Professor Dr. Marcia A. Bunge

As part of Valparaiso University's Project on The Child in Religion and Ethics, professor Dr. Marcia J. Bunge has edited The Child in the Bible, a new book that explores biblical perspectives on children and childhood.

Nineteen biblical scholars, including project director Dr. Bunge, contributed to the new book.

Although attention to children and childhood is growing in the area of biblical studies, this volume represents one of the first collaborative efforts by biblical scholars to provide a highly informed and focused study of biblical perspectives on children and childhood," Dr. Bunge said.

By closely exploring the theme of childhood, she said contributors to The Child in the Bible reveal unexplored and neglected aspects of the Bible, exposing important questions and concerns. While some chapters of the book focus on texts from Genesis, Proverbs, Mark and other biblical passages, others examine biblical themes such as training and discipline, children and the image of God, and the metaphor of Israel as a child.

"Thus, the chapters not only deepen our understanding of biblical conceptions of children and obligations to them but also provide a new angle of vision on other aspects of biblical texts," Dr. Bunge said. "By discussing a wide range of themes and questions, this book also invites readers to reconsider their own conceptions of children and childhood and the roles that children can or should play in religious communities today."

The Child in the Bible is published by Eerdmans and is available online.

Dr. Bunge previously edited The Child in Christian Thought, the first major survey of the history of Christian thought on children, and said her interest in children and religion is deeply connected to her own experiences as a mother who has both given birth to and adopted children.

"Once you have children of your own, you start to examine more carefully issues that affect all children, such as education, spiritual formation and health care," she said.

In addition to its significance for scholars of religions, The Child in the Bible also aims to serve as a resource for a broad range of people working with or on behalf of children throughout the world.

"The tremendous needs of children today as well as political tensions, international conflict and even environmental concerns are all prompting more people to ponder the future of our planet," says Dr. Bunge. "Thinking about children and our shared obligations to them provides a creative starting point for speaking about future hopes and contentious moral, economic and political issues in ways that cut across conventional or ideological positions."

Valparaiso's Project on The Child in Religion and Ethics – a four-year initiative funded with a $538,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. – has strengthened religious understandings of children and childhood and fostered dialogue about children among religious scholars, child advocates and others working with or on behalf of children. The Child in the Bible is the first of three books that is being published as part of the project's work; the forthcoming volumes will address views of children in various world religions.

Dr. Bunge noted that three students in Valparaiso's honors college (Christ College) contributed to the new book as research assistants.

"The subject of childhood is compelling, in part, because every person on earth either once was or is a child," Dr. Bunge said. "That's one of the few roles we all share, no matter what our religious, national or ethnic backgrounds. Furthermore, since many people do care deeply about children and their well-being, talking to people of different faiths about children builds hope and mutual understanding."

About Dr. Marcia J. Bunge

She is director of Valparaiso's Project on the Child in Religion and Ethics and a professor of theology and humanities in the University's interdisciplinary honors college (Christ College). She serves as a consultant for the Center for the Theology of Childhood, a theological advisor to the Search Institute's Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, co-director of the international Child Theology Movement and co-chair of the Childhood Studies and Religion Consultation of the American Academy of Religion.