The Child and His Religion
"The Child and His Religion." By George E. Dawson, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology, Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy. 124 pages. Price, cloth, 75 cents net, 82 cents post-paid. The book is a summary of magazine articles by the author. Many who have read the articles and listened to the addresses have wished that the material be put into accessible form, and this book is a response to that request. The scope of the work is fairly well expressed by the chapter headings, Interest as a Measure of Values, The Natural Religion of Children, Child's Interest in the Bible, The Problem of Religious Education. The author recognizes the fact that it is a theoretical as well as a practical demand of the Christian religion that the Bible should be a principal source of religious culture material, and that that reasoning is not apt to be questioned by any one who thinks seriously upon the subject. The author evidently feels no deep conviction in respect to this. He simply admits it in a general way. His conclusion is that, everything considered, it is probable that the typical boy or girl from nine to fourteen is more attracted to the Old Testament than to the New. But we do not know how any Biblical reader or lover could agree with him in his statement that "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." He reads the Bible in a very shallow way indeed who can not find the love and tenderness of God in an abundant measure in the Old Testament as well as in the New. There are some suggestions in the book which may be helpful to the wise teacher. On the other hand, we believe that the sympathetic teacher will find greater benefit in instinctively grasping the needs of the child, and meeting its genuine spontaneous longings by feeding the simple faith upon the blessed truths of the Word of God and the teachings of nature in harmony with that Word.