Religion, Children's Literature, and Modernity in Western Europe, 1750-2000

This scholarly collection examines how religious themes and moral instruction evolved in children's literature across Western Europe from the Enlightenment through the twentieth century. Twenty-five contributors analyze the complex interplay between religious meaning, institutional church influences, and emerging modernity in texts designed for young readers. The research spans multiple denominations including Judaism and various Christian traditions, considering everything from textual content and intended age groups to authorship and visual design. This interdisciplinary approach reveals how children's literature became a crucial battleground for religious values during periods of rapid social change.

What distinguishes this work is its comprehensive interdenominational perspective and its attention to both substantive religious content and institutional power dynamics. The essays collectively demonstrate how children's books served as vehicles for transmitting faith while simultaneously adapting to—and sometimes resisting—secularizing trends. Scholars of religious history, children's literature, and European cultural studies will find particularly valuable insights into how childhood reading materials reflected broader societal negotiations between tradition and modernity. The volume ultimately provides a nuanced understanding of how religious education through literature transformed across 250 years of Western European development.