Bridget Steenkamp: Facilitating child-led ecotheology

Charles, Will and Aaliyah talk to Bridget Steenkamp, Pentecostal minister, community organiser, and, relevantly for the pod, DTh student in Roehampton’s School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Bridget’s research is an interdisciplinary endeavour, combining theology and early years education. It starts from Friedrich Fröbel’s conception of spirituality as ‘life unity’: connection to oneself, each other, the natural world, and the transcendent, to consider whether pre-school children (3-4 years old) can be co-researchers in theological enquiry.   Links mentioned: More on Fröbel (Wikipedia) The Froebel trust  The Godly Play foundation UK Ecotheology (St Andrew’s Encylopedia of Theology) Bridget’s Slow Workshops for Roehampton’s sustainability team (check out their episode earlier in the feed!)  Chapters 00:09 Introduction 00:39 Bridget’s thesis 02:51 Research co-led by children 06:00 Bridget’s data collection – in practice 08:01  Are young children closer to the divine? 08:52 What is ecotheology? 10:26 Presenting the children’s data 11:35 Defining “spirituality” in this context 15:51 Addressing the influence of the (adult) researcher 17:59 A natural spiritual sense in children? 20:09 Wrap-up  The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  Our theme music is by DiamondTunes  Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected]