various places 
 clergymen are assembling their congregations to 
 pray for rain. What can be the mental state of these 
 people who put God outside the natural processes 
 of this world and think of him as either allowing, or 
 causing, these processes to result in human distress, 
 until his attitude is changed through the prayers of 
 the afflicted ? 
 
 The practical results of such views of nature and 
 God are enormous. If a man's conscious relations 
 to God are the core of his religion, and if his relations 
 to nature are the immediate and vital concern of his 
 daily life, is it any wonder that he gives up either his 
 religion or his regard for natural law when these two 
 things are not brought into harmony ? That there 
 are thousands of men and women in Christian com- 
 munities who are in just this condition, is perfectly 
 evident. On the one hand there are those who try 
 to get their lives conformed to the requirements of 
 natural law without being religious, at least in the 
 ordinary sense of that term. On the other hand 
 there are those who try to be religious without con- 
 forming their lives to natural law. The extremes 
 of these classes of people arc illustrated on the one 
 hand by the irreligionist and on the other by the Chris-
 
 Problem of Religious Education 109 
 
 tian Scientist. The former has given up the idea of 
 God, the latter has given up all regard for the natural 
 order of things. 
 
 This confusion of the understanding, and division 
 of the great interests of life, begin in childhood, and 
 defective education is largely responsible for it. 
 Secular education, so-called, attempts to give the 
 child his knowledge of the world in terms of the 
 natural. It excludes all reference to supernatural 
 origins and control of natural phenomena, and 
 answers none of the questions we have found to 
 spring from the natural religion of childhood. 
 Religious education, so-called, attempts to give the 
 child his knowledge of the world in terms of the 
 supernatural. It excludes all reference to natural 
 origins and control of supernatural phenomena. 
 Neither attempts to educate the child into a point 
 of view that the natural and the supernatural are not 
 mutually exclusive. Thus the child is bewildered if 
 he thinks at all; and if his understanding is so juggled 
 with that he attempts no independent thinking, the 
 results are equally bad. A boy of twelve years has 
 had several terms of nature-study in the public 
 schools, and is more or less rationalized in his atti- 
 tude toward nature. He knows the elements of 
 meteorology, and if asked to explain the cause of a 
 drouth, he would give the explanation in terms of 
 distribution of water-areas, forests, temperature, 
 air-currents, and the like. But he attends church 
 on Sunday and hears the pastor pray for rain. He 
 
 L^
 
 no The Child and His Religion 
 
 goes to Sunday school and is taught that God inter- 
 poses, upon the proper request of men and women, 
 and suspends the operation of natural forces, or 
 changes their direction. What reconciliation can 
 he make between this kind of divine relationship to 
 the natural order, and the facts he has been taught in 
 the public school ? Is it any wonder that he should 
 become mentally, and even sometimes morally, con- 
 fused ? If the processes of nature can be changed 
 by the request of a clergyman or a Sunday-school 
 teacher, what assurance has this boy that there is 
 enough fixity in natural law to insure his own safety ? 
 Is it strange that young people growing up under 
 such conflicting instruction, should ultimately be 
 driven to one or the other extreme already men- 
 tioned ? 
 
 I have dwelt thus lengthily upon this question of 
 God's relation to natural law because it is typical of 
 a large number of questions that must be disposed 
 of before religious education can so much as define 
 its aims. What profits it for a man to be religious 
 at all, if he lives in a world where health and disease, 
 sanity and insanity, intelligence and ignorance, 
 thrift and improvidence depend upon the operation 
 of natural laws, and yet the content of his religion — 
 his God, his heaven, his worship — transcend these 
 conditions, and neither stimulate him to master 
 them nor hclj) him in his impotent struggle against 
 them ? Surely the first aim of religious education 
 should be to give children the kind of God that they
 
 Problem of Religious Education 1 1 1 
 
 can identify with the natural world in which they 
 live, and the kind of attitude toward natural law as 
 conditioning their physical and psychical powers 
 which will make them reverently, and religiously, 
 obedient to its demands. 
 
 Material of religious education. — The material of 
 religious education is determined by its aim. If, 
 then, the aim is to effect a religious adjustment 
 between the child and his environment, the material 
 should be any, and all, elements of that environment. 
 That is to say, everything in a child's surroundings 
 should be interpreted religiously, and be made to 
 yield religious instruction. Some elements of the 
 environment of Christian civilization are more 
 easily converted to this use than others. They have 
 more definite religious associations; their character 
 is such as will yield a religious content more readily. 
 Such are the Bible and religious literature generally. 
 Such, too, is the church with all its rites and observ- 
 ances. No question is likely to be raised as to the 
 necessity of including these elements in the culture- 
 material of religion. But they are not sufficient. 
 They are only a part of the environment of life. 
 The remainder of that environment must be utilized 
 religiously if it is to have a religious significance for 
 the child at all. Thus science, art, literature, his- 
 tory, the experiences of daily life — everything that 
 comes within the environment of children — should 
 be appropriated to religious uses. In no other way 
 can the whole world be made to reveal its divine
 
 112 The Child and His Religion 
 
 authorship, and to have a meaning that transcends 
 the order of time and sense. If it be said that this 
 makes the problem of religious educational material 
 hopelessly complex, the reply is that it is readily 
 solved by intelligent selection. Secular education 
 must regard the whole of human environment, except 
 such elements as have been peculiarly associated 
 with religion. It is solving the problem of selecting 
 typical forms of knowledge. Religious education 
 could do as much. 
 
 In brief, the ideal religious curriculum would be a 
 body of material that summarized so-called secular 
 knowledge and so-called religious knowledge and 
 put the whole to religious use. If, as has been 
 pointed out, there is but one world for the secular 
 and for the religious life alike, and if the religious 
 and secular concerns of men are merely different 
 modes of reacting to the same world, then there is no 
 other rational view to take of the material of religious 
 education. This means that a thoroughly rational 
 programme of religious education would differ from 
 existing programmes of secular education only in the 
 inclusion of the distinctive religious literatures of the 
 world, and a more definitely religious attitude toward 
 all bodies of knowledge. If this seems to blur the 
 distinction between religious education and secular 
 education, it may be acknowledged at once that 
 such is its intent. If the public schools interpreted 
 human experience to children in terms of religion, 
 there would be no excuse for the existence of Sunday
 
 Problem of Religious Education 113 
 
 schools. But since men, in their ignorance and prej- 
 udice, have decreed that they will have their children 
 educated in such an irrational, dualistic manner, it 
 remains for religious educators to do what secular 
 educators are not doing — give to each generation of 
 children their entire heritage of racial experience, in 
 terms that compass the needs of their whole life. 
 
 The failure of religious educators to make their 
 curricula sufficiently broad has been due to a narrow- 
 ness of aim. So long as it is sought merely to adjust 
 the life to a particular creed, or certain interpretations 
 of the Bible, the choice of religious culture-material 
 will be exclusively ecclesiastical and biblical. The 
 penalty of thus narrowing the choice of the material 
 of religious education is a heavy one and is now being 
 exacted to the full. The present generation is sub- 
 jecting creeds, and the Bible itself, to the most search- 
 ing tests. Many, and profound, modifications are 
 being made in men's beliefs. Meanwhile, the masses 
 of the people, educated to have a certain regard for 
 the Bible and their church creeds, are increasingly 
 bewildered; and many of them are losing faith in all 
 religion. There is not a church, perhaps, and hardly 
 a community that is not now suffering from this 
 unsettling of faith, due to changed interpretations 
 of the Bible and modifications of creeds. 
 
 The far-reaching significance of this situation is 
 not yet fully realized. It is a law of the religious, no 
 less than the biological, world, that life is measured 
 by the complexity and duration of its environment.
 
 114 The Child and His Religion 
 
 The less complex and permanent this environment 
 is, the more feeble and perishing will be the life that 
 depends upon it. Now the material of religious 
 education is the principal element of the religious 
 environment. It feeds the intellectual and emotional 
 life of religion. It creates its atmosphere. It sup- 
 plies the main conscious stimulus to action. If, 
 then, this environment has been merely a creed or 
 certain interpretations of Scripture, what must hap- 
 pen when the creed and scriptural interpretations 
 are rejected ? As elsewhere in life, religion must 
 perish with its environment. This is no far-fetched 
 analogy between natural and spiritual laws. It has 
 its illustration and proof all about us. I knew an 
 old man in the Middle West whose religious faith 
 seemed to be entirely bound up with the doctrine 
 of immersion. One day a man came into the neigh- 
 borhood with a Greek New Testament and a little 
 knowledge of exegesis. He convinced the old man 
 that a certain phrase had been wrongly translated, 
 and that Jesus did not go down into the water but 
 merely to the side of the water. The result was 
 that the old man became unsettled in his faith, 
 stopped attending church, and finally, as he believed, 
 lost his religion. Here was a case of a minute, 
 fragile religious environment, with a religious life 
 dependent upon it. This environment had been 
 created by the man's faulty religious education. 
 When it perished, the man's faith in all religion 
 perished with it.
 
 Problem of Religious Education 115 
 
 The only sure preventive of such tragedies in 
 religious belief, is for religious educators to create, 
 through their choice of culture-material, an environ- 
 ment that shall be universal and eternal. If there 
 were no other reason for the creation of this new, and 
 larger, environment for religion, it would be justified 
 as a prophylactic against the numerous spiritual 
 distempers that are now threatening to become 
 epidemic as a result of the Higher Criticism. The 
 Bible has been the sacred Palladium of Christianity 
 throughout the centuries. The "unholy hands" of 
 critical scholarship are now being laid upon it. 
 There is grave danger for the religion that has been 
 made so intimately to depend upon the Bible unless 
 a new, and broader, environment can be created in 
 which religious faith may find its home. 
 
 Method of religious education. — The method of 
 religious education is determined by its material. 
 If, as has been pointed out, this material should be 
 drawn from the entire environment of the child, 
 then ought the method to be as diverse as that 
 environment. In other words, since the child's 
 whole life reacts religiously to the world about it, so 
 should the method of religious instruction insure 
 complete self-expression. This is the essence of all 
 rational method in education, because it is nature's 
 own way of training every living creature. From 
 the unicellular animal to man himself, life is fash- 
 ioned through the complete self-expression of the 
 individual. In so far as courses of religious instruc-
 
 ii6 The Child and His Religion 
 
 tion are conducted according to this universal prin- 
 ciple, will they effectively accomplish their purposes. 
 Experience, whether in the form of knowledge or 
 otherwise, cannot become truly educative unless it 
 involves the activity of the self, and the whole self. 
 
 Self-expression takes three forms : feeling-response, 
 intellectual response, and motor response, or response 
 through conduct. Feeling response, otherwise called 
 interest, has already been discussed in chap. i. It is 
 the form of self-activity that makes the mind and the 
 life receptive, and prepares the individual to assimilate 
 experience. The spontaneous interests of children 
 are the natural responses to stimuli that are felt to 
 have significance. It is as true pedagogically as it 
 is scripturally, that "out of the heart are the issues 
 of life." The recognition and intelligent use of this 
 form of self-expression in children is of the utmost 
 importance. If feeling-response, or interest, is 
 neglected or crushed out, the tendency is to weaken 
 the child's selfhood and destroy the personal initia- 
 tive that is so essential to a vigorous life. On the 
 other hand if attempts are made to stimulate arti- 
 ficially this feeling-response, there is danger of 
 emotional precocity and perversion. This danger is 
 especially great in those types of religious instruction 
 that are intended to lead uj) to "conversion." Here 
 premature feelings mean premature decay of feelings, 
 or perversion in the direction of mental disease. 
 
 Again, the method of religious education should 
 insure self-activity in thinking. The power of
 
 Problem of Religious Education 117 
 
 selective thought is as important for religious as for 
 other functions of life. To get the symbols of truth 
 into the mind, whether these symbols be the words 
 of the Bible or of a creed, avails nothing at all unless 
 the soul reacts to them with the intelligence that 
 comes from significant experience. Words are dead 
 things unless we have that in our minds which can 
 vitalize them. Religious instruction that does not 
 deal with material to which the minds of students 
 can react intelligently, arrests the power of thought, 
 produces apathy of feeling, and therefore destroys 
 the capacity for seeking truth and the interest in it. 
 For this reason, the selection of biblical material 
 that lies too much outside of children's actual experi- 
 ence, and the dogmatic attitude that is indifferent to 
 free individual thought in young people and adults, 
 render imbecile the intellectual life of any church, 
 and condemn it to hopeless inferiority in religious 
 standards and conduct. There is no sphere of life 
 where abridgment of self-expression is more fatal to 
 human growth and achievement than in the intel- 
 lectual order. 
 
