In describing the significance of the child and childhood, a brief historical overview provides a perspective in which to place the developments of psychology and religion in relation to the child. In the classical period, children were not considered individual beings, but were useful to the family and society in the fact that they would eventually become good citizens (Cunningham 2005, p. 23). In antiquity, children were often abandoned when families were not able to take care of them, to the extent that almost every family had abandoned at least one child (Cunningham 2005, p. 19). Christian emperors challenged this practice but seemed to not enforce penalties for it (Cunningham 2005, p. 25). Developments in theology increased the visibility of the experience of the child. With Augustine’s Confessions, and his development of the idea of original sin, the child began to be seen as being “on par with the adult” in terms of its “moral dilemmas” (Cunningham 2005, p. 26). Caregiving and...
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Helsel, P.B. (2014). Child, The. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_109
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