Godly Play: An Imaginative Approach to Religious Education

This book is based on the Montessori method of learning for children and I find this also can be applied to adults.Creativity and individual interpretation is an important part of Godly play. With structured short intervals of activity and then a longer period for personal interpretation, allows for the maximum flow of information, creativity, and interpretation.

We use Godly Play as our Sunday School curriculum for toddlers to 5th grade. Jerome Berryman actually trained us and used our church for his "model" classroom several years ago. His program is fantastic! Highly recommend his material, not only for Sunday School, but for teaching your own children.

It told me from the begin of Godly Play, it totally suit my need.

Did not care for this book.

Godly Play is absolutely awful. Yes, it's popular. But it is absolutely stifling for any creative, responsive adult attempting to "teach" it. It is very tightly scripted, and the teacher is expected to learn the script word for word, including scripted gestures. And in discussing the story afterward, the teacher's speech is also tightly prescribed. The teacher may not say, "What do you think..." He or she must say, "I wonder..."I read this book in preparation for taking the training to be a Godly Play teacher. I was repulsed. It seemed confused, but more, I got the impression that Mr. Berryman actively distrusts adults, that adults are a necessary evil, but they are to be utterly controlled so as not to harm a child's free thinking with their dangerous influence.At the time I read the book, I went online to find out about Mr. Berryman. His photos actually made me think of a child who had often and unpredictably been hit; I wondered if something like that had been the case, and had left him so untrustful of adults.As for the Montessori connection, I gather he did indeed go and visit Maria Montessori, but that doesn't mean that his storytelling method in any way reflects any part of her method. Indeed, storytelling isn't much of a part of Montessori teaching - but when it is, the teacher is very much a personal part of it, relating his or her own experiences. Montessori teachers encourage children's free discovery, but are not automatons, as are teachers of Godly Play.I have thought that the harm done by this practice was limited to the teachers it shackles as it does; but I think now it can't be good for children to experience adults as so limited and unfree. Not a good example, I should think.All in all, in my opinion, a severely misguided program.

The problem with most religious education approaches is that they attempt to direct the children TO GOD. They forget that children engage joyously in life, reaching Godly moments at regular intervals! Jerome Berryman posits that Godly Play is the ultimate game, "the playing of a game that can awaken us to new ways of seeing ourselves as human beings." Children play naturally,and they find God, naturally, in everything. Godly Play is a way to give them the religious language to more fully play that game. It is deeply respectful of the child and of God's presence. This book will stimulate your imagination, help you to approach the religious education task as a joy-filled, mystery-filled, dance that is an approach, not a rigid end-point. From nine years of experience with Godly Play, I can say that the results are children who both know the stories and relate them to their own lives in the most ordinary - and extraordinary- ways. It also results in teachers who are dedicated and find the "work" to be a gift. This book is the foundation that you will return to for inspiration again and again. It is also a guide for dealing with children (and problems in the classroom) that allows you to remain respectful and to open up possibilities for rare existential conversations with kids. You will find that Jerome Berryman's ideas expressed in this book will explode your imagination, humble you as a teacher, and rededicate you to your task. Take it slowly, though; there's a lot here, and it's not always an easy read. Chapter 2, especially, is a must for all teachers of Godly Play, as he takes you through the lesson from his point of view. Ultimately, it's well worth your effort.

I ordered this book to guide me in teaching sunday school in a multi-age classroom. Since reading it, I have been thinking seriously of beginning Jerome Berryman's Godly play curriculum. Jerome spent many years studying and practicing the theories and methods used in Montessori school. He sought to carry this experience and way of thinking about children into the sunday school arena. WHat he has developed is explained thoroughly in the book, and it is a refreshingly different approach to religious education. Unlike most methods, Godly play seeks to preserve a high view of children, encouraging them to playfully enter the sacred stories and come away with their sense of wonder and imagination intact. Many of us adults think religious education means boxing children into our ways of thinking about ourselves and God. Godly play allows children to wonder about themselves, about God, and about the world around them in a way that is playful and deeply meaingful to them, and not on our terms. Great reading, only I must warn you, if you read this, you may want to read more of his material....

Thank you for the nice book as you describing it and good condition.Thank you for recommending this nice book for me.Thank you for that.

A good book for those wanting to teach children Bible stories and much, much more. Groundwork for those wishing to use Godly Play.

Book is good, I have read it before. This one has not yet arrived. Waiting. :)