 Finally, the method of religious education should 
 insure a motor expression of righteousness. That is 
 to say, it should involve religious conduct. It is all 
 very well to feel righteously and to think righteously, 
 but the final test of both is the deed. How to make 
 religion motor and executive is indeed one of the 
 greatest of problems, personally and socially. It 
 was Shakspere who said: "If 'twere as easy to do,
 
 ii8 The Child and His Religion 
 
 as it is to know what ought to be done, then chapels 
 had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' 
 palaces." Religious educators must broaden their 
 curricula and their methods in a way that will help 
 boys and girls, and men and women, to work out 
 their religious feelings and ideas. The heterogene- 
 ous manual exercises over sand-maps, the singing in 
 choirs or performing other functions in the Sunday 
 school, the taking part in young people's meetings, 
 etc., will not suffice. These activities may be valu- 
 able, or worthless, according to the spirit and condi- 
 tions under which they are performed. Motor, or 
 executive, righteousness must come nearer to life 
 than these activities can possibly come. It must be 
 of a type that affects the character of the doer and 
 that of his fellow-men. It must take the form of 
 doing deeds of virtue, honesty, kindness, patriotism, 
 and the like. A church and Sunday school that can 
 make their religious instruction efficient through an 
 organized body of righteous workers, in the home, 
 business, politics, and throughout social life every- 
 where will have realized this ideal. The outcome 
 of education in objective results that embody the 
 ideas and impulses imparted through instruction, is 
 the present aim, and often the accomplished fact, of 
 our best public schools. There is no good reason 
 why the same should not be true of the agencies of 
 religious education." 
 
 ' The last two paragraphs are largely quoted from an article 
 on "The Child's Self-Expression and Religious Education," 
 published by the writer in Religious Education, August, 1906.
 
 Problem of Religious Education 119 
 
 Conclusion. — This chapter on the problem of 
 religious education has been theoretical and general 
 in character. No attempt has been made to indicate 
 the details of a working programme that would em- 
 body the aim, subject-matter, and method of religious 
 education that have been suggested. In conclusion, 
 however, I desire to state that essentially such a 
 programme has long since been submitted to the 
 test of experience, and is now in successful operation 
 in our midst. To direct the attention of my readers 
 to such a concrete embodiment of my ideals, will, 
 I am sure, render them a more practical service, 
 than to give a verbal description of a programme. 
 I refer to the kindergarten system and to the institu- 
 tion known as the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion. In the chapter on "The Natural Religion of 
 Children," I expressed the conviction that Froebel's 
 philosophy of education, and the kindergarten sys- 
 tem based upon it, afford the best existing approach 
 to a kind of education for little children that will at 
 once conserve their natural religion and bring that 
 religion into harmony with a scientific interpretation 
 of their environment and their own lives. In the 
 best type of kindergartens, we find at least the begin- 
 nings of just such an education as this chapter has 
 contemplated. There the aim is religious adjust- 
 ment of the child to his entire environment. The 
 material is composed of significant and typical ele- 
 ments selected from such environment; and the 
 method is designed to insure complete self-expression.
 
 I20 The Child and His Religion 
 
 In the Young Men's Christian Association, we 
 have an institution that, in a different field, incor- 
 porates identical principles. The aim of this insti- 
 tution, at its best, is to effect a religious adjustment 
 between young men and the entire environment of 
 their lives. The Association badge, with its inscrip- 
 tion "Body, mind, spirit," symbolizes this aim. 
 Under favorable conditions, we find a building, equip- 
 ments, course of study, and opportunities for a variety 
 of activities, that provide for a breadth and complexity 
 of religious training that is unequaled in any other 
 institution. We find also that this material is pre- 
 sented to the members of the Association in a many- 
 sided manner. An appeal is made to every form of 
 self-activity — feeling, intellect, motor-activities, con- 
 duct. It is not contended that the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association is a perfected institution. It will not 
 compare with the public schools, colleges, churches, 
 and various other institutions in specific features of its 
 work. But in the breadth of its aim, in the eclectic 
 and comprehensive character of the educational 
 environment it creates for young men, and in the 
 freedom and spontaneity of spirit it evokes, it has 
 seized upon principles that are fundamental and final 
 for religious education. It is my conviction that the 
 typical kindergarten and the typical Young Men's 
 Christian Association illustrate what is thus far the 
 best statement of the problem of religious education 
 and constitute the most consistent attempts at its 
 solution.
 
 INDEX 
 
 i^L.««^ WX«M^U.«^^ 
 
 tsCS Krl0^5aHS, cia.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Adolescence, intellectual and emo- 
 tional characteristics of, 75-77; 
 appeal of prophetic and literary 
 books of the Bible to, 75-77; ap- 
 peal of gospels to, 76-77; interest 
 of, in Jesus, 88-91, conversion in, 
 66-67, 90-91; religious education 
 of, 94- 
 
 Age, as affecting the child's attitude 
 toward school studies, 20, 74; to- 
 ward the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment, 57 ff.; toward the different 
 books of the Bible. 60 ff.; tow.ird 
 Bible scenes, stories, and character. , 
 77 ff.; toward Jesus, 85 ff. 
 
 Animism, in primitive men, 32; in 
 children, 32-35; in adults of civili- 
 zation, 35-36; interpretation of, 
 35-36. 
 
 Atkinson, on children's reading inter- 
 est, 65, 66. 
 
 Atrophy, as a biological phenomenon, 
 12; illustrated in the chick's peck- 
 ing interest, 12; in the child's 
 walking interest, 12-13; applica- 
 tion to moral and religious interests, 
 14. 
 
 Bacon, on natural religion, 26. 
 
 Barnes, Professor Earle, on elementary 
 inteOectual interests, 20; on chil- 
 dren's ideals, 21; on the sense of 
 causality, 41. 
 
 Barnes, Mrs. Mary Sheldon, on chil- 
 dren's historical interests, 20, 74, 84. 
 
 Bible, place of, in religious education, 
 53-55; rational use of, 54-55; 
 children's attitude toward, 56-57: 
 children's choice between the Old 
 and the New Testament, 57-69; 
 among the books of, 60-77; among 
 the scenes, stories, and characters 
 of, 77-85; stages of racial develop- 
 ment reflected in, 63-88; need of 
 supplementing the Bible in religious 
 experience, 113-15. 
 
 Binet, on elementary intellectual in- 
 terests, 20. 
 
 Bolton, on memory for numbers, 74. 
 
 Burke, Mrs., on play interests, 30 
 
 Causality, the instinct of, 36-41; 
 Ratzel s ^^ews of, 37-58; von 
 Hartmann's views of, 36; Sully's 
 views of, 40; Barnes's views of, 41. 
 
 Characters, interest of children in, 80- 
 85. 
 
 Chase, Miss, on reading interests, 20. 
 
 Children, instinctive qualities of, 63- 
 64; sensory and motor development 
 of, 64-65; natural religion of, 25 ff.; 
 animism in, 32-36; instinct of 
 causality in, 36-41; instinct of im- 
 mortality in, 42-46; faith and good- 
 will in. 46-51; natural interests of 
 as emphasized bv the educational 
 reformers. 1-7; psychological sig- 
 nilicance of children's interests. 8; 
 biological signihcmce of children's 
 interests, Q-14; appeal of New 
 Testament to, 58-62; appeal of 
 Old Testament to, 63-66, 73-75. 
 
 Comenius, educational views of, 5-7; 
 views on the natural religion of 
 children, 26-27. 
 
 Darrah, on children's ideals, 21. 
 David, pre-adolescent interest in, 87. 
 
 Education, aim of secular, 102; aim 
 of religious, 103-11; material of 
 secular, 102; material of religious, 
 111-15: method of secular, 103; 
 method of religious, 11 5-18; the 
 kindergarten and, 29-30, 119; The 
 Young Men's Christian Association 
 and, 119-20. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, on the natural 
 man, 15. 
 
 Ellis and Hall, on play interests, 20. 
 
 Faith, as an element of the child's 
 
 religion, 46-51. 
 Froebel, on natural religion, 28-30. 
 
 Gates, Miss, on musical interests, 20. 
 
 Gilbert, on development of children, 
 64. 
 
 Good-will, as an element in the child's 
 religion, 46-51. 
 
 Gould, on children's animism, 34. 
 
 Gulick, on play interests, 20; on con- 
 version, 67, 91. 
 
 Hall, on play interests, 20; on the 
 contents of children's minds, 40-41. 
 
 Hancock, on children's ability to 
 reason, 66. 
 
 123
 
 124 The Child and His Religion 
 
 Herbart, doctrine of interest formu- 
 lated by, 8, 9. 
 
 Immortality, the instinct of, 42-46; 
 Sully's \iews of, 42; Street's \iews 
 of, 44-45; racial economy of, 45- 
 46; significance of, for the child, 46. 
 
 Interest, and the educational re- 
 formers, 1-8; Herbart's doctrine 
 of, 8, 9; the biological conception 
 of, 9-11; sequence of, 11-12; atro- 
 phy of, 12-14; opposition to doc- 
 trine of, 14-19; study of, by secular 
 educators, 10-21; attitude of reli- 
 gious educators toward, 21-24. 
 
 James, view of relation between atten- 
 tion and will, 1 7. 
 Jegi, on children's ideals, 21. 
 Jesus, children's interest in, 85-91. 
 
 Kindergarten, as an embodiment of 
 both religious and scientific ideals in 
 education, 29-30, 119-20. 
 
 Lancaster, on altruistic feeling, 66; 
 on prophetic spirit of adolescence, 
 76; on loyalty to Jesus, 89. 
 
 Lindley, on complex intellectual in- 
 terests, 21. 
 
 Monroe, Professor Paul, on mediaeval 
 conception of education, 3-4. 
 
 Monroe, Professor Will S., on chil- 
 dren's ideals, 21. 
 
 Montaigne, protest of, against edu- 
 cation of his time, 5. 
 
 Natural religion, the doctrine of in- 
 tere.st and, 25-30; science and, 30- 
 32; elements of, 32-52; significance 
 of, for religious experience, 104-10. 
 
 O'Shea, on interest in pictures, myths, 
 etc., 21. 
 
 Pestalo/.zi, on natural religion, 27-28. 
 Plutarch, on natural religion, 37. 
 Pre-adolescence, interest of, in David, 
 87. 
 
 Rabelais, satire of, on monastic edu- 
 cation, 4, 5. 
 
 Ratzel, on the instinct of causality, 37- 
 38. 
 
 Reflex activities, the correlative in- 
 terests of, 10, II. 
 
 Religion, natural to the child, 25; con- 
 ception of children's religion held 
 by educational reformers, 25-30; 
 implications of, in scientific knowl- 
 edge, 30-31 ; ethnological study and, 
 31-32; genetic psychology and, 32. 
 
 Religious education, complexity of 
 the problem of, 99-101; suggestions 
 from secular education, 102-103; 
 aim of , 103-11; material of, 111-15; 
 method of, 115-18; successful types 
 of, 119-20. 
 
 Rousseau, educational views of, 7, 8. 
 
 Scripture, Professor, on time-memory, 
 75- 
 
 Sex, rise of interests in, 12; differ- 
 ences in bibUcal interests according 
 to, 60, 61, 72, 73, 78, 80, 81, 86, 98. 
 
 Shaw, on primary intellectual interests, 
 20. 
 
 Speech, rise of interest in, 11. 
 
 Starbuck, on conversion, 66. 
 
 Stories, interest of children in, 79-80. 
 
 Street, on the instinct of immortality, 
 44; on language training, 74. 
 
 Sully, on the instinct of cau.sality, 40; 
 on the instinct of immortality, 42. 
 
 Taylor, on interest in the public-school 
 
 curriculum, 20. 
 Tylor, on animism, 32. 
 
 von Hartmann, on the instinct of cau- 
 sality, 38. 
 
 Walking interests, 11, 12, 13. 
 
 Ward, Miss, on geographical interests, 
 
 20, 74, 84. 
 Will, in relation to interest, 16-18; in 
 
 relation to attention, 17. 
 Wissler, on reading interests, 20.
 
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