Waiting with Bated Breath: Intimations and Anticipation of Eternity Viewed through Children’s Literature

Author(s)

Kathie C. Morgan, Graduate School of Education, Liberty UniversityFollow

Publication Date

3-2011

Document Type

Unpublished Manuscript

Disciplines

Education

Comments

Presented at an Oxford University Roundtable in March, 2011.

Abstract

Children’s literature writers often allude to man's hope for a better day or place and that better future. They write tales of searches, exploration, wonder, struggle and discovery. The anticipation of the next birthday, next holiday, next Christmas, surely are not just man's desire for the material. These longings, found in the soul of everyman, are spoken of and realized in the writings of countless authors that write specifically for children. This indescribable longing represents man's sense of being “out-of-time” and “out-of-place” in the temporal environment and the desire for eternity that throbs in the longings of children and adults. This paper will examine children’s fantasy literature, with an eye toward Heaven, connecting that acknowledgement of religion and philosophy to the writings that express an author at his best…in the stories for children.

Recommended Citation

Morgan, Kathie C., "Waiting with Bated Breath: Intimations and Anticipation of Eternity Viewed through Children’s Literature" (2011). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 187.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/educ_fac_pubs/187