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Performing God with Children


In worship with children, participants of all ages pray to God, act in ways that assume God’s presence, play out Biblical stories and speak about God. This raises the question, How is God ‘performed’ with children? In other words, how is God staged through performative acting? The article draws on ethnographic data from Dutch Protestant contexts. The four analysed performances emphasise affective knowledge of God and perform God as a God who accepts children as children, resurrects and helps, but whose existence can be discussed. Like in the other seventeen researched worship practices, God is performed through story, ritual and play. Analysis of interviews with youth work professionals highlights the importance of the sensory experience of stories, the creation of a ritual space, and the creative tension between children’s play and liturgical play. The article concludes that the performance of God is target-group related, contextual and embedded in the interactions between adults and children. Above all, performing God with children is embodied theology.