Religious children's books offer conceptions of what is deemed "good prayer" and "bad prayer."

What is it about?

Prayer is not a "natural" phenomenon; the extent to which and ways in which people pray very much depend on their socialization. Therefore, prayer should be studied not only by psychologists but also by historians and sociologists. One of the sources they can use are children's books. This article analyzes children's books by the prolific Dutch Protestant author W.G. van de Hulst (alias Vandehulst), whose works were also published in English. One the one hand, Van de Hulst suggested that "real", "sincere" prayer requires a religious crisis. In many of his earlier stories, he describes how the male protagonist finds himself unable to pray -- which then leads to a religious conversion from conventional religion to "sincere" spirituality. In his later works, however, he offers a very different model for spiritual growth, in an intimate relationship between mothers and their daughters. The emphasis Van de Hulst put on sincerity, spontaneity and intimacy seems to have survived the religious crisis of the 1960s.

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Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Even in highly secularized countries, (solitary) prayer remains an important ritual, which is practiced by many people. Strangely, however, very little is known about the history of prayer in the modern era. Children's books are not the most prestigious, authoritative texts, but they seem to have had quite some influence on people's religious perceptions and practices -- much more than many learned theological treatises. This is particularly true of a prolific writer as Van de Hulst.

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