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ERIC Number: EJ1388566
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-0419
EISSN: EISSN-1532-6934
Children's Imagination of the Divine: Creativity across Religions
Dandarova-Robert, Zhargalma; Cocco, Christelle; Astaneh, Zahra; Brandt, Pierre-Yves
Creativity Research Journal, v35 n2 p254-275 2023
Earlier studies have concluded that the religious sphere is less open to creativity than are other areas of human activities. Also, it has been suggested that artistic freedom and creative expression are unwelcome in the domain of religious iconography. In the present study, we address this subject with regard to children's artistic expression of the divine (n = 1703) in five different cultural and religious environments: Japanese (Buddhism and Shinto), Iranian (Islam), Russian-Buryat (Buddhism, shamanism), Russian Slavic (Christian Orthodoxy) and French-speaking Swiss (Catholic and reformed Christianity). The Consensual Assessment Technique was used to access the creativity. The results globally supported the previous research on the positive role that domain knowledge plays in creativity. It is likely that the exposure to knowledge in the religious domain through education would not negatively impact on children's creativity in the domain of pictorial representations of the divine, at least in secularized societies. Results also revealed that a child's creative expression could be a function of his or her age. Obviously, with age and knowledge of the religious domain, older children would go more often beyond the simplistic or conventional representations of the divine. As for gender, no effect was found in four out of five samples.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan; Iran; Russia; Switzerland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A