This research project Hidden from the Wise and Understanding – Revealed to Little Children: Childist Perspectives on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles researches child characters in the biblical text of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In earlier research, they were studied as adults or overlooked entirely.
The childist perspective that this research takes aims at recognising these characters as individual children and analysing how this understanding of their identity changes the role and position of the characters in the story. In that way, the goal of this project is not only to make the voices of these characters heard, but also to challenge our views of the text.
These overlooked child characters can shed light on different and new aspects of the story that stay hidden from us when we treat the characters as if they were adults, which is the norm in our gerontocentric (adult-centric) society. Child and youth characters occupy a liminal space between being born and becoming an adult, where they do not yet have to adhere fully to the norms of adult society. This means that they can challenge and question these norms and make us as readers aware of their unique experiences. Therefore, this project also helps to make the voice of a marginalized group in contemporary society heard. An intersectional awareness in this project adds to the childist perspective, by not only treating these characters as just children, but as individuals with other identity aspects that make them more or less vulnerable, such as race, sex, class, ethnicity, and ablebodiedness.
More about this Research Project
Start/end Date
01-09-2024 – 01-09-2028
Team
Leader: Laura Pasterkamp (PhD-candidate)
Prof. dr. Peter-Ben Smit (first supervisor)
Prof. dr. Arie Zwiep (secondary supervisor)
Dr. Klazina Staat (supervisor)
Prof. dr. Gerdien Bertram Troost (supervisor)
Fund
NWO Promoties in de Geesteswetenschappen