Verbal expressions of religious experience-more still in children than in adults-do not give satisfactory information about the total and deeper religious life. Adults, and especially children before they reach intellectual maturity, live their religious life more in formal expressions and imaginations than in words. A study of children's religious imaginations as expressed in drawings and paintings during specially conducted experiments, showed quite different results as found by those who studied what children say about their religion and God. An examination of such expressions by youngsters of the various age levels resulted in the postulation of three different stages of religious experience in children: the fairy-tale, the realistic, and the individualistic stages.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Ernest Harms (1944) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: